Let’s start off talking about a common problem that can be easily identified and treated in newborns. And that is hyperbilirubinemia, which we see as jaundice, or yellow skin, in newborn babies. In this module, we’ll teach you how jaundice occurs and the skills needed to identify hyperbilirubinemia. We’ll finish by telling you the steps to take to lessen the chances of permanent brain damage caused by hyperbilirubinemia, which is called kernicterus.

This module introduces you to the world of hearing and hearing loss, particularly in children. You will learn how hearing loss is classified, causes of hearing loss, implications of hearing loss, and why it is important to treat childhood hearing loss as soon as possible. We will explore the systems in place for identifying childhood hearing loss as early as possible, as well as the treatments available once it is detected.

Everyone enjoys caring for newborns; they are adorable. There is a little more to newborn care than cuteness, though. Our job as clinicians caring for the newly born is to examine them carefully for illnesses that are not readily apparent. One important way in which we do this is with newborn screening tests. In this module, you will learn about the blood spot test. We will go over general concepts and give examples of each of the various types of diseases that it can detect.

Congenital heart diseases are some of them most common birth defects. They range from minor to life-threatening. The most concerning are the group known as “Critical Congenital Heart Diseases” because they require surgery by one month of age in order to avoid death. Pulse oximetry is a simple test that can be used to screen newborns for these serious heart defects, enabling us to identify them in the first days of life. In this module, you will learn how to perform this potentially life-saving screening test.

In this module, we will cover the role of vitamin K in blood clotting, sources of vitamin K, and the reasons why newborns lack vitamin K at birth. This will help us to achieve the broader understanding of why it is important to administer, or give, the vitamin K injection to newborns shortly after birth! Extending the understanding of the importance of vitamin K by identifying the sources of this vitamin in our diet and the reasons why newborns lack this vitamin, we will then discuss vitamin K deficiency bleeding in newborns and the vitamin K injection. We will then learn about the hepatitis B virus and discuss why it is important to vaccinate newborns shortly after birth! This lesson will discuss eye infections in newborns, and the reasons for application of an antibiotic ointment called erythromycin to a newborn’s eyes after birth.