marginwidth="0">
 
Home | Home Remedies | Family Health | Drugs | Health Directory | Contact Us

Home :: Family Health :: Blue Baby

Blue Baby - Blue Baby symptom, treatment, causes


What is Blue Baby?

A baby born with CYANOSIS (bluish discoloration of skin and other tissues), due to any heart disease present from birth in which an abnormal channel or heart defect connects the right and left sides of the heart. This allows some of the dark venous blood from the right side of the heart to flow directly into the left side, so that it bypasses the lungs and is recirculated through the body without being recharged with the oxygen that makes the blood bright red. The heart defect can usually be corrected by surgery.

Blue baby is a layman 's term used to describe newborns with cyanotic conditions. Blue baby, infant born with a congenital heart defect that causes a bluish coloration of the skin as a result of cyanosis. The color is most noticeable around the lips and at the tips of the fingers and toes. Sometimes the term "blue baby" is also applied to a child who is cyanotic due to failure by the lungs to oxygenate the blood. Not all cyanosis is caused by congenital heart defects. Peripheral cyanosis, or a slight bluish tinge in the extremities, may occur in healthy, fair-skinned babies. This type of cyanosis is normal. Cyanosis may also be caused by lung abnormalities and blood conditions that somehow impede the delivery of oxygen to the tissues and organs of the body. Emotional factors also contribute to the blues. An incompatibility of fetal and maternal blood types may also cause a bluish coloration in newborn infants, a condition that results when red blood cells in the infant's blood are destroyed by antibodies in the mother's blood. The baby blues are best described as a general feeling of sadness or anxiety that typically lasts no more than two weeks. The baby blues usually pop up out of the blue and disappear all on their own. In some blue babies, the pulmonary artery is too narrow to allow sufficient blood to pass into the lungs for oxygenation. Surgical correction of the defect is usually required and is usually successful.

Causes of Blue baby

The common causes and risk factor's of Blue baby include the following:

  • Congenital heart defect.
  • Emotional factors.
  • The physical changes that you undergo in the days after labor and delivery probably have a great deal to do with the mood changes associated with the baby blues.
  • The exhaustion caused by childbirth as well as by the constant care you may be providing your little one also seem to contribute to the baby blues.

Symptoms of Blue baby

Some sign and symptoms related to Blue baby are as follows:

  • Irritability.
  • Poor weight gain.
  • Lack of energy and fatigue.
  • Shortness of breath ( dyspnea ) and rapid breathing.
  • Sadness and crying.
  • Difficulty eating, breathing or sucking.

Treatment of Blue baby

Here is list of the methods to treat Blue baby:

  • Because blue baby is often the result of an underlying and serious heart defect, newborns who exhibit the cyanosis must be taken to an appropriate pediatric cardiac facility as quickly as possible.
  • Eat a healthy and balanced diet.
  • Catheters are also used during palliative operations to create a right-to-left shunt that allows some oxygen-rich blood to be pumped out to the body.
  • If medications  are not helpful, then a more invasive treatment option may be advised, such as interventional cardiac catheterization.
  • Surgical correction of the defect is usually required and is usually successful.

Blue Baby - Blue Baby symptom, treatment, causes

  Home | Site Map | Directory | Blog
Copyright ©2008 http://www.health-care-clinic.com (All Rights Reserved)

Disclaimer : Health-Care-Clinic.com is designed for educational purposes only and is not engaged in rendering medical advice or professional medical services. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Any medical or other decisions should be made in consultation with your qualified health care provider.