When to Take Your Baby to the ER: Top Five Red Flags
November 18th, 2011 
Carol 
1. Crying Changes: While it may be hard to tell if your baby is crying from colic, a baby who has changed from his/her normal behavior and is inconsolable despite usual attempts to soothe, may be sick.
2. Color Changes: Changes in your baby’s skin color can be a sign that something is not quite right. Specific changes to be wary of include: • Turning blue, especially around the lips or face. • Yellow, pale or mottled skin (or any other changes from your baby’s normal skin tone), • Rapidly spreading rash.
3. Tone Changes: Infants are not known for their superior muscle tone. But you know how your baby normally feels, the strength of their grip, and how they support themselves. Be aware if this changes. You should be concerned if your baby feels unusually limp or weak, different than “normal”.
4. Sleeping Pattern Changes: Changes that might indicate a problem with your newborn include: • Sleeping much more than usual, • Acting less alert, • Having difficulty waking your baby (baby is not arousable).
5. Breathing Changes: Changes in breathing patterns, including the following, are especially concerning. • Slow or rapid breathing, • Irregular breathing pattern (different from normal pattern), • Nostrils flaring, • Belly or ribs moving unusually with breathing – breathing seems labored. • Not breathing.
The preceding information is intended to empower and inform parents’ decisions. Its development was funded as part of a generous grant from R Baby Foundation. The R Baby Foundation seeks to save the lives of newborn babies by educating parents, supporting research, and providing emergency room equipment and training to medical professionals.
The R Baby Foundation® is the first and only not-for-profit foundation uniquely focused on saving babies lives through improving pediatric emergency care. R Baby Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that babies, including those in the first month of life suffering from viral infections and other infectious diseases, receive the highest quality of care and service through supporting life-saving pediatric training, education, research, treatment and equipment.
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