"Cuddling small and premature babies in a style known as kangaroo mother care helps them in life decades later researchers reported Monday. They found that babies held upright and close to bare skin and breastfed instead of being left in incubators grew up with fewer social problems. They were far less likely to die young. Its a reassuring finding for parents who may worry that tiny and premature babies are safer in an incubator than in their arms the team wrote in their report published in the journal Pediatrics. Kangaroo mother care was first described in Colombia and the team of experts there who first showed it was safe did a year followup to see how the babies fared as they grew up. They tracked down  of the original  children who were born prematurely from  to  and randomly assigned to get either kangaroo mother care or standard handling.  The effects of kangaroo mother care at one year on IQ and home environment were still present  years later in the most fragile individuals and kangaroo mother care parents were more protective and nurturing Dr. Nathalie Charpak and colleagues at the Kangaroo Foundation in Bogota Colombia wrote in their report. At  years the young exkangaroo mother care participants especially in the poorest families had less aggressive drive and were less impulsive and hyperactive. They exhibited less antisocial behavior which might be associated with separation from the mother at birth they added. They exhibited less antisocial behavior which might be associated with separation from the mother at birth. Kangaroo mother care may change the behavior of less welleducated mothers by increasing their sensitivity to the needs of their children thus making them equivalent to mothers in more favorable environments. Twenty million babies are born at a low birth weight every year around the globe the World Health Organization reports. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of preterm and lowweight births  about one in  births according to the March of Dimes. It defines low birthweight as being when a baby is born weighing less than  pounds  ounces. Most of these small babies are premature and they are at high risk of dying of developing cerebral palsy or having learning disabilities and they can grow up more prone to a range of diseases. Hightech care can help but WHO promotes the simpler lowtech approach alongside modern medical care  or instead of it in some poor settings. Kangaroo mother care is care of preterm infants carried skintoskin with the mother. It is a powerful easytouse method to promote the health and wellbeing of infants born preterm as well as fullterm. Its key features are early continuous and prolonged skintoskin contact between the mother and the baby exclusive breastfeeding ideally it is initiated in hospital and can be continued at home small babies can be discharged early mothers at home require adequate support and followup WHO said.  It is a gentle effective method that avoids the agitation routinely experienced in a busy ward with preterm infants. And its safe WHO added. Almost two decades of implementation and research have made it clear that kangaroo mother care is more than an alternative to incubator care. Charpaks team found the babies randomly assigned to get this treatment were  percent more likely to live into adulthood. They had stayed in school longer and earned more as adults. We firmly believe that this is a powerful efficient scientifically based health intervention that can be used in all settings. It didnt work miracles. Children with cerebral palsy were equally likely to have symptoms whether they had the kangaroo care or not and more than half the people in the entire group needed glasses. The children given standard care had higher math and language scores in school while IQ levels were about the same in both groups. But overall the findings support the benefits of kangaroo mother care the team concluded. Our longterm findings should support the decision to introduce kangaroo mother care to reduce medical and psychological disorders attributable to prematurity and low birth weight they wrote. We suggest that both biology and environment together might modulate a powerful developmental path for these children impacting until adult age they added. We firmly believe that this is a powerful efficient scientifically based health intervention that can be used in all settings."