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To Panic or Not to Panic
Understanding Common Newborn Conditions
By Kelly Burgess
When Leslie Reynolds of Magnolia, Miss., took her 4-day-old son to the doctor for his first checkup, the pediatrician mentioned that the baby had a heart murmur. Overwhelmed with being a new mother on her first outing, Reynolds didn't think to ask any follow-up questions, but when she got home she began to worry.
"After the appointment, what he said about a heart murmur just started to stand out for me because it sounds so serious when you think about it, and I thought maybe I should have asked him if I should see a specialist," says Reynolds. "I ended up calling him back and asking about it, and the office told me that it was nothing to worry about and most likely will go away on its own."
Although Reynolds' doctor may have been a little too casual for her peace of mind, it is not unusual at all for a newborn baby to have a heart murmur. According to Dr. Henry H. Bernstein, associate chief of general pediatrics for Children's Hospital Boston and associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, at least half of all newborns will have a murmur that's heard in the first few days of life. All it is, he says, is the sound of the blood rushing through the baby's heart and blood vessels near the heart and is usually nothing to be concerned about.
Dr. Bernstein says the baby's adjustment to living outside the mother's body is the cause of many of the conditions commonly seen in newborn babies. Some of these conditions are visible and some are not. Often, a parent only learns of them because the pediatrician mentions them in passing. Also, in Dr. Bernstein's estimate, the majority of children don't have many of these, but for those that do, the following guide may ease a few minds.
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