Everyone knows that newborn babies are just different. Heck, there’s an entire field of medicine dedicated to taking care of neonates. They make a lot of folks nervous in the ED and justifiably so – the list of weird things young babies can do in those early days of life can give you gray hairs. One time-honored complaint, “my baby is blue”, is guaranteed to get your attention. Here are some blue baby stories to help illustrate some of the common causes of neonatal cyanosis.

The “stomach flu” is making rounds in your community. All evening long you’ve seen one child after another with vomiting, diarrhea and varying degrees of dehydration. 

There are a few kids out there who are prone to hypoglycemia. They may be diabetic and on insulin, or have ketotic hypoglycemia or metabolic disorders that cause them to drop their blood sugars with stress. One thing that mothers can do is stock up on cake frosting. 

The next patient is a sick metabolic kid, the kind you dread because you can never remember all those metabolic pathways from medical school. Citrullinemia, maple syrup urine disease, gluteric acidemia – it makes your eyes cross.

It’s muggy outside and the Pediatric ED is as busy as ever. Winter virus season has given way to summer virus season in the never-ending circle of hot....

...the kid has bigeminy but is completely without symptoms...Is it safe to sedate her in the ED to drain this abscess?