Pediatric Nursing  Classic signs of shaken baby syndrome are seizures,
Important Points to Remember slow apical pulse difficulty breathing, and retinal hemorrhage.
 A child with HIV-positive blood should receive
inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) rather than oral poliovirus
vaccine (OPV) immunization.
 To achieve postural drainage in an infant, place a pillow
on the nurse’s lap and lay the infant across it.
 A child with cystic fibrosis should eat more calories,
protein, vitamins, and minerals than a child without the
disease.
 Infants subsisting on cow’s milk only don’t receive a
sufficient amount of iron (ferrous sulfate), which will eventually
result in iron deficiency anemia.
 A child with an undiagnosed infection should be placed
in isolation.
 An infant usually triples his birth weight by the end of his
first year.
 Clinical signs of a dehydrated infant include lethargy,
irritability, dry skin decreased tearing, decreased urinary
output, and increased pulse.
 Appropriate care of a child with meningitis includes
frequent assessment of neurologic signs (such as decreasing
levels of consciousness, difficulty to arouse) and measuring
the circumference of the head because subdural effusions
and obstructive hydrocephalus can develop.
 Expected clinical findings in a newborn with cerebral
palsy include reflexive hypertonicity and criss-crossing or
scissoring leg movements.
 Papules, vesicles, and crust are all present at the same
time in the early phase of chickenpox.
 Topical corticosteroids shouldn’t be used on chickenpox
lesions.
 A serving size of a food is usually 1 tablespoon for each
year of age.
 The characteristic of fifth disease (erythema infectiosum)
is erythema on the face, primarily the cheeks, giving a
“slapped face” appearance.
 Adolescents may brave pain, especially in front of peers.
Therefore, offer analgesics if pain is suspected or administer
the medication if the client asks for it.
 Signs that a child with cystic fibrosis is responding to
pancreatic enzymes are the absence of steatorrhea, improved
appetite, and absence of abdominal pain.
 Roseola appears as discrete rose-pink macules that first
appear on the trunk and that fade when pressure is applied.
 A ninety degree-ninety degree traction is used for
fracture of a child’s femur or tibia.
 One sign of developmental dysplasia is limping during
ambulation.
 Circumcision wouldn’t be performed on a male child with
hypospadias because the foreskin may be needed during
surgical reconstruction.
 Neonatal abstinence syndrome is manifested in central
nervous system hyperirritability (for example, hyperactive
Moro reflex) and gastrointestinal symptoms (watery stools).
 An infant born to an HIV-positive mother will usually
receive AZT (zidovudine) for the first 6 weeks of life.
 Infants born to an HIV-positive mother should receive all
immunizations of schedule.
 Blood pressure in the arms and legs is essentially the
same in infants.
 When bottle-feeding a newborn with a cleft palate, hold
the infant’s head in an upright position.
 Because of circulating maternal antibodies that will
decrease the immune response, the measles, mumps, and
rubella (MMR) vaccine shouldn’t be given until the infant has
reached 1 year of age.
 Before feeding an infant any fluid that has been warmed,
test a drop of the liquid on your own skin to prevent burning
the infant.
 A newborn typically wets 6 to 10 diapers per day.
 Although microwaving food and fluids isn’t recommend
for infants, it’s commonplace in the United States. Therefore
the family should be toughs to test the temperature of the food
or fluid against their own skin before allowing it to be
consumed by the infant.
 The most adequate diet for an infant in the first 6 months
of life is breast milk.
 An infant can usually chew food by 7 months, hold
spoon by 9 month, and drink fluid from a cup by 1 year of age.
 Choking from mechanical obstruction is the leading
cause of death (by suffocation) for infants younger than 1 year
of age.
 Failure to thrive is a term used to describe an infant who
falls below the fifth percentile for weight and height on a
standard measurement chart.
 Developmental theories include Havighurst’s age
periods and developmental tasks; Freud’s five stages of
development; Kohlberg’s stages of moral development;
Erikson’s eight stages of development; and Piaget’s phases of
cognitive development.
 The primary concern with infusing large volumes of fluid
is circulatory overload. This is especially true in children and
infants, and in clients with renal disease.
 Certain hazards present increased risk of harm to
children and occur more often at different ages. For infants,
more falls, burns, and suffocation occur; for toddlers, there
are more burns, poisoning, and drowning for preschoolers,
more playground equipment accidents, choking, poisoning,
and drowning; and for adolescents, more automobile
accidents, drowning, fires, and firearm accidents.
 A child in Bryant’s traction who’s younger than age 3 or
weighs less than 30 lb (13.6 kg) should have the buttocks
slightly elevated and clear or the bed. The knees should be
slightly flexed, and the legs should be extended at a right
angle to the body. The body provides the traction mechanism.
 In an infant, a bulging fontanel is the most significant
sign of increasing intracranial pressure.