Abstract
It has not been known whether newborn infants can increase their respiratory water and heat loss when exposed to a warm environment in the same way as many animals can. In order to study this, continuous measurements of respiratory water loss (RWL), oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production were made in 10 fullterm infants on their first day after birth. The infants were first studied in incubators with a temperature of 32.5 °C and an ambient humidity of 50 %. After an interval with stable conditions the incubator temperature was raised to 36.5 °C while the water vapour pressure was kept constant. When body temperature had increased to 37.8 °C or when the infant had reacted with sweating the relative humidity in the incubator was increased to 50%. At the start of the measurements mean RWL was 4.7 mg/kg min. As a mean RWL increased to a maximal value of 6.5 mg/kg min in the warm environment. Mean oxygen consumption increased from 5.5 ml/kg min to 5.7 ml/kg min. This means that when nursed in this warm environment the infants were able to increase their respiratory water loss with around 40% without a significant change in oxygen consumption.
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Hammarlund, K., Fliesenfeld, T. & Sedin, G. 69 FULLTERM NEWBORN INFANTS INCREASE THEIR RESPIRATORY WATER LOSS IN A WARM ENVIRONMENT. Pediatr Res 24, 272 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198808000-00095
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198808000-00095