There was an interesting article in today's paper (6/21) by Kevin Lamb of the Dayton Ohio Daily News. I'll quote parts of it. "The limited research on premature babies who share a bed with their siblings suggests it's more than just comforting to stay close with their buddies from the womb as soon as practical after birth. They also gain weight faster, begin maintaining body heat earlier and nurse sooner on more nutritious breast milk, says Linda Lutes, an infant-development specialist and the country's foremost advocate of what she calls co-bedding. "It all makes sense, certainly. They stay warmer together, and if the companionship keeps them calmer, Lutes says "they'll sleep for longer periods of time so they're able to grow more." "As a result, twins, triplets and other multiple-birth babies can leave the hospital sooner. That has been the experience at Dayton's Children's Medical Center in the year it has been co-bedding. It costs less, the babies are heathier and everybody's happier. "Nobody likes their baby to cry," Lutes says. So why is this such a new concept? Swedish hospitals have been bunking multiples together as soon as they can breathe on their own for more than a generation, but Lutes began introducing the idea to this country only eight or nine years ago, and other Western countries were even slower to start. "There have been two main concerns, which still prevail in many newborn intensive-care units. One is that it would be too easy to mix up the babies' medications if they were in the same bed. The other is that the close proximity would make them more susceptible to infection, which is especially dangerous for a preemie. "It's easy enough to keep the medications straight by color-coking everything, Lutes says, and it's turning out that preemies who share a bed have a lower infection rate "because everybody is so careful." Which leaves one other obstacle. "People aren't sure if this works," Lutes says. She understands that. Doctors don't tend to take anything on faith, and there isn't much cientific data from her three years of research. the first study, at Good Samaritan hospital in cincinnati (Ohio) shimply showed sharing beds wasn't harmful. The second study established success in growht rates, body heat and breast-feeding, but it involved only seven sets of pre-term twins in Sweden. "The biggest question is how early it's safe to put the preemies in the same bed. Lutes says as soon as they're breathing without a ventilator and don't have a catheter in the umbilical line, which could cause serious bleeding if it came loose. --------- Neat info isn't it and it makes a lot of sense. There's more to the article but it's mostly about a specific set of triplets in Dayton with a darling full color photo of the 3 girls in bed together. They were born prematurely April 2. Warmly, Pat Bucknell Avon Lake OH ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html