Why is the baby freezing? How to determine if your baby is cold on a walk or at home

When a child has a high temperature, every mother understands that he is sick. But what if the child is cold? If the thermometer shows below 36 degrees for a long time, this should also be a cause for concern, since such changes are not always harmless and may indicate a number of disorders and diseases.

Causes of low temperature in a child

If you notice that your child has a cold forehead, analyze his condition a few days before. Most common cause low fever in children is recent infectious disease. Therefore, if the child had a fever the day before, do not worry: low temperature body for several days after a febrile state is a normal reaction of the body.

This phenomenon is especially often observed in children under two years of age, in whom the mechanisms for maintaining temperature are not yet fully formed. But if infant a cold forehead and perspiration is observed, and at the same time he did not suffer any illnesses in the previous days, this may be a sign of incipient rickets. The development of this condition is also indicated by increased sweating of the child’s hands and feet and cold extremities. In this case, you need to consult a doctor, but you should not be afraid of this condition, since severe forms of rickets in children are extremely rare these days. To eliminate the disorder, the doctor prescribes preventative doses of vitamin D.

Low temperature in a child can also be caused by medicines. It is especially often caused by an overdose of vasoconstrictors - drops or sprays for the common cold. In this case, it is necessary to immediately stop the medications and carefully monitor the child’s condition. If additional symptoms appear (restlessness, lethargy, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite), you should seek medical help.

Sometimes, in the absence of a general decrease in body temperature, parents notice that the child has cold extremities. For children infancy This is a normal phenomenon due to the characteristics of heat transfer. But cold hands in an older child may indicate the development of certain diseases.

If a child has cold hands and feet, this may be a sign of autonomic disorders, which most often begin to appear at the age of 5–7 years. In addition, this symptom may indicate the presence of neurological disorders that affect the parts of the brain responsible for blood circulation. In some cases, cold feet in a child, as well as increased sweating, may be caused by the development of diabetes mellitus and disorders of the thyroid gland.

What should parents do if their child is cold?

If you find that your child's body temperature is low, help him warm up. Make sure your baby's clothes and bed are warm and dry, and provide him with plenty of warm drinks. If your child has cold feet, you can apply a warm heating pad to them.

Monitor your child's temperature carefully. As the baby warms up, she will return to normal. If shortly before this the child was treated with antipyretic or vasoconstrictor drugs, then in the absence of any other alarming signs it is enough to provide him with comfort and warmth. After some time, the temperature returns to normal on its own.

When a child has a low body temperature for a long time or occurs frequently without any apparent reason, it is necessary to be examined by a doctor. Remember: a low temperature can indicate the development of a variety of pathologies and diseases, and the sooner its cause is found, the lower the risk of serious problems with the child’s health.

When I became a mother, in addition to my double happiness (yes, yes, I have twins), I received a wagon and three carts of advice from those who were at least a second more experienced than me. Everyone around taught how to properly feed, swaddle, apply cream and, of course (OF COURSE!) get the babies ready to go outside.

Aunt Vika argued that a child should have at least 3 layers of clothing, Uncle Dima assured that sending a baby outside without a scarf is almost the same as sending him to the barricades, and my mother (whose adequacy I never doubted) In general, she suggested not to take children outside for the next few months - they will be safer.

But I (a risk-taking mother) nevertheless decided that a growing body needs walks from early childhood and every day, and then the question arose before me: what exactly is the point of taking my sons on their first and all subsequent walks? Spring is dangerous with warm sun, but sharp wind and high humidity. Winter is frosty. Autumn - rains and dampness. And in the summer there is either a breeze or heat...

What every mother is afraid of

Every mother is afraid... that her child will freeze.

This is some kind of global fear. I remember in the summer I took the boys out for a walk in T-shirts, so even the janitor asked me: won’t they freeze? Although it was, for a minute, plus 25 outside and absolute calm (!).

My neighbor, with enormous (at 6 years old) maternal experience, assured me that her children regularly froze, no matter what she wrapped them in. At first I thought that children were like that, but the problem turned out to be their mother.

I'll explain now. According to doctors' statistics, approximately 93 percent of children (this data is provided by WHO) are cold due to improperly selected clothing. Moreover, the season does not matter.

In summer, autumn, winter and spring, they try to wrap up babies so that the child looks more like a cabbage than a person who has gone for a walk.

Irina Savelyeva, pediatrician “When you start talking to young mothers who brought their children to the appointment with a runny nose and cough, you are amazed. Almost everyone tries to dress their baby in 4-5 layers! It is not surprising that a child catches a cold - he overheats, sweats, sweat saturates his clothes and it “cools down” - the body cools down and freezes.”

Wrap up or unwrap

Many pediatricians advise dressing your child for a walk in approximately the same way as yourself, but with one BUT... the child moves much more actively on the street than you do - and this means that you need to choose clothes taking into account this child’s activity.

The rule, the thicker and more massive the winter (and demi-season) overalls or jacket, no longer works.

Modern insulation materials, from the same KERRY, LASSIE, JONATHAN, HUPPA, GUSTI and other manufacturers, are so thin that the finished product is less than a centimeter thick! Can you imagine how easy and comfortable it is for a child to wear such clothes?!

At the same time, the thermal insulation has become higher than that of fillers of previous years. Plus protection from wind and moisture - well, it’s beautiful, isn’t it?!

Arina, mother of two-year-old Sasha

“This is the third winter we will be wearing KERRY overalls - even in cold weather I only wear a fleece overall under it, and my child does not freeze or sweat, which is very important. He is comfortable, and this makes me very happy as a mother.”

Marina, mother of eight-year-old Egor

“For the first three years, my child wore overalls with heavy sheepskin - and, by the way, he was sick regularly. Every walk leaves you with a terrible runny nose. And I was still surprised why he was always freezing with me. Then my friend explained that by wrapping me up, I was only harming the child.”

Be a smart mom

Irina Savelyeva, pediatrician “If a child constantly sweats and gets cold, his body stops performing its functions normally. This threatens problems in the future, including disruption of the heat exchange process. Of course, it’s better not to allow something like this to happen.”

Do everything to ensure that the child does not sweat, and therefore does not freeze outside. Dress according to the weather, choose modern overalls, jackets and sets - but even here, it is very important to follow some principles.

Principles of multi-layering. The next article will be about them.

May your walks always be a joy! And my assistants and I will help you choose the perfect set for your baby!

Dress your baby according to the weather and he won't freeze. But it's not that simple. It’s warm and sunny outside, the child is freezing, his teeth are missing. Let's figure out why a child is cold.

If the baby is completely healthy and dressed for the weather, he rarely gets cold. Children are like little birds whose heart beats quickly and therefore the blood circulates quickly; it does not have time to cool down in the fingers, toes and on the face. If the baby does not lie in the stroller, but moves, then you should take care of the temperature “in the opposite direction,” the child may overheat.

Most often, the baby needs to be checked for a hot forehead, a damp back and the bridge of the nose, covered with beads of sweat. At the same time, your fingers may be cold because you do not notice when he holds them in his mouth, and when they are wet, they quickly cool down. Physics...

Why is the child freezing? Most likely, this is a reason to see a doctor. Chilliness. That's what it's called. In Rus', a newborn until one month of age was steamed every day in a Russian bathhouse. I myself enjoyed washing my three children, my granddaughter and all the babies of my mothers and steaming in the bathhouse. And then, as usual, once a week. They knew one hospital - a maternity hospital. I’m sure there’s only one reason – the broom in the bathhouse.

Hardening in the first month of life is extremely important. The circulatory system gets used to the temperature difference when every day a person warms up in a humid environment similar in temperature to the mother’s womb. You should see the delight and pleasure of the baby being taken out of the bathhouse. I call these babies “shanezhka”. A hot and relaxed body, a smiling face! What could be better? Neither the tummy nor the nose were sick!

I understand that now not everyone has the opportunity to make such a contribution to the health of their offspring, but believe me, it is worth it. Finding a bathhouse for a baby is much cheaper than spending the rest of your life treating damage to autonomic nerve fibers. Especially if he is not full-term or not completely healthy. The fact that my children were not sick and were never in the hospital is not a fantasy. My youngest child is already 23, and my eldest will be 30 soon. Write - I will answer with great joy!

In babies under three months old, cold fingers can be normal if the autonomic system is still immature. A child cannot freeze at this age if he was born on time, in an apartment with room temperature 20 -23 degrees, you can't freeze.

If at a late age your child is cold, do not be lazy to give him a massage and bathe him every evening. If there is no diagnosis of anemia, then these actions will help to stimulate the baby’s small blood vessels. Nowadays, children with this disease are extremely rare in civilized countries. The lack of iron can be eliminated quite quickly, not even by medication, but by changing the mother’s diet. By supplementing food with foods rich in iron, the baby can get all the vitamins and microelements through breast milk.

The most important condition for the development of a healthy baby is tactile contact. Don’t believe that you will teach your newborn to hold hands and then he will give you a hard time. Well, it’s not a good idea to accustom him to his feet! The opportunity to hold your child in your arms will pass very quickly, but then the older child may not want to hug you. After all, you didn’t teach him this wonderful feeling of warmth and love for a loved one.

May there always be a feeling of universal love, understanding and warmth in your home. Then the help of doctors may not be needed.

The functioning of the systems of newborn children is not yet stable: the intestines are just beginning to be populated by microflora, the eyes are learning to see, and the ears are learning to hear. The thermoregulation of infants is also not established; accustomed to being in a warm womb, the baby’s body will not soon adapt to new conditions.

The thermoregulation system allows us to maintain a constant body temperature at different conditions due to certain mechanisms.

If the environment is cool, active breakdown of fats and carbohydrates begins, generating energy that is used for heating. When this mechanism is not enough to maintain the desired body temperature, the muscles become involved, and due to their trembling, the person becomes warmer.

If you are hot, the body directs blood closer to the skin to cool down. Thus, the vessels at the surface of the body dilate, and excess heat is transferred to the environment. If these measures are not enough, the sweat glands begin to act, and wet skin cools faster.

In newborn children, such a system has not yet been adjusted, so the baby can quickly become hypothermic and overheated, depending on the air temperature and the amount of clothing worn on it.

Heat is generated from reserves of brown fat accumulated by the body over the last third prenatal period. Using this energy source, the baby can slightly maintain his body temperature. Newborns do not yet have a trembling mechanism, so the child will instinctively warm up through active movement of the limbs.

Sweating in newborn babies does not yet function properly, so children overheat quite easily in hot weather.

A child may sweat when he is incorrectly dressed, but in this case, evaporation does not occur in infants, since the moisture remains under the clothes, and therefore the body does not cool down.

In the adult body, blood vessels take an active part in the process of thermoregulation. If a person is hot, they expand, blood rushes to the surface of the skin and excess heat goes out. In the cold, on the contrary, the vessels narrow, preventing blood from flowing to the periphery and preventing the body from cooling. In newborn babies, the subcutaneous layer of fat is still too thin and it is not able to retain heat inside the body, even if the blood vessels narrow.

Newborn care

Hypothermia is very harmful for newborn babies. If the baby freezes, the protection of the mucous membranes of the nose and mouth will decrease, and the microbes present in the intestines and lungs will awaken. A decrease in body temperature by 2.5 degrees will certainly lead to serious metabolic disorders that can cause the death of the baby.

When overheated they also decrease protective functions the body of a newborn, and heat rashes, allergies and dermatitis appear on his skin. It is noted that due to the lack tactile sensations Children who are constantly bundled up experience developmental delays.

You must control whether the baby is comfortable in the clothes that you put on him by touching his neck or nose. If they are cool, then the newborn is freezing; if they are hot or damp, the baby should be undressed, wiped dry and dressed in something lighter.

To monitor whether your baby is overheating, you should constantly check him with a thermometer. The temperature of newborn children can sometimes reach 37.5 degrees, and these are quite normal numbers. After an episode of crying, the thermometer scale may rise to alarming levels, but after 5-10 minutes the temperature usually returns to normal.

How can you tell if your baby is freezing?

• the baby turns pale;
• the nasolabial triangle turns blue;
• the newborn is worried or, conversely, slightly inhibited.

To quickly warm up your baby, hold him close to you, creating skin-to-skin contact - the living warmth of your body will best warm a frozen baby whose thermoregulation is not yet perfect.

How can you tell if your baby is overheating?

Typically, the condition of overheating can be determined by measuring the newborn's temperature. If the baby did not cry, but it sharply increased to 38-39 degrees, while the baby’s neck is hot and wet, and he is dressed in warm clothes, immediately undress the baby.

The overheating condition is also characterized by redness skin child, apathy and refusal to eat. If you do not notice in time that the baby is hot, his brain may trigger a defensive reaction - the baby will fall asleep, and his sleep will be quite long.

If you notice signs of overheating, immediately undress your child and give him something to drink. breast milk, mixture or water. After sweating, your baby has lost a lot of moisture, and to avoid dehydration, you need to give him plenty of fluids. If the baby's temperature does not drop after half an hour, call a doctor.

Training the thermoregulation system

Over time, thermoregulation will return to normal, and the baby will cope with overheating and hypothermia using the mechanisms of his own body. In the meantime, you will have to carefully monitor whether your newborn is comfortable and change him if he is not.

In order for the thermoregulation system to work as quickly as possible, you need to help your baby adapt to temperature changes environment.

• At home, you don’t have to put a cap, mittens and socks on your newborn, so his body will breathe;
• carefully select and monitor whether the baby is hot or freezing;
• choose hats that suit the weather so that the baby’s head does not sweat - its overheating will negatively affect the functioning of the nervous system and the development of the baby;
• do not forget about the benefits of hardening, if the temperature in the room is comfortable - undress the child and let him lie naked for a while;
• walks should be arranged in any weather, at least for a short time, so the baby’s body will quickly adapt to temperature changes;
• the temperature in the room where the newborn sleeps and eats should be about 25 degrees in the first month of his life, gradually it should drop and by six months it should be about 20 degrees;
• the temperature of the bathing water should be identical to the body temperature of a newborn baby; as he grows up, the water will become cooler;
• dress your baby at home as you dress yourself - if you go home with short sleeve, do not wrap the baby in warm clothes;
• When walking in the warm season, fold the stroller canopy so that the air inside does not stagnate and overheat.

It would seem that the problem can be solved simply: dress your baby according to the weather - and everything will be fine. But it happens that a child’s clothes are chosen correctly, and it’s not cold outside - but he still shivers. What's the matter?

Mothers of such babies are often concerned that even with mittens and socks, their children’s hands and feet are completely icy. Moreover, some children freeze even indoors kindergarten, where, as a rule, the optimal temperature for the body is maintained. Many functions in our body and issues of body temperature in particular are in charge of the vegetative or, as
they say it's autonomous nervous system. At first, when the child is just born, it (as well as other body systems) is immature and can malfunction - and then the baby will experience inadequate reactions to changes in external temperature. For example, cold extremities - even if he is warmly dressed. In fact, up to three months, this condition can be considered the norm: during this time, the autonomic system, as a rule, is finally formed, and everything begins to function as usual. If general chilliness and constant freezing of the extremities remain in the child at a later age, this is already a reason to get checked by a specialist. The first person who should listen to your complaints is the district pediatrician. And he will refer you to other doctors.

Depending on the underlying causes of this problem, the “chilly” history may have several scenarios associated with endocrine and vascular disorders (chilliness is not the only deviation from the norm). But another option is also possible: when a child’s hands and feet are constantly freezing, but in all other respects he feels quite normal - active and cheerful, eats and sleeps well, develops quickly, nothing bothers him. In this case, cold extremities with normal skin color can be considered as a protective reaction of the body (often a similar picture is observed in children from northern regions with a cold climate) or simply as a feature of this particular organism. It is important to understand that this symptom in itself, against the background of general health, does not mean anything - and therefore is not a reason to drag the child to the doctors.

Rescue of freezing people

The cause of chilliness can be very simple: increased stress, overwork or lack of sleep. First of all, you should establish a child’s routine: sleep with a normal duration (8-9 hours) in a well-ventilated bedroom, on a semi-rigid orthopedic mattress, alternating activity and rest, walking outside for at least 2-3 hours a day. Pay attention to hardening procedures and physical education: swimming, skiing, skating, cycling, table tennis, non-competitive outdoor games. It is also of great importance healthy eating with a predominance of products containing potassium, magnesium and polyunsaturated fatty acids (buckwheat, barley and oatmeal, beans, peas, apricots, rose hips, dried apricots, raisins, carrots, eggplants, onions, lettuce, parsley, nuts, citrus fruits, as well as vegetable oil - sunflower, corn or
olive).

Emergency assistance

You can try to warm your freezing hands and feet with the most in different ways. If passive warming with warm clothes doesn’t help, you can stretch and rub your cold limbs or even just breathe on them. They also help physical exercise: for example, “mill” - rotation with outstretched arms from the shoulders, first forward, then back. Some “frosted people” save themselves by periodically exposing their hands to hot water. You can also harden your baby with contrasting hand baths. Pour water into two basins, one cold and the other moderately hot.

Place your baby's hands in different baths one at a time, counting to ten each time. Clenching and unclenching your fists is an effective method, but uninteresting. You can roll special stone balls in your palm, which are sold in oriental souvenir shops. For locally freezing teenagers, we can recommend a device such as an expander: it will speed up the blood and pump up your arms.

When to worry

If a child is lethargic and passive (often accompanied by obesity and stunted growth), is always cold, the skin on his hands and feet is constantly cold and dry, and if he regularly suffers from constipation, then most likely the pediatrician will refer him to an endocrinologist to exclude decreased thyroid function (hypothyroidism). These children most often require hormone replacement therapy. If a child has a pronounced choleric temperament - active and mobile, emotional, even slightly neurotic in nature - and at the same time he has constantly cold (in appearance as if marble) limbs, then this most likely indicates vegetative-vascular disorders (Raynaud's syndrome) - you need to contact your pediatrician. Cold extremities can be a manifestation of other diseases.

For example, this happens with iron deficiency anemia (anemia). The leading symptom of this disease is usually the baby's pallor. During puberty
During maturation, chilliness can be caused by endocrine (hormonal) changes in the body: in addition to freezing extremities, the child experiences heart pain, blood pressure disorders, increased fatigue and irritability. Chilliness can manifest itself at one of the stages of damage to autonomic nerve fibers - polyneuritis. One of the signs that a child has this particular disease may also be pain in the arms. The reason for cooling hands and feet can be complex. Let's say a teenager has dystonia, which happens quite often. And due to the fact that the skeletal system grows faster than muscles, nerves and blood vessels, the child’s posture may be impaired - the child begins to stoop. Before you know it, scoliosis of the upper spine has developed. And if there is a displacement of the vertebrae, then the nerves connected to the hands may be pinched. As a result, they become colder.

Marina Voronezhskaya

Maybe he has a fever?

As you know, a person feels cold even if his body temperature is higher than the ambient temperature. As a rule, this happens rarely - during an acute attack of the disease or as a result of intoxication. However, there are diseases in which a slightly elevated (so-called low-grade) temperature lasts for weeks or months. A variety of diseases can give such a picture: chronic tonsillitis, pyelonephritis, etc. And in this case, the body will also feel constant cold. Such ailments that cause low-grade fever include, among others, neuro-circulatory (vegetative-vascular) dystonia, which can cause a violation of thermoregulation.