LEADING ARTICLE

Hypernatraemia

Hypernatraemia in the first few days: is the incidence rising?

I A Laing, C M Wong

Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9YW, Scotland, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Laing, Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health, Royal Infirmary at Little France, 51 Little France Crescent, Edinburgh EH16 4SU, Scotland, UK;
ian.laing@luht.scot.nhs.uk

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Hypernatraemic dehydration in breast fed infants needs to be resolved so that mothers are not discouraged from breast feeding

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Keywords: hypernatraemia; dehydration; breast feeding

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Hypernatraemic dehydration is a potentially lethal condition and is associated with cerebral oedema, intracranial haemorrhage, hydrocephalus, and gangrene.¹ The infant’s plasma sodium concentration is raised predominantly because of loss of extracellular water. In the past, hypernatraemia occurred most often when artificial feeds of too high a sodium concentration were fed to babies.² This was more common in infants who were fed powdered milk, especially if the mother added extra scoops of powder and failed to provide enough water in the mixture. The resultant hypernatraemia may have stimulated the child’s thirst, and further feeds high in sodium would exacerbate the problem. Manufacturing reductions in the solute load of infant formulae, brought about by reports from the Department of Health and Social Security on Present day practice in infant feeding (1974)³ and Artificial feeds for the young infant (1980),⁴ did much to reduce the incidence of this problem. Education of the . . . [Full text of this article]

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eLetters:

Read all eLetters

Hypernatraemia in the first few days: a tragic case.

Peter D Macdonald, et al.

Fetal Neonatal Ed. Online, 28 Oct 2002 [Full text]

Hypernatraemia in breastfed infants

Sam J Oddie

Fetal Neonatal Ed. Online, 7 Nov 2002 [Full text]

Hypernatraemia in the first few days: is the incidence rising?

Graham C Smith

Fetal Neonatal Ed. Online, 8 Nov 2002 [Full text]

Hypernatremic dehydration

Jack Newman

Fetal Neonatal Ed. Online, 26 Nov 2002 [Full text]

Hypernatraemic dehydration - excess sodium is not the cause

Sam Richmond

Fetal Neonatal Ed. Online, 27 Nov 2002 [Full text]

Weighing alone will not prevent hypernatraemic dehydration.

David Harding, et al.

Fetal Neonatal Ed. Online, 11 Dec 2002 [Full text]

Weighing of breast fed babies is important

Egware Benjamin Odeka, et al.

Fetal Neonatal Ed. Online, 2 Jun 2003 [Full text]