Skinfold thickness as an indicator of neonatal hypoglycaemia in infants with birthweights over 2500g.

Some full-term infants with birthweights over 2500g suffer neonatal hypoglycaemia. These infants often appear to be poorly nourished, due to decreased amounts of subcutaneous fat. 100 normal term infants with birthweights over 2500g who were nursed, apparently asymptomatically, beside their mothers were chosen at random for study. As an objective indicator of malnourishment, standard deviation scores of skinfold thickness as a function of birthweight were derived from standards for each infant. Those infants with low skinfold standard deviation scores had significantly lower plasma glucose levels at four hours of age, but the correlation between plasma glucose and skinfold standard deviation scores, although significant, was too low for use as a screening method. The importance of finding an objective measurement for predicting neonatal hypoglycaemia in term neonates weighing over 2500g at birth is discussed.