The significance of blood sampling from the soles of newborn babies

When many babies are born, the hospital will draw blood from the newborn's feet for testing. Many people do not know the significance of drawing blood from the soles of newborns' feet for examination, nor do they know what results can be found out by doing so. In fact, it is very necessary to do so. By drawing blood from newborns for testing in this way, many potential diseases can be detected, which wins the opportunity for timely treatment. Therefore, as a parent, you must be careful and take your baby to have blood drawn from the feet in time.

Newborn disease screening refers to the use of advanced laboratory tests to detect certain serious congenital genetic metabolic diseases in every baby at birth, so as to achieve early diagnosis and early treatment, and avoid intellectual, physical development disorders or even death of the baby due to damage to the brain, liver, kidneys, etc. With the development of modern medicine and the improvement of diagnosis and treatment techniques, the neonatal mortality rate has gradually decreased, and congenital defects account for the largest proportion of the causes of death. Clinically, about 4-6 out of every 100 newborns have congenital defects. Some of these defects are caused entirely by genetic factors, including single gene abnormalities and chromosomal abnormalities, while others are multifactorial abnormalities affected by genetics and the environment.

Some congenital metabolic diseases often have no obvious symptoms in the early stages of the disease, but once they occur, they are either life-threatening or cause permanent damage to the intelligence or body, bringing lifelong regrets and burdens to the family and society. To ensure that birth defects receive timely treatment and effective control. The medical community is able to detect children with the disease in the early stages when there are no symptoms, and has developed a series of methods to conduct examinations on newborns shortly after birth. This is our current newborn disease screening work.

According to my country's Maternal and Child Health Care Law, at least two screening tests are required: congenital hypothyroidism (CH) and phenylketonuria (PKU). Children with CH and PKU often lack specific manifestations of the disease after birth. Generally, inherent clinical symptoms gradually appear at 6 months of age and become increasingly severe. However, once clinical symptoms of the disease appear, it indicates that the disease has entered the late stage. Even with treatment, it will be difficult to recover if the condition is poorly treated; on the contrary, if the disease can be discovered shortly after birth, diagnosed and treated, then the vast majority of children will develop normally physically and mentally, and their intelligence will reach the level of normal people. Newborn disease screening is to conduct a census of all newborns in the simplest way possible, in order to detect CH and PKU children as early as possible, and provide effective treatment after diagnosis, thus ensuring the healthy growth of the children. The efficacy and prognosis of the disease depend entirely on the early diagnosis and treatment.

It is reported that if CH children can be diagnosed and treated within 3 months of birth, more than 80% of them will have normal or near-normal intellectual development. If PKU children can start treatment within 3 months after birth, their intellectual development will mostly be at a normal level. If treatment begins between 3 months and 1 year old, their IQ will mostly be above 60 (IQ above 90 is normal). If treatment begins after the child is 1 year old, their IQ will often be below 60. Some people report that if PKU children receive treatment within one month, they will not suffer from intellectual impairment. If they start treatment at six months old, their intelligence can be close to normal. If they start treatment after one year old, their IQ is often below 50. There was a child with PKU in the First Hospital of Peking Medical University who started treatment at 15 days old and his IQ was 94 three years later. Another child with PKU started treatment at 6 months old and his IQ was only 73 when he was 8 and a half years old (a third-grade primary school student). If PKU children are not treated, 95% of them will have severe or profound intellectual impairment, and this brain damage is irreversible. From this, we can see the importance of newborn disease screening in improving the quality of the newborn population.

It is very necessary to draw blood from the soles of the newborn's feet and then conduct a disease check. This is not only for the baby's health, but also for the parents' responsibility. It can help parents know what diseases the baby may have, so that they can effectively prevent these possible congenital diseases during the baby's growth. Therefore, as parents, they should take their babies to draw blood in time.