Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) causes babies to have stiff lungs and trouble breathing. It can develop after a baby needs long-term treatment with oxygen or a ventilator. As babies with BPD grow, their lungs slowly start to work better. Parents can help by taking special care to prevent their child from getting lung infections and by giving good nutrition to help them grow.

• Give your child any prescribed medicines as directed by your health care provider.
• Follow any special feeding instructions your health care provider gives you.
• If your baby has respiratory and/or monitoring equipment, follow your health care provider's or home health nurse's instructions for using it.
• Be sure to go to all follow-up visits with your child's care team.

To help your child avoid a lung infection:

• Wash your hands well and often when caring for and playing with your baby, and ask others to do the same.
• Your child should stay away from people with colds or other infections.
• Make your home and car smoke-free. If anyone in your family smokes, call 800-QUIT-NOW for advice on quitting.
• Make sure your baby gets all recommended vaccines, including the influenza (flu) vaccine. Talk to your child's health care provider about special shots that protect against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Your child:

• is breathing faster than normal
• wheezes
• coughs more than usual
• has trouble feeding or spits up a lot
• has a fever

• Your child is on a monitor and the alarm goes off often. To limit false alarms, check that the sensors are attached to your child's skin, all connections are together, and the battery is working.
• Your child has any of these changes:
  • Your child's belly sinks in or the skin between the ribs pulls in with each breath.
  • Your child is making grunting sounds.
  • Your child's skin looks pale or blue, which may start around the lips or nailbeds.

Why do babies get BPD? Babies are not born with BPD — it develops after long treatment with oxygen or a breathing machine (ventilator) or after an infection. It happens most often in premature babies because their lungs aren't fully developed. But full-term babies also can develop BPD.

In BPD, the lungs get stiff and contain fewer air sacs. The air sacs don't deliver oxygen to the blood efficiently, so the baby has to breathe harder.

What problems can happen from BPD? Babies with BPD are at higher risk for respiratory infections (such as flu and pneumonia). They also usually get sicker from respiratory infections than other babies do and are more likely to need to be treated in a hospital. 

How is BPD treated? Home care may include oxygen delivered into your baby's lungs through a tube placed just inside the nose. Medicines may be needed to keep the airways open, prevent fluid buildup in the lungs, ease inflammation (swelling), or prevent infection. Your health care provider also may prescribe a special diet to support your baby's growth and help your baby develop new, healthy lung tissue.