The Public health and community

Extremely low birth weight is considered to be weight below 1000 grams. It’s a major problem to the public health and community. It increasing infant mortality rate. The low birth weight is caused by a number of factors like exposure to the toxins or poverty (Sims and Sims , T. L and Bruce , M L ( 2008).

The Extreme low birthweight infants suffer from various illnesses and complications for example respiratory distress, anemia, patent ductus arteriosus. The short-term effects of low birth weight, the infant spend most of their time in neonate intensive care unit. They are also at risk of death because they are premature and vulnerable to illnesses. There is high rate of hospitalization due to various health problems.

The low birth weight also may suffer from long term effects like mental retardation, failure to thrive, poor development and behavior issues.

The ongoing care for the low-birth-weight infant is very expensive for the family and community. It requires a lot of money to meet the expenses needed to provide the required care.  Such infant may also have chronic illnesses hypertension diabetes just to mention.  As the children develop, there will be need for special education to cater for children with various disabilities

Low birth weight is very high among the African Americans in comparison to the white Americans, this is an indicator of racial disparity, and it is related to social and economic reasons ( United state department of health and Human services 2002). .

Early intervention services are aimed at identification, evaluation and intervention for infants and young children who are risk developmental delayed or medical condition that could result in disabilities or delays. These services are provided under federal individuals with Disabilities Education Acts (IDEA) Early intervention services 2012. https://sites.ed.gov/idea/IDEA-History

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