Understanding and Overcoming Wimpy White Boy Syndrome

The medical world has undoubtedly progressed from what it was a hundred years ago. But terminologies like white boy syndrome are quite racial and sometimes offensive to use. What’s more concerning is the fact that patients’ families often confuse that such rare premature baby symptoms are associated with white Caucasian babies only. Medically there’s no room for such presumptions, which our article will try to address. Know about wimpy white boy syndrome, is it legitimized, and the myths associated with it below.

Background For Wimpy White Boy Syndrome

Before going to the wimpy white boy syndrome definition, it’s essential to know in which context such racially biased terminology is used. The wimpy boy syndrome includes premature baby breathing problems due to which they are supervised in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). 

In the USA, about ten to fifteen percent of newborn babies end up in the NICU, and it is from there that the source of such suspicious medical concepts originated. 

What is Wimpy White Boy Syndrome?

White boy syndrome is a term given to premature Caucasian white male babies because they face difficulty in breathing due to their underdeveloped lungs at the time of birth. Since their lungs do not function properly, they more often aspirate fluids into the lungs. 

It has been found statistically that premature African American black female infants leave the NICU the fastest. But whatever the case, using for a Caucasian boy white boi humiliation terminologies is another way of affixing to the mind that it’s common for them to spend a little longer in the NICU. 

The clinical faculty of any specific hospital can use Wimpy white boy syndrome as a reason for the delay in treatment. Stay rest assured that white boy syndrome is not a formal diagnosis anyway. And often, the opposite happens when the breathing of the newly born infant normalizes within a week or two. 

Does race really matter in determining the health of a newborn baby? 

In the book Pink and Blue: Gender, Culture and the Health of Children edited by Elena C. Conis, Aimee Medeiros, and Sandra Aimee, the practicality of WWBS has been analyzed. And Neonatal clinical observations are considered the primary source of data that lent truth to such white boy syndrome. 

Whether race and gender really matter in determining the respiratory or overall health of a newborn baby has been subjected to hot debate. 

Here’s what the author of Pink and Blue: Gender, Culture and the Health of Children has found:

• Debate on White boi Humiliation. 
• The writer found that some clinicians asserted the truth about WWBS and also linked it with gender profiles. Such clinicians confidently claim that boys are often not as vigorous during their early days. 
• However, many neonatologists are not at all comforted while discussing an infant’s health with their parents based on gender or racial factors. They find such nonmodifiable identity-based things as gender would seriously mentally impact the parents. 
• Many clinical staffs often vaguely use some phrases like some wimpy white baby needs more care or support than others. So, they are neutral and don’t know much about their stance. 
• Many clinical nurses have taken the connection between health and ethnicity more seriously and brought the debate one step forward. Per them, there should be separate race and sex profiles alongside other relevant social and clinical factors. Mothers’ health and the family’s socio-economic condition should not be isolated from the white or black racial profiles of the baby. 

Often infant mortality cases are also intertwined with the wimpy white boy syndrome, which is yet to be tested to know its truth. Moreover, researchers have found that African American black community faces severity considering numerous factors. 

Variables like infant death or the premature mortality rate depend on various risk profiles. So, medical science understanding would be distorted if we ignore the severity of the black African American community and only concentrate on the white boy issue.  

White Boi Humiliation: Statistics vs Diagnostics

The Caucasian mother of a premature is quite familiar with their boy suffering from WWBS. As a result, the NICU experience of the white parents turns out to be traumatic. But remember that the likelihood of the severity of the child is not based on formal diagnosis but on statistical proximity. 

The families.com site has clearly mentioned finding no proper diagnosis similar to others like jaundice. But what is found is a general tendency for white males to develop more slowly and, therefore, stay longer in the NICU. 

It is also crucial for the parents to remember that if you are told your infant suffers from white boy syndrome, that’s not any racial comment. Simply, it means that your child’s lungs are not developed enough. 

How to be an exception? 

Even if it’s about the statistics that popularize the Caucasian white boy syndrome, you can help your baby. Studies found that breast milk and kangaroo care give your preemie better health. Moreover, the NICU time period also dramatically shortens with mothers’ breast milk. Kangaroo care also helps grow the bond between the mother and the child. 

Above anything, acceptance of the mother’s part is important. Parents of premature must stay strong because surviving in the NICU is not a smooth journey for your newborn. So, mothers should not get panicked while undergoing terminologies like physiological immaturity and seeing their babies hooked to wires and tubes. 

Is Wimpy White Boy Syndrome another way of maintaining racial biases? 

The topic of Wimpy White Boy Syndrome has become a contested matter not only for medical researchers but sociologists who are also concerned about it. 

Sociologists raised the question of whether the phenomenon is just a clinical concern or is misused for treating white infants better! Severe care disparity has been observed according to Stanford University School of Medicine researchers. 

In contrast, they have studied more than 18,000 records of Californian-born babies who are treated in the NICU. Their study has found intense care disparity among the Latino and “other” infants from the white Caucasians. Here’s what the study has found- 

• Not only in the childcare units but overall, the medical profession addresses the patient’s problem differently than whites. 
• Such systematic discrimination is based on the assumption that black people are subjected to less physical pain. Such assumptions are, in extreme cases, found grounded on the belief that earlier medical experiments were carried forward on African slaves and immigrants were denied medical care even though how they had survived severities. Such systematic racial biases are then transferred to the babies. 
• The Stanford study also found premature black newborns getting lesser steroid therapy for the development of the lungs. They don’t even timely arrange retinopathy for prematurity. 

Whatever the cases, such justified bias in the medical sector often leads to long-term consequences for black infants. They were not fed at the proper time, and often infections occur because of careless hospital treatment of Latinos and Asians than whites. 

Further, many hospitals also undergo unofficial diagnostic for WWBS, which complicates even white boys’ health. 

Precautions to avoid premature birth 

To avoid panicking, the concern for an expecting mom should not be about their racial affinities, but instead, they should focus on a healthy gestation period. Usually, a full-term pregnancy period happens to be for thirty-eight to forty weeks. 

Delivering before the completion of 40 weeks can be risky for your baby’s health regardless of whether they are black, white, Latino, etc. In case of premature delivery, organs like lungs, liver, and brain fail to develop fully. 

Here are some of the preventive measures to avoid premature birth- 

1. Proper prenatal care

Proper prenatal care is mandatory when you already have a history of miscarriage or premature delivery. Regularly visit the doctor’s clinic to check your baby’s growth and position in the womb. 

Other than that, if you have issues with your cervix or uterus or have past experiences with irregular menstruation, then be careful. 

2. Don’t overdose on the medicated drugs

Stay extra cautious about the dosage of the drugs that your gynecologist has prescribed you. Overdosage of drugs can have chemical reactions in your body and is not safe for new ones. Besides all, avoid consuming street drugs or misuse prescription drugs. 

3. Maintain healthy body weight

It’s essential to maintain a healthy body weight proportionate to your height. Both extreme cases of obesity and underweight are not healthy for safely delivering your child. You can do light yoga and exercise to maintain your physical and mental fitness. 

4. An adequate supply of nutrients to the body

Make sure that you eat healthy green leafy vegetables and fruits adequately. In most cases, you would be required to eat extra nutritious food to ensure the healthy growth of your unborn fetus. 

One of the primary reasons for the delivery of premature babies is the lack of a proper supply of nutrition during the gestation period. So, for delivering a healthy baby, eat what your body demands. 

Is wimpy white boy syndrome real? 

Due to the fact that the parameters to judge the practicality of Wimpy white boy syndrome are not set satisfactorily! It would not be easy to comment on the truth behind WWBS’ claims. 

Basically, it remained a tug of war between statistics and official diagnostics, due to which no proper medical theory can be developed even though some statistics show that white boys are diagnosed with respiratory ailments due to uneven lung development. 

Still, such a view can become highly racist or offensive. Even the parents of newborn white boys often get psychologically affected by the claim of such unchangeable syndromes. 

In upcoming years, the question of whether WWBS is a legitimate medical issue or another way of practicing systematic racial and gender bias among NICUs will still worry medical researchers. You may also be interested in From Prevention to Treatment: Navigating Coronary Artery Disease

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Wimpy white Boy Syndrome