Nascent body ego: metapsychological and neurophysiological aspects.

For Freud, body ego was the organizing basis of the structural theory. He defined it as a psychic projection of the body surface. Isakower's and Lewin's classical findings suggest that the body surface experiences of nursing provide the infant with sensory-affective stimulation that initiates a projection of sensory processes towards the psychic realm.

Determinants of bone mineral density in prematurely born children aged 6-7 years.

The aim of this study was to assess the long-term effects of prematurity and growth during the first year on bone mineralization in prematurely born children. The study group consisted of 38 prematurely born Finnish children (17M, 21F) examined at the age of 6-7 y. After birth, all children were fed with banked human milk until discharge from hospital.

The effect of nursing on the brain activity of the newborn.

Objective: To determine whether nursing influences brain activity in the newborn and whether there are differences in this respect between breast- or bottle-feeding and pacifier sucking.

Study Design: Fifty unselected volunteer mothers and their healthy full-term infants, under care in the maternity ward after delivery, served as subjects. Thirty mother-infant pairs were studied in relation to breast-feeding and 20 to bottle-feeding and pacifier sucking.

Osteitis caused by bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccination: a retrospective analysis of 222 cases.

To evaluate the frequency, clinical features, and prognosis of patients with osteitis caused by bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination, medical records from Finnish children based on nationwide registration from 1960 to 1988 were retrospectively analyzed. During the study period, three different BCG vaccine preparations were used. In 222 children, diagnostic criteria of BCG osteitis were fulfilled.

A population-based study on the causes of mild and severe mental retardation.

The causes of mental retardation (MR) were studied as part of a multidisciplinary epidemiological case-control study in 151 mentally retarded patients identified by screening four age cohorts (12,882 children) at 8-9 years of age in the province of Kuopio, Finland. The causes of MR in 77 severely retarded (SD < or = -3 SD) and 74 mildly retarded (-2 > SD > -3) children were divided into pre-, peri-, postnatal and unknown groups according to the probable time of onset. The causes were pre-, peri-, postnatal and unknown in 60%, 9%, 8% and 23%, and 22%, 1%, 3% and 74%, in the two populations, respectively.

Effect of alloxan on the endocrine function of human fetal islet-like cell clusters--an in vitro study.

We studied the effects of alloxan on insulin and glucagon secretion, islet insulin content, and morphology of human fetal islet-like cell clusters (ICCs). ICCs were derived after collagenase digestion and culture of pancreata from two fetuses. Culture medium (RPMI 1640) containing either 2.

Bronchial asthma and hyperreactivity after early childhood bronchiolitis or pneumonia. An 8-year follow-up study.

Objective: To determine the infantile risk factors and long-term outcome up to 8 to 10 years of age for bronchial asthma and hyperreactivity in children with early-childhood bronchiolitis or pneumonia.

Design: Prospective follow-up of three groups of children.

Setting: University hospital providing primary hospital care and outpatient consultations for all pediatric patients in a defined area.

Osteitis after newborn vaccination with three different Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccines: twenty-nine years of experience.

Newborns in Finland have been vaccinated with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) since the 1950s. Until the end of 1970 the vaccine was made from BCG strain Gothenburg by the Swedish BCG laboratory in Gothenburg and from 1971 on from the same strain in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was replaced by the Glaxo vaccine in 1978.

Mixed infection is common in children with respiratory adenovirus infection.

The presence of concomitant viral or bacterial infection was evaluated in 20 patients hospitalized for adenovirus infection of the middle or lower airways by using new serological methods for detection of both antigens and antibodies. Adenovirus infection was identified by measurement of antibodies with complement fixation test or by direct detection of viral antigen in nasopharyngeal aspirates. Mixed infection was present in 11 (55%) of the 20 patients.

Bacterial infection in under school age children with expiratory difficulty.

Serological evidence of bacterial infection was prospectively studied in less than 6 years old patients during 188 acute episodes of expiratory difficulty requiring hospital treatment. Such evidence indicated by antibody or antigen assays was found in 40 patients (21%). Streptococcus pneumoniae was identified in 25 cases; antigenemia was found in 10, antigenuria in 2 and seroconversion in 14 cases.

Bacterial involvement in parainfluenza virus infection in children.

37 children with serologically confirmed parainfluenza virus (PV) infection were studied by new serological methods for evidence of concomitant bacterial infection. 24 of the children were hospitalized because of croup and 13 because of lower respiratory tract infection. Serological evidence of bacterial involvement was found in 4 (11%) of the 37 children, in none of the 24 children with croup but in 31% of the 13 children with PV infection of the lower airways (p less than 0.

Bacterial coinfection in children hospitalized with respiratory syncytial virus infections.

Clinical and bacterial findings were prospectively studied in 90 children hospitalized because of middle or lower respiratory tract infection caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) during a surveillance period of 12 months. The results were compared with those of RSV-negative children hospitalized with identical indications during the 3 peak months of the RSV epidemic (N = 91) or for the 3 months after the outbreak (N = 99). A high frequency of pneumonia and acute otitis media were found in both RSV-positive and RSV-negative children during the epidemic, but not in control patients after the epidemic.

Compliance with a dietary manipulation programme in families with infants prone to atopy.

The success of familial compliance with a dietary manipulation programme was studied prospectively in 91 newborn babies from atopic families for up to 12 months. The control group consisted of 72 infants from non-atopic families. The percentages of infants breast-fed at the age of six months were 58% and 38% in the study group and control group, respectively.

Prematurity-associated morbidity during the first two years of life. A population-based study.

Two-year patterns of postneonatal morbidity, both chronic and non-chronic, reported for all liveborn preterm infants (n = 612; malformations excluded) delivered in the province of Kuopio, Finland, between 1978 and 1982. The overall readmission rate was 30%, the commonest cause being respiratory infections, surgical disorders (inguinal hernias) and neurological problems. The higher readmission rate in preterms born at less than or equal to 33 weeks of gestation was due to a large proportion of children being admitted with chronic prematurity-associated conditions; preterms without chronic disabilities had similar rates of readmission irrespective of gestational age.

The role of parainfluenza viruses in inspiratory difficulties in children.

Viral findings were prospectively studied in middle and lower respiratory tract infections in 449 hospitalized children during a 12-month follow-up period. A viral aetiology was found in 30 of the 65 children (46%) with inspiratory difficulties. Parainfluenza viruses were the infective agents in 24 of the 30 cases with viral diagnoses (80%), type 2 being the most prominent.

Neurodevelopmental screening of in utero growth-retarded prematurely born children before school age.

As part of a prospective follow-up study of two premature cohorts (gestational age less than or equal to 36 weeks) born between 1976 and 1977, designed to evaluate the effects of IUGR on morbidity, mortality and neurological development in prematurely born children, 71 prematurely born children (48 AGA, 23 IUGR) without major neurological handicaps were subjected to detailed assessment of their neurological and psychological status at the age of 4 years. Thirty-six healthy full-term children formed a control group. The socioeconomic status of the families of the premature groups was similar to that of the families of the control group.

Prevalence of the fragile X syndrome in four birth cohorts of children of school age.

The prevalence of the fragile X syndrome among 12,882 children (6594 boys and 6288 girls) born during the years 1969-1972 in Kuopio province in eastern central Finland has been studied retrospectively. Mentally retarded children were selected from normal schools by using school achievement tests and from registers of mentally retarded individuals. In the present study fragile X syndrome was found in 6/111 mentally retarded children (5.

Finnish approach to the treatment of acute otitis media. Report of the Finnish Consensus Conference.

The theme of the first consensus conference to be held in Finland was the treatment of acute otitis media. The statements and recommendations accepted by the conference, which was organized according to the National Institutes of Health model, are presented in this report. On the basis of scientific knowledge, clinical experience, and conditions in Finland, the conference delegates concluded that penicillin V, in large doses, is still the drug of first choice in this disease.

Plasma vitamin C levels are low in premature infants fed human milk.

To evaluate the vitamin C nutritional status of premature infants, plasma vitamin C concentrations were measured in 7 neonates born before 32 wk of gestation and in 13 premature infants born at or after 32 wk of gestation. Samples of umbilical venous plasma from 14 full-term infants were analyzed to provide reference values. Oral feedings with pooled, pasteurized milk from human donors were initiated 1-3 days after birth and intake was gradually increased to 200 ml X kg X day during the second week.