Bhubaneswar, March 6: Watching the baby grow is the delight of every parent, but greater surveillance and follow up is needed for those infants who had spent their early days in Neonatal ICU in a hospital, experts said on Saturday.
“Most babies don’t get the follow up they need after their discharge from hospitals and are often afflicted with different kinds of neurodevelopmental disorders,” Dr Pankaj Kumar Mohanty, Associate Professor and in-charge of the NICU at Institute of Medical Sciences and Sum Hospital, said.
Premature babies and those who had to go through NICU after birth due to complications should be targeted for follow up and intervention as they require neurodevelopmental assessment at specific intervals alongside growth monitoring, Dr. Mohanty said while addressing a workshop training workshop on Bayley Scales of Infact and Toddler Development (BSID) at the hospital.
The third edition of the program, also known as Bayley III, is an internationally recognized assessment and widely used developmental scale globally indicating strengths, weaknesses and competencies in early development of babies in the age group of one to 42 months so that caregivers and professionals could properly plan for the child’s future.
The speakers discussed the scenario in Odisha where infant mortality rate was high compared to other states and measures required to bring it down.
The workshop, the first of its kind in Odisha, had been organized by the IMS and Sum Hospital and National Neonatal Forum (NNF), Odisha, with the help of Pearson Society of India, Bangalore.
It was attended by Prof. (Dr.) Amit Banerjee,
Vice-Chancellor of SOA University, Dr. Pushparaj Samantasinhar, Medical Superitendent of Sum Hospital, Dr.Ravishankar Swamy, Trainer from Manipal Hospital, Dr. B.K.Rath, Head of the department of Pediatrics at Sum Hospital, Dr.
R.N.Panda and Dr. Ashutosh Mohapatra among others.
