Assessment of the Newborn Head-to-Toe Questions and Complete Solutions

Once the parents have had a chance to spend some time with their baby and the nurse has completed a brief assessment it will be time to do a head-to-toe assessment. The parents can be invited to observe the assessment, which provides a good time for the nurse to provide some early teaching about normal newborns. If the infant has any significant difficulty such as respiratory distress or another problem requiring immediate intervention the nurse will NOT proceed with a routine assessment, but rather immediately take steps to address the problem. While the initial assessment can be done in the mother's arms it is often performed with the infant lying a radiant warmer. In most facilities, the radiant warmer has a skin temperature probe which is attached to the infant's abdomen using a special heat reflecting patch. The patch assures that the probe is measuring the skin temperature not the heat flowing down from the warmer. during the assessment and once the infant has been transferred to a bassinet axillary or tympanic temperatures are taken. The infant's temperature should be at least 97 degrees Fahrenheit or 36.1 degree Celsius. If the temperature is less than 97 the infant should remain in the warmer until the temperature has stabilized *to reduce cold stress* Eye Care Eye prophylaxis for the prevention of blindness An important part of the newborn care is eye prophylaxis for the prevention of blindness, which can occur in the neonate if the mother has undiagnosed gonorrhea? Antibacterial ointment is placed in each eye within the first hour to prevent this. This may have already been done in the minutes following delivery, but if not it should be done early in the assessment. An infant who is upset can be soothed with a few drops of sterile glucose water In most states eye prophylaxis is required by law. The ointment may cause some initial swelling of the lids but this will resolve within a few hours