Newborn Thermoregulation: A Case Study

Care Plan 1: Maintaining Newborn Thermoregulation: When the neonate’s temperature was initially checked by the axillary route it was recorded around 99 F and by the rectal route it was 99.1 F. The neonate’s body felt warm to the touch. After refraining from wrapping the neonate in a blanket, his temperature decreased to 98.8 F. However, 2 ½ hours later, his axillary temperature was checked again and was recorded at 99.4 F. The neonate risks developing hyperthermia.
Intervention 1: Maintaining the surrounding temperature at a comfortable range (Doenges, Moorhouse, & Murr, 2016, p. 868).
• Rationale: This will compensate for the baby’s increased temperature and heat production. This can be achieved through reducing the amount of clothing
Care Plan 2: Risk for Impaired Nutrition: The baby is being bottle fed rather than breastfed.
Intervention 1: Making sure the baby is being fed with formula that contains the correct amount of vitamins and minerals, such as iron-fortified formula (Gavin, 2014).
• Rationale: Since the baby is not being breastfed he risks not getting the right amount of vitamins and minerals that would normally be present in breast milk. He also risks not being able to absorb iron easily or sufficiently. Bottle-feeding the baby with iron-fortified formula enables him to get the right nutrients along with absorbing iron (Gavin, 2014).
• Outcome: The baby will be bottle-fed with iron-fortified formula at the very first feeding and will continue to be fed with this formula on 02/17/17.
Intervention 2: Ensuring the baby is fed within the proper time frame – every 3 to 4 hours (McKinney, James, Murray, Nelson, & Ashwill, 2013, p. 547).
• Rationale: Bottle-fed babies do not need to eat as often as breastfed babies. The baby should typically not be bottle-fed earlier than 3 hours or later than 5 hours as this can lead to underfeeding or overfeeding the baby (Gavin,