Kangaroo Care Family Affair!

This photo of a young boy and his dad cuddling premature babies continues to go viral online. The Atlanta Journal Constitution says it was first posted by a Danish family advocacy group to highlight the benefits of kangaroo care. Nino Birth then posted it to Facebook and thousands of people have liked and shared the photo since! According to the Cleveland Clinic website, Kangaroo care is a form of skin-to-skin contact. This is where the caregiver holds the baby, who is unclothed except for his or her diaper, on his or her bare chest. The main difference between kangaroo care and regular skin-to-skin contact is that with kangaroo care, once the child is placed on the caregiver's bare skin, they are then covered with a blanket or shirt simulating a pouch.

NINO Birth states that this practice originated in Uppsala, Sweden in order to help premature babies avoid being in the incubator. Swedish Professor Uwe Ewald said that babies born up to three months early can benefit from kangaroo care. He said that Kangaroo Care is better than putting a child in an incubator because the skin-to-skin contact has been proven to help infants breathe better, gain weight faster and soothe them. When a child received kangaroo care, he or she is also better able to fight off infections because they picks up their caregiver’s “bacterial flora.”

A more in-depth article with great comments and a video link can be found here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3600662/Touching-photo-young-boy-helping-father-skin-skin-contact-premature-twins-sweeps-internet.html