Blue Babies : Past, present and future!
By Justin
Blue Babies : Past, present and future!
Introduction: Some children are blue at birth or infancy. A careful look at their lips, nails and tongue reveals blue/ dusky coloration. This is a medical condition called “CYANOSIS”.
The word “cyanosis” comes from Greek word kyan?sis which in turn originates from kyanos – dark blue color
In this situation, there is deficiency of oxygen and the amount of deoxygenated hemoglobin in blood is more than 5G/deciliter.
Often cyanosis is caused by serious heart or lung or hemoglobin (blood pigment) problem. These babies need thorough and careful examination and prompt treatment.
Cyanotic Heart Disease:
We will now discuss a very serious condition in children called Congenital Cyanotic Heart Disease.
It is actually not one single disease but a group of diseases where baby is blue and is born with a defect in the heart.
How to recognize that a newborn child is actually a blue baby?
- Baby ‘s lips and fingers are blue
- Even if the baby is warm, this bluishness persists
- Breathing difficulty
- Baby has very fast breathing or the chest is moving up and down with each breath
- Uncontrolled crying
- Baby is very cold
- Any other defect in baby
- If your pediatrician(baby doctor) is giving oxygen to the child, hearing an abnormal heart sound(Murmur), unable to feel good pulses or says your baby is in shock – Always Exclude Heart Disease
Continued: The rest of the article is in 12 pages which can be downloaded in word document format or as abobe reader – pdf – format
Download the Full Article:
Author:Dr Maitri Chaudhuri MD(Pediatrics), Fellow National Board(Ped Cardiology)
Consultant Cardiologist, Vikram Hospitals, Bangalore
This Article has two parts, in microsoft word document format which can be downloaded free from babyheart website provided you acknowledge the real author always and quote the source as www.babyheart.in and author as “Dr. Maitri Chaudhuri” any time you use the article in full or a part of it in any form. You can copy, print , distribute this article as long as you adhere to the above intellectual property rights conditions.
Download 2 parts in Microsoft Word Format – ( .doc)
Blue Baby – Part 01 – Word Document
Blue Baby – Part 02 – Word Document
