Pediatric Vital Signs and the Solutions that Monitor Them

The definition of pediatric vital signs

Vital signs are medical signs of a body’s basic life-sustaining function, which include:

● Heart rate
● Blood pressure
● Respiration rate
● Body temperature

Pediatric vital signs can provide the basic information for medical professionals and parents to understand the overall condition of an infant or a child.

The normal ranges of vital signs of an adult are different from those of a child. In general, compared to adults, children tend to have faster heart rate, faster respiration rate, lower blood pressure, and the same body temperature as adults. The explicit number ranges are listed below.

Vital signs 1: Heart rate in children

Heart rate is one of the most important indications of health. People will feel uncomfortable when their hearts beat too fast. Overall speaking, the heart rate goes slower when children gradually grow up, from 90～180 beats/min for infants to 60～100 beats/min for adolescents. Besides, the heart rate also becomes slower when children fall asleep, which is the same as adults.

Vital signs 2: Blood pressure in children

Blood pressure is recorded as systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). SBP refers to the blood pressure against the artery walls during heart beating, while DBP refers to the blood pressure against the artery walls between heartbeats. Normally, the blood pressure gets higher when children age, and becomes similar to adults when children turn to adolescents.

Systolic hypotension, meaning blood pressure goes below the normal range, is a common symptom in children. And the three main types of systolic hypotension are neurally mediated hypotension (NMH), orthostatic hypotension, and severe hypotension.

NMH is an abnormal blood pressure drop when a child is standing upright, orthostatic hypotension happens when a child changes position (from sitting to standing or vice versa), and severe hypotension occurs when a child has a certain disease or infection.

When systolic hypotension happens, children should lie down immediately and raise their feet over the heart level. However, if it is severe hypotension, help from medical professionals will be urgently needed.

Vital signs 3: Respiration rate in children

Children tend to breathe faster than adults, so the respiration rate in children is higher than it is in adults. One of the respiratory diseases that happens in children is pediatric respiratory failure. The symptoms include breathing difficulty, bluish skin and lips, and confusion; the treatments include oxygen therapy, mechanical ventilation, IV fluids, etc.

Vital signs 4: Body temperature in children

Children’s body temperature is a little bit higher than adults’, but there is no difference between these two groups in terms of normal temperature range, which should be around 35.9～37.6°C (96.6～99.7°F)  tympanic. The only variation comes to the methods of temperature measurement.

Solutions that can monitor pediatric vital signs

As pediatric vital signs are so crucial to basic life condition understanding, the devices that can monitor them such as pulse oximeters, blood pressure monitors, or smart wearables become great tools for medical professionals and parents. At TECHDesign, you can find different levels of solutions to implement pediatric vital signs monitoring.

Microcontrollers combined with wireless modules

Pediatric vital signs monitoring devices can be manufactured from microcontrollers, wireless modules, along with other components. At TECHDesign, our leading supplier Nuvoton has offered the microcontroller Nano 130 series and Nano 100 series with high performance, ultra-low power, and low cost for blood pressure monitors and pulse oximeters, respectively.

For wireless modules, REYAX provides RYB070I (with built-in TI CC2541) and RYB080I (with built-in TI CC2640R2F) BLE modules with BT4.0 and BT4.2/5.0 compliant, respectively. It also provides RYWB116, RYWDB00, and RYWDB02 Wi-Fi modules with dual-mode and IEEE 802.11 b/g/n and BT5.0 compliance. Both Nuvoton and REYAX have related solutions that can realize pediatric vital signs monitoring.

Vital signs detection kits and development kits

If you want a more convenient solution for designing pediatric vital signs monitoring devices, vital signs detection kits and development kits would be great options for you.

Equipped with TI IWR6843 ASIC, 5G mmWave wireless function and multiple interfaces (USB, UART, GPIO), the Joybien Batman BM201 EVM kit is a vital signs detection kit from Joybien Technologies, which can detect the heart rate and respiration rate of a child remotely.

The vital sign platform development kit from BROADSIMS is an even more hardware-ready solution. With Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4G LTE, and 5G wireless communication ability, this development kit has temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and oximeter sensors, which provides a super friendly development environment for designers.

Health smartwatches and body temperature smart trackers

If you are not a designer but merely a parent who wants to monitor your kid’s vital signs anytime, you can simply choose the health smartwatch from Shenzhen Yushengchang Technology or smart tracker from Hongshuo Technology. The IP67 waterproof smartwatch is able to monitor heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and SPO2 in a safe way, while the smart tracker BABYBEAR is specially designed for children to measure and monitor their temperature.

Conclusion

Normal ranges of pediatric vital signs such as heart rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, and body temperature have been introduced in this article.

At TECHDesign, designers, parents, and medical professionals can discover different levels of related solutions including microcontrollers, wireless modules, development kits, smartwatches, or smart trackers based on their needs. If you are one of them, come to visit us and start the shopping right away!