Question

A newborn is placed under a radiant heat warmer, and the nurse evaluates the infant's body temperature every hour. Maintaining the newborn's body temperature is important for preventing:

a. respiratory depression.
b. cold stress.
c. tachycardia.
d. vasoconstriction.

Answer 1

Maintaining a newborn's body temperature is critical to prevent cold stress due to their vulnerability to rapid heat loss and their reliance on brown fat for nonshivering thermogenesis.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question concerns the importance of maintaining a newborn's body temperature. After birth, a newborn is exposed to a cooler external environment compared to the warm amniotic fluid and must regulate their own body temperature. Due to a high surface area to volume ratio, lack of insulating subcutaneous fat, and immature musculature, newborns are at risk of losing heat quickly and therefore becoming cold stressed. Additionally, the breakdown of brown adipose tissue, a primary source of heat generation in newborns, further underscores the importance of thermal regulation. Therefore, one of the primary reasons for maintaining the body temperature of a newborn under a radiant heat warmer is to prevent cold stress.