A blood test provides important information about your baby's health, that you or even your doctor might not otherwise know. With early diagnosis and medical treatment, serious illness can often be prevented. Every state has a newborn screening program. The New York State program began in 1965. It tests for more disorders than most other states.
Some disorders can affect a child very early in life - even within the first few days.
For this reason, prompt testing and diagnosis are important. Although these disorders are rare, they are usually serious. Some may be life threatening. Others may slow down the baby's physical development or cause mental retardation or other problems if undetected and untreated. See the attached list of disorders .