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Having a baby also means that you need to be on the alert all the time for everything that may happen. It is a fragile life, even in the beginning, which needs attention all the time. But even with all this attention, it is inevitable that, like everything in life, some problems will end up occurring, as is the case of hypothermia in a baby.
Hypothermia can cause real despair for uninformed parents, but the good news is that this type of problem can be prevented and resolved if proper care is taken. But for you to better understand how it affects babies and why, it is first necessary to understand what hypothermia is and what its types are.
What is Hypothermia?
Hypothermia is nothing more than the term used when the body temperature of a person is below 35 ° C . This usually occurs when the body loses more heat than it produces internally, causing serious sequelae depending on the level of hypothermia and how long a person stays with that temperature in the body.
Hypothermia can be divided into three stages: the first when a human body is between 1 and 2 degrees Celsius below 35, the second between 2 and 4 and the third below 4 ° C. Each of these phases carries with it different symptoms, the third being the most harmful, and may even cause death to occur.
When we talk about baby hypothermia, we also need to talk about the types of hypothermia that exist and how they can act on someone’s body, so that it is easier to understand the action of this problem specifically on babies.
Types of Hypothermia
We can classify hypothermia into three types to define well the severity and the stage at which the problem presents itself. These are three types:
- Acute hypothermia
- Subacute hypothermia
- Chronic Hypothermia
We will talk a little more deeply about each of these types to better understand how a baby’s hypothermia can happen and what dangers it brings.
Acute hypothermia
It happens when the body loses much more heat than it is capable of generating. It usually happens because of a long period of exposure of the body to the cold, such as exposure to a storm or snow, for example.
Subacute hypothermia
The main characteristic of this type of hypothermia is that the body temperature does not drop suddenly, as with acute hypothermia, but gradually . It happens over a longer period, usually when a person goes for days without warming up, causing the temperature to drop until it reaches a critical level.
Chronic Hypothermia
When we talk about chronic hypothermia, we are talking about a type of hypothermia that is caused by other problems, such as a disease, for example, causing the body temperature to drop naturally as a type of symptom.
Causes of Hypothermia in a Baby
Once we understand that babies’ bodies are much more sensitive than ours, we also understand that their bodies have a much harder time keeping their temperature stabilized when there is some kind of exposure to the cold or even a disease that makes the body more cold.
Because of this, hypothermia in babies is something much more common than in adults, which also occurs in the elderly, precisely because of the fragility of the body. Some of the main causes of hypothermia in babies are:
- Very long baths;
- It takes time to change the baby’s clothes;
- Exposure to cold environments without proper protection;
- Side effect of some type of medication.
How to Prevent Hypothermia in a Baby
While we know that hypothermia in a baby can be a serious problem, we also understand that it is something that can be avoided when we take proper precautions.
The main one is to try as much as possible to avoid cold environments for babies , because, as we mentioned earlier, their bodies have more difficulties in maintaining the temperature.
Of course, it is often impossible to avoid the cold, but it is important to know how to protect the baby, giving priority to the baby’s head, since a good part of the body temperature can be lost by this part of the body, as well as with the feet as well. In addition, it is also important to be attentive to the moment of the baby’s bath, never letting the water become too cold or that he is too exposed without being dry and changed.
When to See a Doctor?
The discussion of when to see a doctor in this type of case depends on many factors. The ideal is to seek help as soon as any changes are noticed, so that a treatment is done as soon as possible.
But it is important not to confuse a small moment of cold with hypothermia and, above all, not to despair when the baby gets a little colder . Often exposure to cold ends up causing the baby’s skin to get colder, but that does not necessarily mean that it is a case of hypothermia.
It is also important to know in advance what is the cause of hypothermia in the baby, whether it may be a side effect of some medication or it happens only by exposing the baby’s body to colder environments, so it is easier for a doctor to solve this problem.
Problems like baby hypothermia can happen to anyone, but you need to understand that there is a way to prevent it from becoming a big problem and there are also ways to treat it and make your baby look good as soon as possible. If a baby has problems like this, it doesn’t mean that the parents are inattentive or sloppy, but it does mean that a problem has occurred and it needs to be solved.
As we said at the beginning of the text, there are several concerns that mothers and fathers have with their babies on a daily basis, it is almost inevitable that something unforeseen will happen. This is part of everyone’s life, not only as an experience, but also as a learning experience.
See also: Child Malnutrition – Causes, Symptoms and Treatment
My name is Dr. Alexis Hart I am 38 years old, I am the mother of 3 beautiful children! Different ages, different phases 16 years, 12 years and 7 years. In love with motherhood since always, I found it difficult to make my dreams come true, and also some more after I was already a mother.
Since I imagined myself as a mother, in my thoughts everything seemed to be much easier and simpler than it really was, I expected to get pregnant as soon as I wished, but it wasn’t that simple. The first pregnancy was smooth, but my daughter’s birth was very troubled. Joana was born in 2002 with a weight of 2930kg and 45cm, from a very peaceful cesarean delivery but she had already been born with congenital pneumonia due to a broken bag not treated with antibiotics even before delivery.
