Why does a newborn baby's nose become cold in the maternity hospital or at home?

Causes of a cold nose in a person

What does a person's cold nose mean?
The symptom of a cold nose in a person has many causes. Some of them should be alarming, while others do not require further diagnosis and treatment. In order to choose tactics for further action, it is necessary to establish the cause of this phenomenon. Why does a person have a cold nose?

A cold nose due to freezing is the most common cause of this symptom. This reaction is natural. Reduced blood flow causes the skin to become more sensitive to low temperatures.

In this case, the symptoms of a cold nose are often combined with rhinorrhea (nasal mucus). After returning to an environment with room temperature, the nose becomes warm again. This phenomenon is functional and does not require diagnosis or treatment.

A cold nose is common in people whose sympathetic nervous system tone predominates over the parasympathetic nervous system.

Hypertonicity of the sympathetic nervous system is a very common cause of a cold nose. This type of person is characterized by a cold nose and extremities in most cases. This feature does not bring much discomfort and is not accompanied by changes in general hemodynamics.

A newborn baby has an umbilical hernia

A bulge may indicate that the baby is developing a hernia. It becomes especially noticeable during crying. This phenomenon cannot be called only a cosmetic defect, since sometimes it causes serious problems and entails complications.

Umbilical hernia: normal or disease

Dr. Komarovsky advises mothers not to be upset if the pediatrician diagnoses a hernia in their child. In most cases, by the age of 3, the pathology will resolve itself.

The problem is related to the size of the umbilical ring. Sometimes it is sufficient for the intestinal omentum to protrude outward from the peritoneum. As a result, a hernial sac is formed, which is easily set back.

Umbilical hernia

At rest, a hernia rarely attracts attention. But as soon as the baby starts crying, starts coughing or pushes hard, the tubercle tenses up and changes color

Note! If the protrusion does not cause problems for the baby, it can be considered a small temporary defect. An umbilical hernia turns into a pathology when it acquires a significant size

In this case, not only the oil seal, but also other parts of the internals may fall into the bag. This is already a reason for surgery

An umbilical hernia turns into a pathology when it acquires significant dimensions. In this case, not only the oil seal, but also other parts of the internals may fall into the bag. This is already a reason for surgical intervention.

Causes and dangers of umbilical hernia

The main factor why a newborn has a hernia is an enlarged umbilical ring. Here you can add the lack of fiber and muscles in the navel area. The defect is also caused by abnormal structural features, negative effects that arose during intrauterine development, and genetic predisposition.

Important! If a hernia is causing concern, it is best to have it repaired. Sometimes such defects lead to intestinal obstruction, sepsis of internal organs, tissue necrosis

When to see a doctor urgently

An umbilical hernia does not require special treatment. Sometimes situations arise that require immediate specialist intervention:

• touching the navel causes pain in the child;
• the protrusion turns red or bluish;
• There is swelling in the navel area.

These signs indicate pinching, which is rare in infants, but is life-threatening.

The umbilical cord of a newborn is the thread that connects the child with his mother for life (regardless of physical cutting). A reminder of this is the knot remaining on the tummy. If you don't take care of him, the baby will have serious health problems.

Therefore, in the first weeks after childbirth, the mother pays special attention to the hygiene of the umbilical cord wound, following the recommendations of specialists

What to do if your baby has chills?

What to do if your child is shivering? This question worries all parents. Below is a list of basic guidelines to follow if your child has feverish chills3.

1. Provide bed rest

Often a child's chills and fever are accompanied by weakness. The little patient in this situation needs rest. Put the child to bed and eliminate intellectual and physical stress.

1. Give warm drinks

A warm, non-scalding drink will help the child replenish the body’s increased need for fluid in this state, as well as keep warm. You can make lingonberry juice, tea with lemon or any berry compote. It is advisable to offer the drink in small portions as often as possible (every 10 minutes, a few tablespoons). Read more in the material “What to drink when you have a cold?”

1. Call a doctor

If a child suffers from chills, but there are no signs of a cold, then this may indicate overwork, nervous strain, and even a malfunction of the thyroid gland. In these cases, it is recommended to consult a specialist.

Be sure to call a pediatrician for the following conditions:

• high temperature (38.5–39 °C);
• fever accompanied by chattering teeth;
• sudden and severe deterioration in health;
• lethargy;
• child's capriciousness 3.

Up to contents

How to correctly determine whether a child is cold or not?

Other parts of the body will help you accurately and correctly understand whether a newborn is cold or hot:

• back;
• bends of arms and legs.

These are the ones that should be checked first. They should not feel wet or damp to the touch.

If, after returning from a walk and undressing your child, you find a wet back or feel moisture in the folds of your arms and legs, then you have clearly overdone your clothes.

If these parts of the body are warm and not wet, you have definitely guessed how to dress your baby. But if, on the contrary, they are cold, it means that your newborn was cold and next time you should add another layer of clothing.

Of course, immediately for your first walk, after leaving the maternity hospital, you most likely will not be able to choose the right clothes. And be sure to fully insulate your baby, taking into account the time of year.

But you are not the first and you are not the last. Everything requires experience. Therefore, this definitely should not become a reason for you to be upset. Gradually you will learn to dress your child according to the weather. Read about how to dress a newborn for a walk in winter>>>

In the meantime, start by keeping your first walks with your baby short. For example, 15–20 minutes is enough.

After you come home with your baby, be sure to touch the newborn’s back, the folds of his arms and legs. Knowing what they should be, you can draw the right conclusions for yourself - add or reduce a layer of clothing.

For more information about caring for a newborn: how to bathe, swaddle or not, hold in your arms or put away from you, see the online course Happy Motherhood: Methods of Gentle Baby Care>>>

On a walk

Most of all, mothers are worried about a baby’s cold nose when walking in winter. There are recommendations from pediatricians in this regard.

Walking in winter for children up to three months is allowed only at temperatures down to -10°C, up to six months you can walk in cold temperatures down to -12°C, after six months you can safely go for a walk down to -15°C. Moreover, it is advisable that the baby spend a maximum of 40 minutes in the cold at one time.

Therefore, you can go for a walk twice for 40 minutes, for example, in the morning and after lunch.

During winter walks, parents closely monitor the baby's condition. Many people think that a frozen nose is the main indicator of a child’s comfort on the street. But in the cold, everyone has cold noses: both mom and dad. And this does not necessarily indicate hypothermia. It's worse when the nose becomes red and the cheeks turn pale

If you are focusing on the baby's nose, then pay attention: the tip of the nose may be cold; the bridge of the nose may be an indicator of freezing. It should be warm. And if your baby sparkles with rosy cheeks in the cold, this is a sign of a healthy and strong body

And if your baby sparkles with rosy cheeks in the cold, this is a sign of a healthy and strong body.

A cold nose in most cases is not an indication that the baby is cold. This, on the contrary, indicates that his body’s thermoregulation is working correctly.

If you see a reddened nose and pale cheeks on your baby, hurry to a warm place to warm the baby. You can go, for example, to a store to do some shopping. When you realize that your baby is freezing, go indoors to warm up!

But while in a warm place, try not to overheat the child. Once indoors, immediately undress your baby slightly. Unbutton your overalls or throw back the blanket, take off your hat and mittens. Make sure your baby doesn't sweat while indoors. Otherwise, when he goes out into the cold, he will immediately catch a cold. Pediatricians believe that overheating is much more dangerous than hypothermia.

By the way, drinking can be an indicator of the child’s condition. If a baby drinks water greedily, it means he is hot. Attentive parents try not to lead to either overheating or hypothermia.

Why does a newborn have a cold nose?

A cool nose on a baby should cause concern for the parent. Most often, this sign appears due to the cold temperature in the room or cool weather. If the degree fluctuations do not cross acceptable boundaries, there is no need to be alarmed.

At the same time, you should not warm your child or put on another pair of socks.

It is important to let the child adapt to new conditions and teach the baby to adapt to temperature

If a child has a constantly cold nose, you should pay attention to the anatomical features of the structure of the respiratory organ. It is known that the vascular system of an infant is very different from that of an adult.

The vessels have thinner walls and a loose structure, which causes them to narrow during prolonged exposure to the cold.

It is known that the vascular system of an infant is very different from that of an adult. The vessels have thinner walls and a loose structure, which causes them to narrow during prolonged exposure to the cold.

This symptom should please parents, since a cold nose in a baby indicates good thermoregulation.

With the natural adaptation of the baby's body, the thermoregulatory system causes vasoconstriction in the cool season, which becomes the cause of a cold nose. With this process, drug treatment is not required.

A cold nose in a baby may indicate poor circulation in the nasal cavity.

In such a situation, it is important not to confuse natural thermoregulation when walking in case of bad weather or in the cold season with a violation of the functions of the circulatory system

If during a walk the child’s skin changes to a blue or red tint, it is necessary to immediately go home.

If the nose becomes cold while at home, parents should pay special attention to this factor. This symptom may indicate a cold infection.

At the same time, the baby may often touch his nose, refuse to eat, sleep poorly, and be capricious.

Other symptoms include:

• increased body temperature;
• headache;
• feeling of pressure in the nasal cavity;
• formation of mucous secretions;
• sleep on one side only;
• screaming and crying for no reason;
• Bad mood;
• refusal to play;
• fear of light;
• lethargy and fatigue;
• drowsiness;
• lacrimation.

With this process, it is important to try to cure the disease as quickly as possible. Otherwise, there is a risk of sinusitis, acute otitis, ethmoiditis, frontal sinusitis and other equally dangerous ailments.

A constantly cold nose can act as a symptom of heart failure. There are several forms of hemodynamic insufficiency. In each case, the patient has a cold nose and cheeks, shortness of breath, and an increase in the volume of residual blood in the ventricles of the heart.

Other symptoms include:

• insufficiency of residual blood;
• swelling of the face;
• dilated veins;
• hemodynamic disturbance;
• poor health when playing sports;
• cyanosis;
• shortness of breath even at rest

Hemodynamic failure can be congenital or acquired. In each case, the disease requires urgent treatment.

If a baby is born prematurely, he or she has a weak immune system. Therefore, in this case, a cold nose even at home can symbolize the immaturity of adaptive capabilities.

If your child does not have a strong immune system, try to avoid long walks in the cold.

The reason for a cold nose in a baby may lie in insufficiently fast blood circulation. In this case, in addition to a cold nose, the child constantly has cold fingers and nose. This occurs due to a lack of supply to the capillaries in the extremities.

Treatment of insufficiently good blood circulation requires the help of a neonatologist.

Do not try to cure this form of the disease on your own. You should not dress your child in excessively warm clothes during the warm season, and also do not constantly warm the baby’s feet in baths.

Symptoms and causes of chills in a child

Doctors call chills a condition that occurs as a result of a sharp spasm of the peripheral blood vessels of the skin without an increase in blood pressure. In this case, the baby may complain of several unpleasant symptoms. Let us highlight the main signs of chills in children:

• trembling throughout the body - this is due to frequent reflex muscle contractions;
• feeling of cold - the child is freezing, even if the air temperature is above 20°C and the baby is warmly dressed;
• the appearance of “goose bumps” - small pimples are formed on the skin due to the contraction of smooth muscles around the hair follicles1.

If a child has severe chills and at the same time a nagging headache, fever, “aches” throughout the body, then this may be a sign of intoxication due to a cold, ARVI or other disease1.

Up to contents

How to ensure normal temperature for a newborn

Almost all books and textbooks on child care draw attention to the obvious fact that the baby's body temperature regulation mechanisms are imperfect, and therefore there is a high risk of hypothermia. From this, in general, absolutely correct position, absolutely wrong conclusions are often drawn1

Protecting your baby from hypothermia is given top priority, to the point that purchasing an electric heater is one of the most mandatory steps when preparing to welcome a newborn. If the air temperature in the newborn ward of the maternity hospital should, in accordance with the instructions, be no lower than 22°C (as a rule, it is higher), then parents who are afraid of everything will strive at all costs to ensure that it (the temperature) does not drop below this figure.

The author visited hundreds of newborns in the first days after their discharge from the hospital, and the feeling of shortness of breath was the most constant and most typical of all the feelings he experienced after a short stay in the nursery.

Panicically afraid of the cold, parents often don’t even think about the fact that the imperfection of thermoregulation mechanisms we mentioned is fraught not only with hypothermia, but also with overheating.

Metabolism in a newborn is very intense and is accompanied by the production of a significant amount of heat. The child’s body needs to get rid of this heat. This can be done in two ways - through the lungs and through the skin (direct heat transfer upon contact of two environments with different temperatures plus evaporation of sweat).

The air inhaled by a person (a newborn is no exception), reaching the lungs, heats up to body temperature. That is, the child inhales air with a temperature of 18°C, and exhales, respectively, 36.6°C. In this case, of course, a certain amount of heat is lost. If the temperature of the inhaled air is 23°C, then it is obvious that heat loss is noticeably reduced. But you have to lose heat! And the child activates the second way of loss - through the skin. It is necessary to form sweat2, which is not only wet, but also salty - this means that water and salts are lost, and the newborn’s reserves of both are very small.

Even with a slight lack of fluid, the functioning of all systems and organs is significantly disrupted. And you will definitely discover the consequences of these violations when you turn the child around. Overheating organized in the maternity hospital (as long as you don’t say that you have a cold) is first of all visible on the skin of a newborn - it is bright red; in places where sweat accumulates, in the groin, for example, diaper rash3. His tummy is swollen and painful (thick intestinal juices due to lack of fluid are difficult to digest food), there are white spots in his mouth - newborn thrush 4 (thick saliva due to lack of fluid does not perform its functions), dry crusts in the nose, making it difficult breathing (sometimes he can’t even suck), etc.

Regulating the temperature of a newborn can be accomplished by solving two problems:

1. Air temperature in the children's room.
2. Child's clothes.

Both of these problems must be solved immediately, on the very first day after returning from the hospital. The longer you take to get together and decide, the worse it will be for you and your baby, the greater the efforts you will subsequently need to catch up.

It is extremely important (!!!) not to confuse or confuse such concepts as “the child is cold” and “the temperature of the air that the child breathes.” The optimal temperature for a child's room is 18-19°C

The optimal temperature in a child's room is 18-19°C.

The higher, the worse. But for the rest of your life – both yours and your child’s – you need to remember the most important rule that allows you to make the right decision when in doubt5.

What should you not do if your child has chills?

Carry out warming procedures

If a child with a fever has chills, inhalations and hot compresses should not be used. Warming procedures can lead to a sharp increase in body temperature and, as a result, heat stroke.

Trying to bring down the temperature using physical methods3

If you have a chill, do not use water, alcohol or vinegar wipes. A cool bath or enema with cold water to reduce fever is also contraindicated: they can only aggravate the patient's condition. In this case, the spasm of peripheral vessels will intensify, and the temperature of the internal organs, on the contrary, may increase. For fever and chills, your child can be given an antipyretic drug recommended by the doctor3.

Up to contents