What may increase your child's risk for a problem?

Many conditions, medicines, and diseases can affect how your child copes when he or she is hungry, wet, tired, too warm, too cold, lonely, or in pain. Be sure to tell your child's doctor if any of the following apply to your child.

Conditions

• Age newborn to 3 months. Newborns have immature immune systems and require medical evaluation of illness earlier than older infants and children. Newborns who are hospitalized for any length of time may be fussy and cry more often in the first few months at home as both parents and the baby adjust. A persistent cry in a newborn may be the first sign of a serious illness, such as sepsis, or an injury.
• Exposure to secondhand smoke
• Prematurity or abnormally slow growth and development
• Problems that occurred during pregnancy, labor, or delivery, such as:
  • Prolonged rupture of membranes
  • Maternal or fetal infection
  • Maternal drug or alcohol use
• A problem or condition present since birth (congenital defect)

Medicines

• Blood-thinning medicines, such as warfarin, heparin, and aspirin
• Corticosteroids, such as prednisone
• Medicines to prevent organ transplant rejection
• Medicines used to treat cancer (chemotherapy)
• Radiation therapy

Diseases

• Cancer
• Diabetes
• Hemophilia
• Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection
• Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP)
• Kidney disease
• Sickle cell disease