Thermoregulation of an infant is not developed in the same way as that of an adult. Therefore, newborn babies cannot protect themselves from low or high temperatures on their own. Very often, young parents wrap their baby with a warm sheet, but you need to know that overheating is no less dangerous than hypothermia.
Should a newborn baby be wrapped?
As the baby grows and develops inside the womb, he is constantly at a comfortable temperature for himself. But when a child is born, he is forced to adapt to changes in his surrounding temperature, so overheating or hypothermia can occur much faster than in an adult.
Most often, grandmothers are ardent supporters of wrapping babies. They believe that the crumbs are so completely protected. In fact, wrapping can be very dangerous, because as the temperature rises under a warm sheet, the intense heat production exceeds the heat output, and as a result, the baby can become more difficult to breathe.
In addition, excessive sweating of the baby can even contribute to dehydration. In addition, with sweat, the baby's body leaves the mineral salts (potassium, sodium) necessary for its growth and development.
Overheating of the body can also contribute to the appearance of rashes and pustules on the child's skin, and sometimes even an increase in body temperature.
It is important to note that when a young organism overheats, the development of the immune system stops. Therefore, you need to be very careful about wrapping the child, especially in a warm sheet. Instead, it is better to swaddle the baby in a flannel diaper (at an air temperature of 22 degrees), you can put on a thin undershirt on the body. You need to dress the baby a little warmer than yourself, that is, if an adult is wearing one blouse, then the child should wear two.
How can you tell if your baby is overheated?
Determining if a newborn baby is overheated is not difficult. To do this, you need to touch his ears and fingers. If they are hot, damp and red, it means that the baby is too wrapped up. If they are slightly warm and not sweaty, then the baby's body temperature is normal.
In newborns, the metabolism is faster than in adults, so babies are not at all cold, they are even much warmer than their parents. In order to check whether the baby is cold or not, it is enough to touch the baby's neck from the back. If the neck is warm, then the child is not cold either. It should also be noted that if the baby has cold hands, feet, nose, then this is not an indicator that the child is cold. So, if a child was born on time, has a good weight, then it is possible to wrap it up, but it is not always necessary.
