This article presents the importance of multidisciplinary, family-centered care, and a developmental bio-psycho-social approach to treating feeding difficulties in a child with a complex medical history. Hannah spent the first 9 months of her life in the hospital and was discharged dependent on nasogastric tube feeding. Her journey to recovery…

Becoming a mother in a foreign land can be challenging and demanding for immigrant women and their families, and also for the professionals who support these families. In addition to the typical demands associated with raising a newborn, mothers who are immigrants confront other issues that professionals must keep in mind: a unique understanding…

Human neonates spend the majority of their time sleeping. Despite the limited waking hours available for environmental exploration, the first few months of life are a time of rapid learning about the environment. The organization of neonate sleep differs qualitatively from adult sleep, and the unique characteristics of neonatal sleep may promote…

The authors describe the challenges to nurturing reflective practices in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)--an environment in which life and death hang in fragile balance and where the need to defend against unbearable realities is natural, even an adaptive response. Working as consultants to this acute setting, the authors describe how they…

As thinking adults depend upon years of practical experience, reasoning about facts and causes, and language to sustain their knowledge, beliefs and memories, and to understand one another, it seems quite absurd to suggest that a newborn infant has intersubjective mental capacities. But detailed research on how neonatal selves coordinate the…

For more than 25 years, the Annie E. Casey Foundation has used the data-based advocacy of KIDS COUNT to raise the visibility of children's issues and to inform decision making at the state and local levels. Building on this work and the efforts of other groups nationwide that are using indicator analysis to contribute to positive change for…

After birth, newborns and their caregivers are seen routinely and frequently in pediatric primary care settings. The close succession of visits in the first few months of life puts pediatric primary care professionals in a unique position to enhance infant mental health by developing strong relationships with caregivers, supporting babies and…

Infants who are born prematurely may experience developmental delays and impairments during infancy and beyond. Those who are born at extremely low birthweight face the greatest challenges. Many families could benefit from early intervention services through their local Part C of Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) programs, but…

This article describes the reflective process component of a multisite study of the effectiveness of family-focused, developmentally supportive care with low birthweight infants. Reflection is felt to be of particular value to developmental care because of the nature of the developmental approach itself, which is theory-guided, relationship-based,…

Provides an overview of the development of the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS), the nature of the instrument and conditions for its proper administration, and issues underlying the use of the NBAS in research (e.g., reliability). The first in a series of articles in a single monograph assessing the NBAS. (BH)

A brief history is provided of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a treatment option for infants that provides prolonged circulation and reoxgenation of blood outside the body to temporarily support a failing heart or lungs. The University of Kentucky ECMO program is described, along with the positive outcomes of 19 infants. (Contains…

Presents the use of six sensorimotor functions (SMF) as a screening test for cerebral palsy in neonates. Functions include sitting in air, self-pulling to sit, self-propelling Katona slide crawl, assisted crawling, and elementary walking. Nine case examples are provided in an appendix. (Author/CR)

This manual describes the results of a 3-year research project at George Washington University (District of Columbia) called the Assessment as Intervention Project, which explored approaches to parent-sensitive developmental follow-up for prematurely born infants who received neonatal intensive care and their families (N=25). After an…

This paper describes the District of Columbia's system for tracking at-risk and disabled infants during their first 3 years of life. The project involves a computerized system for following the developmental progress of at-risk infants identified at birth or other times. The project monitors the activities of children within various service…

The pamphlet describes three Hogg Foundation-funded Texas programs (one exclusively hospital-based, one hospital-based with extensive linkages to community resources, and one community-based) which serve predominantly high-risk, low-income Mexican American families. First described are social work services connected with the Driscoll Foundation…