This is PediCast.

Welcome to Pediacast, a pediatric podcast for parents.

And now, direct from the campus of nationwide children's, here is your host, Dr. Mike.

Hello, everyone, and welcome. Once again to Pediacast. It is a pediatric podcast for moms and dads.

This is Dr. Mike, coming to you from the campus of nationwide children's hospital.

We are in Columbus, Ohio.

It's episode 467 for July 23, 2020.

We're calling this one Swimmers' Ear and Premature Babies.

I want to welcome all of you to the program.

So we are going to cover the care of premature babies today.

And we have covered newborn care many times on this program most recently last September.

That was episode 441, where we covered newborn care.

And while the topics presented in that program pertain to all babies, whether they are born

early, late, or on time, there are lots of special considerations and needs that are

particular for premature babies.

Premature babies have underdeveloped lungs and breathing problems are common after they

are born, which can end up leading to chronic, sometimes lifelong, a lung disease,

which in turn can lead to heart problems, difficulty feeding, difficulties with growth and development in a cascading sort of fashion.

So, you know, lung problems lead to heart problems. That can lead to difficult feeding. Then they have problems with growth and development.

Of course, even without lung problems, there can be issues with feeding and growth and development.

Premature babies can have vision and hearing problems.

They're more prone to infections.

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