I am revising our admission policy to NICU, Can any one share their policy or tell me what is the cut off for gestational age and weight for admission to NICU. We currently have cut off <35weeks and <2Kg. I just want to know what others are doing in admitting Babies to NICU regarding gestational age and weight.

Thanks

hi, i work in nicu level3 with 20 bed but almost always all of warmers are busy. so we adit <34w .<1800g ,tachypnea,res.distress, severe anomaly,CHD,poor feeding,sepsis ,menengitis

We admit babies less than 34 weeks and 1.8kg. But we have a transitional care ward where mothers will room in with babies from 34-36weeks, and 1.8kg above. These late preterm babies also need some kind of medical attention until discharge.

Babies less than 1.8 kg or less than 35 wks gestation are usually admitted to nicu...similarly those more than 3.8 kg are admitted in NICU for monitoring....rest who have any other indication like sepsis, resp distress etc are admitted.....sometimes those with h/o unexplained sibling loss in the early neonatal period are admitted for monitoring

Many thanks for all who replied

We aim to keep infants from 35+0 in the maternity ward and our experience is that most do well there. I estimate that we admit about 1 in 5 of babies 35+0--35+6, most often due to poor feeding. But, these infants typically need to stay for 4-5(-6) days there, in contrast to the 2 days most families stay.

We have no fixed BW limit but generally admit babies<2000 gr to the NICU.

BTW, regardless of gest age: we do some light therapy for unvomplicated hyperbili infants in maternity too. We simply do not have room for all..

here most pts are not on antenatal care therefore exact gestational age is not informed and few pts are AGA. we assess on examination. and admit on clinical status but preterms and SGA are offered admission if space is available.

Does anyone out there have a policy for re-admitting infants after initial discharge?

We don't have written guidelines for this, but in principal we work like this:

we re-admit infants discharged from maternity, if they need photo-therapy or feeding support the first days after discharge, if we have a single room for the family and baby.

We also have quite a few babies transferred to our "home-care", typically ex-preterms but >34weeks and practising breastfeeding while reducing tube feeding. Sometimes we have backlashes, like poor weight gains or if the parents feel uncomfortable, for any reason, being at home. Then we offer a single room for these families as well, to come back, whenever needed.

I would like to Know about your policies for babies with mother with recent urinary tract infection ( w positive culture ) or vaginal infection. Controversy around.....

Sometimes babies look fine , lab is Ok and they put them on antibiotics until blood culture is negative.

Are we exposing this babies to the nosocomial flora ? And taking them away from their mothers unnecessarily ?.Regards. Leonora.