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Early severe weight loss in newborns after discharge from regular nurseries
Author(s) -
Tjora E,
Karlsen LC,
Moster D,
Markestad T
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2010.01692.x
Subject(s) - medicine , interquartile range , pediatrics , medical record , dehydration , incidence (geometry) , cohort , birth weight , population , retrospective cohort study , weight loss , cohort study , norwegian , surgery , pregnancy , obesity , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , linguistics , environmental health , philosophy , biology , optics , genetics
Aims: To study incidence and risk factors of early neonatal dehydration in a Norwegian population based cohort. Methods: Term neonates admitted to a paediatric department during 2002–2008 with a weight loss ≥ 12% within three weeks of age were identified retrospectively through review of medical records. For each patient a sex‐matched control group of two full‐term infants was selected to assess risk factors for dehydration. Results: A total of 38 of 37 321 infants (1.0‰) were admitted at a median age of 6 (interquartile range 5–12) days, and the admission rate increased during the study period (p for trend = 0.008). Simultaneously, mean nursery stay decreased from 3.5 to 2.7 days (p = 0.022). Mean weight loss was 15.0% of birth weight and 17 of 29 (58.6%) had serum sodium above 145 mmol/L. The only significant difference between patients and controls was that mothers of patients were older (32.3 ± 5.0 vs. 29.4 ± 5.4 years, p = 0.005). Conclusion: Short nursery stay may be a risk factor for dehydration in newborn infants.