 The toys used to brighten the hospital stay of sick newborns may harbor bacteria that could put the babies at risk for infection, Australian researchers report.Over 4 weeks, nearly all of the toys given to babies in one hospital's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) became contaminated with bacteria. Over the same time, 42% of the babies got infections, although it was unclear whether the toys were to blame, researchers report in the August online issue of Pediatrics. Dr. Colin J. Morley and his colleagues at Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, studied 19 NICU infants and their toys. The investigators found that a variety of bacteria formed on the toys, and that in most cases, the baby's infection was caused by the same type of bacteria populating his toy. It is not yet time to yank toys from NICU beds, though, the researchers note. ``We have all put toys in incubators to make the nursery a bit more human,'' Morley told Reuters Health. No one knows, he added, whether the toys are the source of infants' infections. ``I think my real concern is that everything in the incubator gets cleaned except teddy, who may stay there for weeks,'' Morley said. He and his colleagues are currently studying whether keeping toys out of incubators cuts infection rates in the NICU. [SOURCE: Reuters Health] [Posted 8/08/2000]
  
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