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Baby, It's Hot Outside!
The Effects of Summer Heat on Infants
By Teri Brown
Dr. Charles Shubin, medical director of the Mercy Family Care Children's Health Center in Baltimore, Md., believes babies and very young children can be more sensitive to heat than adults. "Heat is lost [or gained] mostly through the skin in humans, so the more skin for your weight you have, the more sensitive to temperature changes you are," says Dr. Shubin.
Overheating leads to increases in body temperature and can lead to heat stroke and/or heat exhaustion (from water loss from sweating), according to Dr. Shubin. Sudden rises in body temperature can lead to "febrile" [feverish] seizures, but it's the rate of rise, not the height of the temperature, that is the cause.
"The obvious signs [of heat stroke and heat exhaustion] would be that the baby feels hot to the touch and wants to drink, as sweating can lead to dehydration if losses aren't replaced," says Dr. Shubin. "Less obvious would be the late signs of changes in responsiveness and behavior, perhaps irritability but usually lethargy."
Dr. Andrea McCoy, associate professor of pediatrics at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, believes the problem isn't that babies are necessarily more sensitive to heat but that they are unable to cool themselves as easily as adults.
"They cannot move themselves to get out of the heat, take off extra clothes, replenish fluids, etc.," says Dr. McCoy. "They are able to sweat and have a large body surface area through which they lose heat, which is a good thing! However, if a baby sweats and the clothing becomes wet, they have even less ability to evaporate off the heat, especially in a closed environment like a car."
Dr. McCoy's answer to this is to avoid overdressing. "Babies should wear lightweight, loose-fitting clothes," she says. "Avoid being outside during the hottest times of day, typically noon until 3 p.m."
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