Have you passed the list of things you have to take to the hospital and says you have to wear a baby hat? Do you have other children and when they were born they wore a hat for the first 24 hours because they said it was to control the temperature? Quiet, it happened to many of us. In fact, my three children, the first 24 hours, took their hat for that reason, because they said that babies lose heat through the head and therefore, during the first day, and to avoid hypothermia, they should wear it.
However, it is done more by belief than because there is evidence that it does something. In fact, a review of studies done by Cochrane in 2008, comparing the different measures to be taken to prevent hypothermia in premature babies showed that putting a hat on a baby to avoid losing heat is no use and that, however, there are other much more important measures in this regard, such as skin-to-skin contact.
Study Data
The review was carried out in 2008 and they tried to compare the best strategy to avoid hypothermia in the first 10 minutes of life, which is when it is more compromising (10 minutes, not 24 hours). They compared having a delivery room at a temperature of 25 ° C, drying the baby immediately after delivery, wrapping it with preheated blankets, preheating any contact surface and using radiant heaters or incubators with other methods such as skin-to-skin contact.
One of the studies, of the six that they analyzed, compared to cover the babies with plastic covers with putting a cap on their heads. The covers were useful when the babies had been born with less than 28 weeks gestation, but did nothing if they were born later. When evaluating the theme of the caps concluded that "knitted caps were not effective in preventing heat loss".
The study that evaluated skin-to-skin contact showed that in babies between 1200 and 2200 grams the risk of hypothermine was lower than if babies were put in an incubator. Similarly, the use of a heat transfer mattress was also better when babies weighed less than 1500 grams. The researchers concluded that the best techniques for neonates were these two, skin to skin contact and the use of the mentioned mattresses.
But ... they are so handsome!
The study concludes that it is enough with skin-to-skin contact, which is in fact the cheapest method, one that works best, the most efficient and, incidentally, the one that most helps the baby make a first take at chest right away and therefore the one that most helps the establishment of breastfeeding.
The use of the hat is therefore unnecessary. There will be mothers (or fathers) who say "but ... they are so handsome!" and that they will decide to put the hat on equally. Go ahead then. It has been done for a long time without need and nothing will happen to continue doing it for aesthetics. However, knowing that it doesn't help at all, parents can have a benefit that the temperature issue didn't have to prevail before: the smell of your baby, your little head within reach of the nose and kisses. One less barrier to knowledge and the best relationship with the baby that has just arrived.
