What to do if the baby has a hot head? How dangerous is this condition of the child and is it dangerous at all? This question often haunts young parents, so now we will try to give an exhaustive answer to it. And also find out what are the features of thermoregulation in young children, and how this process differs in children and adults.
How is thermoregulation in newborns?
In both children and adults, the body temperature is regulated by the hypothalamus - a special section located in the diencephalon. But at the same time, the endocrine and nervous system plays an equally important role in this process. So, the thyroid gland, adrenal glands and the pituitary gland directly affect the body's heat production. In general, thermoregulation is a complex of chemical and physical processes that give a person the opportunity, if necessary, to increase or vice versa reduce heat production.
Muscles and digestive organs, in particular, the liver, help keep the body warm. The chemical processes of thermoregulation, which, as studies show, are quite well developed in newborn babies, are more involved in this mechanism. On the contrary, the vascular system, as well as sweating, is responsible for heat transfer. Due to its special physiology and insufficient development of the skin, it is more difficult for children to cool on their own. That is why in infants a hot head without temperature is a normal condition. This, as a rule, is not associated with malfunctions in the body, the cause of this condition is most often a banal overheating.
From the moment of his birth, the child, however, can cope with the challenges that the environment poses to him. In the womb, he was in waters, the temperature of which is close to 38 degrees, therefore, when born, he experiences a shock, because he falls into a place where it is 10-14 degrees colder. Brown adipose tissue helps him cope with such a temperature drop, it begins to form in the fetus at about the 26th week of pregnancy and accumulates in the body until birth. The baby will use it to keep warm for about the first year of his life.
Premature babies do not have as much brown fat as babies born on time, so thermoregulation is much worse for them. The second feature of babies is that they do not contract muscles during heat production. That is, if the child does not tremble in the cold, this does not mean that he is not frozen. To determine this, it is better to feel the child. If the baby has a hot head, it means that he is hot, and cool skin may indicate that he is hypothermic.
When does thermoregulation stabilize in newborns?
The first week of life for a newborn baby is marked by strong fluctuations in body temperature. Immediately after birth, a healthy baby has a fairly high body temperature - 37.7–38.2 degrees. Accordingly, the baby is hot and has a head, and not just a trunk. But already after three hours, the temperature drops, and quite strongly - up to 35.2 degrees, after which it gradually stabilizes and in the first three days of life is kept at 36.2 degrees.
After discharge from the hospital, many mothers notice that the baby has a temperature of 37.2 plus or minus several tenths of a degree, but at the same time he feels good - he eats normally, sleeps, and is not capricious. In the first two months of life, such hyperthermia is considered normal, it is associated with the underdevelopment of the thermoregulation of the child. You need to be wary if, in addition to a fever, other symptoms are observed: the baby has a sweating head, he is restless, goes to the toilet poorly, eats little.
About six months later, the temperature of normal babies begins to normalize, they begin to establish processes of heat production and heat transfer, but they will not end so soon - only after a year, and in premature babies this is delayed for another 2-3 months. Overheating in babies happens at an older age, so they should always be worn “according to the weather”.
Features of the temperature of different parts of the body in children
Also, often mothers notice that the baby has a hot head, while her arms and legs are completely cold. In such cases, the child urgently needs to measure the temperature, and if its increase is recorded, it means that a serious inflammatory process is most likely present in the body. Due to spasm of blood vessels, the body cannot lose heat through the skin of the palms and feet, and accumulates it inside the body, which makes the temperature rise more and more.
This condition is extremely dangerous for babies and requires immediate medical attention. In general, studies by doctors have shown that on the surface of different parts of the child’s body, the temperature is usually different. This is due to the fact that in some places there are more blood vessels. So, in the central part of the body the temperature is higher, and on the periphery - lower. At the same time, the toes are the coldest (in newborns, 31.7 degrees). Feeling the baby, parents can notice that the baby without temperature has a hot head in the temples, and the forehead is cool. This is absolutely normal and is associated with the same unevenness of the vessels covering the skin.
Normal temperature for children up to a year
A slight “warming” of the body in the newborn is quite normal. As we already said, if the temperature of the baby fluctuates between 36.5–37.5 degrees, this is quite natural and permissible. During sleep, the child can get a little hot, so putting him a thermometer awake does not make sense. Such a measurement of body temperature will be uninformative, because it will most likely show hyperthermia, which will pass by itself after about half an hour. Also, the child can become hot if it is not properly dressed, using a large number of clothes or things made of synthetic fabrics. With an increase in temperature, you can try to undress the baby and if the situation stabilizes, then this is not about illness, but about overheating.
Is a hot head in an infant a symptom of a disease or a norm?
By itself, an increase in temperature in the head region does not mean anything. This can become a symptom only along with other characteristic signs of diseases:
- anxiety
- bad sleep;
- poor appetite;
- urinary retention and constipation, or vice versa, diarrhea;
- frequent causeless crying.
These symptoms may indicate an infectious or neurological disorder.
Head sweating in a child
Often, parents are interested in pediatricians, why the baby sweats his head. According to some experts, this is due to a deficiency of vitamin D in the body and rickets, but not all doctors adhere to this point of view. To confirm this diagnosis, you need to consult a neurologist and orthopedist, as well as donate blood for biochemistry.
Another probable cause of head sweating is the underdevelopment of sweat glands, overexcitation, the use of synthetic clothing and downy sleeping accessories, intense sucking (the baby gets tired of this, sucking for the baby is a serious physical exertion).
How to cool a child?
Before you engage in "knocking down" the temperature, you need to find out the reason for its increase. To do this, you need to understand why the baby has a hot head and other parts of the body. If it is a disease, then its treatment is necessary under the supervision of a competent medical officer.
If the fact is that the baby is overheated, everything must be done in order to remove the factors contributing to his hyperthermia. To begin with, the child should be undressed, you can wipe his palms, feet and head with a damp cloth. This will help ensure that the heat goes away faster and the temperature normalizes. It is also very important to maintain a normal microclimate in the room where the newborn is most of the time. Despite the fact that he, being in the womb, is accustomed to heat, after birth he does not need to be raised, like a greenhouse plant in a hot and stuffy room. It is more correct to maintain the temperature at a level of 22-24 degrees and not higher, and air humidity - from 40 to 60%.
Where does the head need to check for a fever in a child?
Many parents, kissing their child's forehead, check if he has a fever. This method of controlling the rise in temperature has indeed been tested by generations. But you need to understand that by touching this part of the head, you can only determine whether the baby has a fever at all, but this method will never give an exact result. In addition, it is important not to “miss” when conducting such a diagnosis and not to kiss the baby on the neck, where, in principle, the skin is much warmer, and it may seem that the baby has a temperature of 37 degrees or even higher.