Children who have had transient hypoglycemia after birth may encounter difficulties when they attend school, according to a new study published on JAMA Pediatrics.
The research, headed by Dr. Jeffrey Kaiser from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, analyzed over 1,400 records of infants born in 1998. The experts studied their medical records and had the children take achievement tests in 2008 when they were 10 years old and in the fourth grade, according to Medical Xpress.
The researchers were able to match the achievement tests to 1,395 or 71.8 percent of children with either normoglycemia or transient hypoglycemia. Of the participants, 94.7 percent were black and white kids while 50.3 percent were male.
Among the findings, the experts were able to determine that 6.4 percent of the children had a glucose level of less than 35 mg/dL during birth while 10.3 percent had a glucose level of less than 40 mg/dL. On the other hand, 19.4 percent had a glucose level less than 45 mg/dL.
"We've found that about half of babies at [high] risk do, in fact, become hypoglycemic," said Dr. Jane Harding, the study's co-author, according to WebMD.
According to the study via JAMA, Transient Hypoglycemia is a condition where the baby's blood sugar drops to abnormal levels within the three hours of birth. However, these babies can recover, so its long-term effect has not been proven to have any significance until this study.
The guidelines set by American Academy of Pediatrics have restricted blood sugar screening among newborns. The experts said that they may not be able to convince the pediatric board to change the guidelines.
"It is currently recommended by National pediatric bodies to only screen newborns with symptomatic hypoglycemia and those at high risk of developing hypoglycemia. Our study, which evaluated both at risk and normal newborns, however, suggests early transient newborn hypoglycemia is associated with poorer academic performance at 10 years," said Dr. Kaiser in an interview with Medical Research.
However, the study has some limitations, as Dr. Kaiser admitted, "We did not prove transient newborn hypoglycemia causes poor academic performance." His team also didn't account for other factors such as the baby's weight during birth, the children's diet and the parents' level of education.
Dr. Kaiser, therefore, is recommending that further studies must be done to corroborate their findings." I hope other researchers will look into this and see if they replicate our findings," he said, according to WebMD.
