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RDS
Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS), also known as hyaline membrane disease, is a serious lung condition that affects about 40,000 infants each year. It typically occurs because a baby's lungs are too immature to produce surfactant. In general, the more premature a baby is, the greater chance she'll develop RDS.
If your baby has RDS, she will have labored and rapid breathing. Her chest may sink deeply as she inhales to try to fill her lungs. She may grunt when exhaling to try to close her throat to stop all the air from leaving her lungs. Without enough surfactant, the air sacs begin to stick together and she must work even harder to breathe. As breathing becomes difficult, less oxygen gets into the blood, circulation becomes poor, and your baby's condition could get worse within hours.
A health care professional can diagnose RDS by listening with a stethoscope to your baby's chest, by taking a chest x-ray to see her lungs, and by measuring the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in her blood.
* IMS DDD Lung Surfactant Market Purchases July 1991 through June 2007. On file, Abbott Nutrition Marketing Research.
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