A large randomized study across 39 U.S. hospitals found that for premature babies with an inguinal hernia — a common groin hernia — it is generally safer to repair it after the baby leaves the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) than before. Babies whose surgery was delayed until after discharge…

A large 2025 study combined the results of 51 separate trials involving 11,661 premature babies to ask a practical question: do probiotics — the "good bacteria" sold for gut health — actually protect tiny infants from a serious bowel disease called necrotizing enterocolitis, and if so, which…

If your baby is premature and in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), you may have heard the word “NEC” spoken quietly by the medical team, or seen it listed among the risks of prematurity. NEC stands for necrotizing enterocolitis — a name that sounds alarming, and which describes something…

Necrotizing enterocolitis — usually shortened to NEC — is one of the most serious illnesses that can affect a premature baby. It is an inflammation and injury of the bowel that can come on quickly and make a baby very unwell. When NEC is diagnosed, the response is much the same in hospitals…

If your baby is in a neonatal intensive care unit — a NICU — you already know that the world can change very quickly. You learn the rhythm of monitors and alarms. You learn which nurses bring comfort and which machines mean progress. And then, sometimes, in the space of a few hours, everything you…

Necrotizing enterocolitis — NEC for short — is a serious bowel illness that mainly affects babies born very early. Most babies with NEC are treated without an operation, with rest for the bowel, antibiotics, and nutrition given through a vein. But in roughly one in three cases, the illness becomes…