The nurse provides care for a term neonate born to a client diagnosed with diabetes mellitus. When conducting the physical examination she manifests for Hypoglycemia in the newborn.
What is Neonatal Hypoglycemia?
As part of the natural physiological shift from intrauterine life to extrauterine life, healthy newborns undergo an expected reduction in blood glucose concentrations right after birth.
The baby's connection to the placenta, which it relied on to provide glucose and other metabolites necessary to sustain its energy needs in gestation, is broken if the umbilical chord is abruptly clamped during birth.
In the first few hours after birth, the infant's blood glucose concentration starts to fall when the placenta's steady supply of exogenous intravenous glucose abruptly stops.
What can causeNeonatal Hypoglycemia?
Due to one or a combination of the following underlying mechanisms, infants are more likely to experience more severe or prolonged hypoglycemia:
Inadequate glucose supply caused by low glycogen or fat stores or inadequate mechanisms of glucose production; or
Increased glucose utilization brought on by excessive insulin production or increased metabolic demand; or malfunctioning counter-regulatory mechanisms.
Learn more about the Hypoglycemia with the help of the given link:
Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) flows through the four ventricles and then flows between the meninges in an area called the subarachnoid space. CSF cushions the brain and spinal cord against forceful blows distributes important substances and carries away waste products.
