Healthy Infant Nursing Diagnoses

hypocaffeinemia, BSN, RN · Apr 13, 2008

I have a healthy 3 week old infant with absolutely nothing wrong with her to diagnose. She wakes 2-3 times at night to eat so I thought about using Risk for Disorganized Infant Behavior or Readiness for enhanced organized infant behavior r/t immature physiological/neurological systems aeb difficulty maintaining quiet/deep sleep at night. Can I even use this for night time awakenings? I question it because this is normal for an infant. Any help would be appreciated!! Thanks!

Note: I'm just a nursing student, but also a recent parent.

A three week old full-term infant waking up 2-3 times a night to eat is absolutely normal in every way to the best of my knowledge. Especially if they are breast-fed, as this is more easily digested and therefore processed faster.

In fact, I'd be concerned if a three week old infant did sleep through the night without waking to feed.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Apr 13, 2008

forget the risk for disorganized infant behavior and readiness for enhanced organized infant behavior r/t immature physiological/neurological systems aeb difficulty maintaining quiet/deep sleep at night. did you look at the nanda defining characteristics (symptoms) the baby would need to have in order to have disorganized infant behavior?

think about what you know about the assessment findings of a normal newborn compared to an adult. what's different? for one thing newborns can't regulate their body temperature which is why we don't leave them exposed to the room atmosphere for very long with just a diaper covering them. that's ineffective thermoregulation r/t immature compensation for changes in environmental temperature. some newborns just have a few difficulties with excessive secretions in the respiratory track (the big hint here is that the nurses will keep a bulb syringe nearby the baby) so ineffective airway clearance can be used. they also have a stump of an umbilical cord hanging off their future belly button. do you? are they treating this cord stump? if it's inflamed or there are umbilical cord problems there is risk for infection, so you can use risk for infection r/t break in skin integrity at umbilical cord site ([color=#3366ff]risk for infection). if the baby has been circumscribed that is another reason for a risk of infection. is this baby breastfeeding? if so, use effective breastfeeding. and, some babies just don't start feeding well at first by breast or bottle--it happens. these kids are imbalanced nutrition: less than body requirements r/t poor infant feeding behaviors ([color=#3366ff]imbalanced nutrition: less than body requirements).

the underlined blue type are a weblinks to nursing diagnosis pages with nanda information and some goals and nursing interventions.

angel2008sn · Apr 14, 2008

Thank you for your input! I already used some of the other diagnoses that were more appropriate. I'm glad you responded - I've read many of your responses to other questions and you absolutely know your stuff. Thanks again - you probably just saved me the horror of an unsatisfactory process paper!!