ANEMIA OF THE NEW-BORN

Abstract

Anemia of the new-born child is a definite, although rare, clinical entity, a few case reports of which have appeared in the literature since 1919 (Ecklin,¹Donnally,²Susstrunk,³Sanford,⁴Schleussing,⁵Foote,⁶Bonar,⁷Canino,⁸Foote,⁹Ehrmann,¹⁰Greenthal,¹¹Happ,¹²Gelston and Sappington,¹³and Blackfan et al.¹⁴). The following clinical manifestations have been noted in all accepted cases (table 2): The infants are born of healthy parents, in normal spontaneous labor, and from their history has been excluded all evidence of birth injury, hemorrhage, hemorrhagic disease, infection or prenatal poisoning. Within the first two weeks of life these infants, while thriving and behaving in every way as normal new-born infants, become extremely pale. This pallor is a sheetlike whiteness; in several cases it was reported by the nurse, attendant or mother that the infant was as pale as the