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What makes babies unable to stay warm in the cold?
Sent to Health Experts September 22 12:59 PM

I heard you shouldn't leave babies in a cold room. Why are their little bodies unable to keep as warm as older kids?

 

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Female , Age: 48

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September 22 1:35 PM (36 minutes and 13 seconds later)
         
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Adults control body temperature through a complex system using negative feed-back. The hypothalamus and limbic system, based on information from the body's thermoreceptors stimulates the appropriate regulators including the vasomotor system, sweat secretion and nervous system response such as the shiver response. The immaturity of the this system in infants contributes to their vunerability to changes in environmental temperature.

Infants and children maintain their body temperature by metabolizing brown fat, crying, and moving about vigorously. Their shiver response matures over time. It is difficult for infants to maintain their body temperature because they have larger surface to volume ratios, increased metabolic rate, and lack body fat for insulation.

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