Effects of instituting the "BEST Program" (Breast Milk Early Saves Trouble) in a level III NICU.

A program is developed to increase the use of breast milk during the first week, for patients<2 kg birth weight. This is termed the "BEST program," using the acronym "Breast milk Early Saves Trouble." An analysis of feeding practices and outcomes during the 12 months before versus the 12 months after implementing this program was conducted.

In-hospital falls of newborn infants: data from a multihospital health care system.

Objective: The fall of a newborn infant to the hospital floor is an error that has received little or no attention in medical publications. We sought to analyze the circumstances surrounding all such falls that occurred in an 18-hospital health care system during a 3-year period.

Methods: Information was located by using electronic and risk-management records.

Fatal bowel necrosis in two polycytemic term neonates.

We observed 2 term neonates with polycythemia (hematocrit > 70%) who developed necrotizing entercolitis (NEC) in the first week after birth. Both required laparotomy, after which the surgeons stated that the entire bowel appeared nonviable. Both had been fed formula exclusively and both received full feedings (> or = 160 mL/kg/day) by 72 hr after birth.