NEC: The Newborn Gut Disease Almost No One Talks About, and What You Can Actually Do About It
A disease that can kill a newborn in hours, and most parents have never heard its name.
A disease that can kill a newborn in hours, and most parents have never heard its name. New research says the story often begins before birth, which means there are real things you can do before baby is even born. Here is what works, and what does not.
There is a disease that can kill a newborn baby in a matter of hours, and most parents have never heard its name. Even many doctors who do not work in the newborn unit would struggle to explain it. It is called necrotising enterocolitis, or NEC. In the most severe cases, close to half of the babies who get it die. A new review from King’s College London asks a question that should change how all of us think about it: how much of NEC begins before birth?
What NEC actually is
NEC is a sudden, severe inflammation of the bowel. The lining of the intestine becomes injured, loses its blood supply, and parts of it can begin to die. A baby who looked stable can deteriorate within hours, with a swollen belly, blood in the stool, and signs that the whole body is under attack. Some babies need emergency surgery to remove the damaged bowel.
NEC almost always strikes babies who are born too early or too small. The smaller and earlier the baby, the higher the risk. Worldwide, about 7 in every 100 premature babies develop NEC. Among the tiniest babies, those born under 1,000 grams (about 2 pounds 3 ounces), between 5 and 22 in every 100 are affected. Babies born at term with healthy birthweights rarely get it.
The damage does not always end when the baby leaves the hospital. Between 15 and 35 of every 100 babies who develop NEC go on to have intestinal failure, meaning their gut cannot absorb enough nutrition on its own. Up to 45 of every 100 survivors have lasting problems with thinking, movement, or development. This is why NEC frightens the people who care for newborns more than almost any other condition.
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