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Touch and talk
First a fascinating paper from Moore et al (Development and Psychopathology 2017;29:1517–38) which demonstrated that although the degree of DNA methylation of some key genes was not associated with the degree of early postnatal contract, there was an association with methylation across the whole genome. As these authors suggest, the neurobiological effects of early contact or lack of it are likely to be long lasting and profound. On a related topic, Saliba et al (Acta Paediatrica, DOI:10.1111/apa.14170) systematically reviewed the effect of vocal stimuli on the physiological stability of preterm infants; disappointingly only 3 of the 11 papers that fulfilled their inclusion criteria were randomised trials. Nevertheless the weight of evidence supported the contention that talking to babies was a good thing and should be encouraged: more evidence for the importance of ensuring lots of parental contact with their baby, however premature or tiny.
Tight glycaemic control
The 7 year follow-up of the babies<1500 g or <30 weeks randomised to tight versus routine …
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Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.