Infant clothing, bedding and room heating in an area of high postneonatal mortality.

Documentation of infant care practices (clothing, bedding and room heating) was undertaken in an area where the postneonatal mortality rate is 9.3 per 1000 live births. Three hundred and eleven infants (mean age 5 weeks) were studied in their own home during winter and spring. Low room temperatures were associated with low socioeconomic status, but not consistently with clothing or bedding thicknesses. The estimated thickness of bedding covering infants was less if their mothers were less well educated. Infants at high risk for possibly preventable postneonatal mortality, based on a locally developed scoring system, had less bedding and colder rooms. Ideas of illness management were often inappropriate, in that a large number of mothers would further wrap up their infants if they had a cold (58%), were febrile (8%) or had a convulsion (21%). The clothing and bedding appropriate for different environmental conditions in health and illness needs physiological evaluation. Meanwhile parents should be reminded of the risk of both hypothermia and hyperthermia.