Radiant Infant Warmer

Solomon C. Nwaneri, PhD, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Lagos.



Newborns often suffer from a condition known as hypothermia. It is a condition in which the newborn loses a lot of heat and unable to control its temperature. Under normal conditions, the body temperature of the newborn should not be lower than 36.5 degrees centigrade. But when hypothermia occurs, the body temperature becomes lower.  Hypothermia affects preterm newborns, those with low birth weight. as well as those undergoing some procedures. Such newborns need a device  to keep them warm and prevent heat loss by radiation.  This is the main purpose of a radiant warmer.

How does a radiant warmer keep a newborn warm you may ask? This is possible because the radiant warmer consists of an overhead heating element that produces the required heat to keep the baby warm and there is a heating probe as well. The baby is placed on a tray directly under the heating element at a given distance.

You may also ask why the baby warmer is different from an infant incubator. Whereas the infant incubator prevents heat loss by conduction and convection, the infant warmer prevents heat loss by radiation. Perhaps, the reason it is called a radiant warmer.





Fig. 1: Radiant Warmer



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