Dehydration fever in the neonate--a common phenomenon

Exclusive breast feeding and dehydration fever in newborns during the first days of life

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of dehydration fever in infants admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) from the well newborn nursery with fever in the first days of life.Study design: Retrospective data analysis of term infants admitted to the NICU from the well newborn nursery with fever (n = 75). Infants were divided into two groups based on hydration status using clinical and laboratory signs of dehydration. Clinical and laboratory variables were compared between the two groups.Results: Fifty-three of the 75 infants admitted to the NICU with fever had clinical and laboratory signs of dehydration (71%). Infants with dehydration were more likely to be exclusively breast fed and present with fever at >24 h of age. There were no positive blood or cerebrospinal fluid cultures in infants with dehydration. The incidence of dehydration fever increased after implementation of an "Exclusive Breast Feeding" policy from 1.4/1000 to 3.5/1000 live births (p ≤ .01).Conclusions: Dehydration is associated with fever in exclusively breast fed infants during the first several days of life. There were no cases of serious bacterial or viral infections in the cohort of febrile infants with clinical and laboratory signs of dehydration.

Predictive power of a single body temperature at different cutoff values for neonates in the nursery transferring to special care nursery

The aim of this study was to identify the clinical parameters indicative of serious etiology of neonatal hyperthermia and to determine the appropriate cutoff value of body temperature (BT) for predicting the need to transfer the newborn to the special care (SC) nursery.The nursery records of newborns diagnosed with hyperthermia between 2007 and 2013 were retrospectively reviewed. The clinical characteristics of newborns with hyperthermia remained in the nursery were compared with those transferred to the SC nursery. In addition, the receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to determine the appropriate cutoff BT for predicting further septic workup in the SC nursery.Among the 92 newborns with hyperthermia evaluated, 30 (32.6%) were transferred to the SC nursery and 62 (67.4%) remained in the nursery. Clinical characteristics associated with transfer to the SC nursery included the highest BT, BT at first measurement during hyperthermia, frequency of hyperthermia, duration of hyperthermia, irritable crying, decreased appetite, poor activity, vomiting with abdominal distension, tachypnea, and tachycardia (all P < .05). BT for predicting the need for transferring newborns with hyperthermia to the SC nursery had an area under the curve of 0.976 (P < .001). A BT of 38 °C was determined as the optimal cutoff value for predicting the need to monitoring for suspicious clinical symptoms (sensitivity (Sn), 93%; specificity (Sp), 87%). Furthermore, BT≥38.2 °C (Sn, 70%; Sp 100%) and BT≤37.8 °C (Sn, 100%; Sp, 61%) respectively were determined as the cutoff values for transferring newborns to the SC nursery or allowing them to remain in the regular nursery.Our results suggest a BT of 38 °C represents the optimal cutoff indicating newborns for close monitoring for suspicious clinical presentations including irritable crying, decreased appetite, poor activity, vomiting with abdominal distension, tachypnea, and tachycardia. Newborns with BT < 37.8 °C may remain in the nursery but should be transferred to the SC nursery for septic workup and empiric antibiotics if the BT is above 38.2 °C.

Fever in healthy asymptomatic newborns during the first days of life

OBJECTIVE

To determine the characteristics of febrile full term infants during the first days of life, and to discover the rate of serious bacterial infections among low risk neonates with systemic fever.

DESIGN

A retrospective case-control study of 122 cases and 122 controls in a single institution.

RESULTS

Weight loss, breast feeding, caesarean section delivery, and high birth weight were found to be the most significant predictors of developing fever during the first days of life. Of the 122 patients in the study group, only one had a serious bacterial infection (a positive urine culture for group B streptococcus).

CONCLUSIONS

In low risk full term infants, fever with no other symptoms during the first days of life (but after the first day) is related primarily to dehydration, breast feeding, caesarean section, and high birth weight. Infection is the least common explanation.