Easy Way to Remember Pediatric Vital Signs

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Tips on remembering normal vitals for pediatrics?

• Thread starter sop
• Start date May 5, 2011

• #1

Does anyone have any tips on remembering normal vital sign ranges for pediatrics? (Newborns, Infants, Toddlers, Pre-School, School Age children)

• #2

Does anyone have any tips on remembering normal vital sign ranges for pediatrics? (Newborns, Infants, Toddlers, Pre-School, School Age children)

Experience as much normal pediatric vitals as possible. Maybe volunteer with children, hang with your cousins, whatever. Hold them and play with them. Notice how they breathe, count their pulse. Notice how easily they turn purple if they're cold.

Like many, many things in life, the easiest way to spot something that's "off" is to be completely familiar with the same thing when it's normal.

• #3

Make an effort to brush up on your vital ranges. There's no shame in flipping through your pocket guide book on your way to a run though!

• #4

• #5

I am going through pediatric stuff right now and flash cards are a big help. But like the others said, learn what " normal" in pediatrics and it will be easier to spot something that is not quite right.

• #6

Aprz

Non flying critical care flight attendant

I don't you think need to know exact numbers though, just know younglings generally have a faster heart rate and faster respiration rate, but their blood pressure is lower.

I was taught:
Adult 12-20
Child 15-30
Infant 25-50

You may notice that child and infant range is just double of it's minimum.

Pulse wise:
Adult 60-100
Child 60-140
Infant 100-190
Newborn 85-205

Actually some numbers I've read was adult is 60-80, child (>10 y/o) is 60-100, and child (2-10) is 60-140.

For blood pressure, you can have a rough estimate of the systolic blood pressure as SBP = 70 + (age x 2). I've heard of using SBP = 80 + (age x 2) also.

These numbers seem like they change all the time, you'll read different numbers from different books, some are more vague like the number aboves where I say adult, child, infant, newborn, and some are very specific. I feel it's more important to remember just the general rule rather than remember the actual numbers.

Now I am being a hypocrite cause I actually did remember them out of my EMT book which is Mosby's EMT Prehospital Care (http://www.amazon.com/EMT-Prehospit...8140/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304656720&sr=8-1).

Last edited by a moderator: May 6, 2011

• #7

Once you get some experience it will be a little easier to determine whats normal and what isnt.

Pocket guide is a good idea.

You may notice that child and infant range is just double of it's minimum.

Pulse wise:
Adult 60-100
Child 60-140
Infant 100-190
Newborn 85-205

Alarms start going off for me when I see a neonate with a heart rate anywhere near eighty.

• #8

Aprz

Non flying critical care flight attendant

CAOX3, I was thinking about the same thing when I memorized the number awhile back. I only have some guesses as to why they list that as a normal number, and the two most resonable in my mind is either it's a typo, or maybe it's weighted by newborns HR done within the first minute of APRGAR (HR >100 to get a +2 for P) since I know they aren't usually perfect, but those are only guesses.

I cracked open another book, Clinical Procedures for medical Assistants 7th Edition by Kathy Bonewit-West (http://www.amazon.com/Clinical-Proc...ef=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304674379&sr=8-1-spell) which is a book we used in my clinical classes. I did not remember these numbers, but you can also see how different they are from my EMT book.

HR
Well-trained athlets 40-60
Adult (>60) 67-80
Adult (19-60) 60-100
Adolescent (12-18) 60-100
School-age child (6-12) 75-105
Preschool child (3-6) 80-110
Toddler (1-3) 90-140
Infant (Birth-1) 120-160

RR
Adult (>18) 12-20
Adolescent (12-18) 12-20
School-aged child (6-12) 18-26
Preschool child (3-6) 20-30
Toddler (1-3) 23-35
Infant (Birth-1) 30-40

This website also lists different numbers: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003399.htm

My point is that you should just know the general rule, that flat out remembering the numbers is probably not useful.

Since you mentioned it CAO, I was curious myself and did a Google to see why they would say 85. It appears my first guess was right, that it's usually slower within the first minute, but it starts to pick up before it slows down again.

http://fn.bmj.com/content/95/3/F177.abstract

Maybe it's a mistake in medicine too if they aren't using a stethoscope to obtain the HR?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15036740

Heh.

Last edited by a moderator: May 6, 2011

• #9

I'm pretty sure a heart rate less than 100 gets a +1 on the apgar, but its been a while since I had to use the score thank god.

Either way, a heart less than 100 usually rings the bell in a newborn for me. I'm not jumping for the resus. bag but I'm a lot more attentive and I'll be digging a little deeper for answers thats for sure.

• #10

Aprz

Non flying critical care flight attendant

Or you're tired. I wrote >100, which means over 100. It's really suppose to be equal to or greater than 100 though. A HR <100 would be +1 APGAR, which is correct.

• #11

Or I could be going blind too, if you ask my wife I'm also deaf.

Or maybe the fact I'm trying to read this forum on a screen thats about three inches wide.

Yup you wrote it correct, I apologise.

• #12

Aprz

Non flying critical care flight attendant

You better be sorry! </joking>

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