Do you kangaroo while infant is still in humidity?

[ittybittyfootprints]

Hello all!

I am working on updating our kangaroo care policy and am struggling to find Evidence Based Research regarding performing kangaroo care while the infant is in a humidified isolette. What are you guidelines? Do you know of any articles that refer to this subject? Currently our guideline says that kangaroo care is not allowed while in humidity, but we just extended our humidity time to two weeks and that seems like a long time to go without holding your baby!

Thanks!

[NICURN29]

Humidity precludes our babies from being kangaroo'd, according to our policy, although I don't know of a specific research study we used to come to that conclusion.

[NicuGal, MSN, RN]

No babies in humidity come out....I don't know if there is specific research for it, but common sense kind of says if they need the humidity to keep warm and keep their insensible loss down, then they aren't stable enough to come out yet :)

[littleneoRN]

If they're stable to be held, then absolutely. We humdify less than 30 weeks, up to 30 days of age. I can't imagine making a stable 29 weeker wait a month to be held.

[Jolie, BSN]

Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes.

If a baby can tolerate being held, they are held, regardless of ventilators, umbilical llines, humidity or the phase of the moon.

[NicuGal, MSN, RN]

We must all have different guidelines for humidity then. Ours is under a kilo and we use if for up to 2 weeks unless they are very small and having a lot of insensible loss due to lites, etc. If they can't hold their temp well in 60% humidity, they aren't coming out. We don't even weigh our kids if they are requiring humidity to keep warm.

[NICU_babyRN, BSN, RN]

absolutely yes!!!

The only thing that is getting in the way of skin to skin is our new policy to keep head midline for the first 7 days of life on all babies

[NeoNurseTX, RN]

No but we wean off humidity at 7 days of age. 30 days of humidity? Sounds like a breeding ground for funk! (and their skin is keratinized by then anyway.)

[littleneoRN]

No but we wean off humidity at 7 days of age. 30 days of humidity? Sounds like a breeding ground for funk! (and their skin is keratinized by then anyway.)

It seems excessive to me too, but that's what "they" say the research "says." Our nurses raised lots of feedback about the potential for infection, but the policy stands... Anyway, even before 7 days, it seems like the benefits of being held outweigh the benefits of humidity. If they truly can't keep warm, then that's a case for staying in. But we give humidity empirically, not just to kids who can't stay warm. I'm not advocating holding a fresh 23 weeker or anything.

[dawnebeth]

If the baby is stable enough to be held, by all means, regardless of humidity. We use humidity for a month on all babies under 30 weeks and definitely allow moms to hold the babies as soon as possible.