A medical skateboard that allows very premature babies to move themselves around soon after birth reduces delays to their motor development.
鈥� before 32 weeks of gestation 鈥� develop motor impairments, including delays in learning to crawl and walk, subtle motor problems such as difficulty catching a ball, or, in severe cases, conditions like cerebral palsy.
Advertisement
One reason for this is that babies born preterm have had less time to practise moving their limbs and developing their muscles inside the supportive environment of the uterus, says at Paris Cit茅 University, France.
To address this, Barbu-Roth and her colleagues have developed a skateboard-like device that supports premature babies while they practise moving shortly after birth.
Babies are laid on their front on the skateboard and strapped on so they can鈥檛 fall off. The slight elevation allows them to use their arms and legs to propel themselves forward. Very premature babies are unable to breastfeed, but the motions they use on the skateboard are similar to those of non-premature newborns who push themselves forwards if breastfeeding.
To put the skateboard to the test, the researchers enrolled 44 very preterm babies from four neonatal intensive care units in Paris.
The babies were randomly assigned to one of three groups. In the first group, the babies used the skateboard, while those in the second group lay on their front on a mat, both for 5 minutes a day, while a trained therapist visited their homes, over eight weeks. Those in the third group received standard checkups at home with no interventions, also for 8 weeks.
On average, the babies using the skateboard were able to push themselves forward 139 centimetres during the 5-minute sessions. 鈥淚t is remarkable that, even at this very early age, premature infants could travel long distances,鈥� says Barbu-Roth.
They were also more likely to develop head control by the age of 2 months, to be crawling by 9 months and to be standing by 12 months, compared with the babies in the other groups.
at the University of Sydney, Australia, says it was a small trial and only included very preterm babies without brain damage, meaning they weren鈥檛 at risk of developing cerebral palsy. 鈥淭hey may have had some motor delays, but they would usually resolve by the age of 8,鈥� she says.
Barbu-Roth and her colleagues are now conducting a larger trial of the skateboard that will include more than 100 very preterm babies, some with brain damage, to further investigate whether it can prevent or reduce motor impairments.
medRxiv
