A 3 month old infant who is extremely lethargic has had a cough, vomiting, and diarrhea for the past 3 days. Assessment reveals
that he responds to pain, has mottled skin color, and a capillary refill time of 4 seconds. He has a blood pressure of 74/60 mm Hg, a pulse of 190 beats/min., and rapid respirations (60 breaths/min) without increased work of breathing. The tachycardia in this infant is most likely due to:
Hypovolemia is a low level of fluid in the body by decrease in the volume of circulation of blood in the body making it difficult for such individual get nutrients and oxygen to the body causing vital organs to be at risk of harm. This could be as a result of dehydration or blood loss from injury also freom difficulty absorbing fluids etc, This condition is more common in babies and they present symptoms of fever, vomiting, and diarrhea, weakness etc.
The effective treatment here is to replace fluids and control blood loss in case of injury. Replacing fluid can be done with rehydration therapy.
