Medical experts have compiled a list of seven signs that mothers and healthcare workers can use to identify severe illnesses in newborn infants requiring urgent treatment in a hospital.
“Anyone looking after children, mothers, should know that if children are not feeding well, it is a sign of serious illness, they should take it to care,” said Martin Weber of the World Health Organisation in Jakarta.
“It seems very simple, but these are messages we need to promote more widely. If the baby is not moving spontaneously and only doing so when you touch it, that should alert you that the baby has problems,” Weber told Reuters in a phone interview.
The seven clinical signs are:
- history of difficult feeding
- history of convulsions
- movement only when stimulated
- breathing rate of 60 breaths per minute or more
- severe chest indrawing
- over 37.5 degrees Celsius
- under 35.5 Celsius
SOURCE: CANADA.COM
