Today we have a bright idea from a startup in Nigeria that could help make things brighter for babies, so that they can get back to their adventures (pictured below):
One of the many issues new parents and health care teams have to watch for in newborns is jaundice.
That’s when a baby has a buildup of the chemical bilirubin in the body that their liver hasn’t been able to clear quickly enough.
The CDC says around 60 percent of all babies have at least some level of jaundice.
Most cases clear up on their own, but some are more serious, and the babies need direct treatment so they don’t face potentially severe effects from the condition.
That’s what Nigerian designer Virtue Oboro faced when her son was born in 2015.
Ideally, doctors would prescribe phototherapy for a little one in that case.
The baby would be put underneath a machine that shines bright blue lights on their skin and that would clear up the jaundice.
(Also, those little baby eyemasks are adorable.)
But Nigerian hospitals don’t have as many phototherapy devices as they need.
Not all of them work as effectively as they should, and in some cases, the electrical grid isn’t reliable enough for a hospital’s needs.
Oboro’s newborn had to get an emergency blood transfusion while he waited for phototherapy.
Oboro came up with a solution that would help other families avoid that same scary situation.
She and her husband started a company that made a device called the Crib A’Glow.
It’s a phototherapy machine that runs on solar power.
According to CNN, it’s made with local materials and costs around $360, compared to $2000 for the standard models.
The device is portable, so parents could use it at home rather than traveling to a hospital, or they could start therapy at a hospital and finish at home.
Over 500 hospitals have already used the Crib A’Glow, and the company has received several grants to help scale up.
Other companies are working along the same lines, all of it aimed at helping little ones get off to a great start, wherever they start.
Here’s a not so bright idea.
Today in 2021, a man in the English community of Eastbourne walked into a bank and handed the teller a note instructing them to hand over some money.
But his handwriting was so messy the teller couldn’t read what it said and he walked out with nothing.
Later, they looked at the note again, figured out the man had tried to rob them and they notified authorities, who then made an arrest.
This Nigerian tech startup is fighting baby jaundice with solar-powered cribs (CNN)
Man’s handwriting was so bad Eastbourne bank staff didn’t know he was trying to rob them (Eastbourne Herald)
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