Blood cultures and antibiotic use in a neonatal

Swaddling and heat loss The letter of Hawkes et al1 raises the important issues of swaddling and temperature on admission to the neonatal unit. Besch et al2 carried out a limited comparison of different swaddling materials and found a transparent plastic bag together with radiant heat to be effective in preventing heat loss in infants over 2 kg. Following a report in the literature,3 we have begun wrapping all preterm infants < 1000 g in a thin plastic wrap. The wrap is preheated on a radiant warmer and the infant is immediately placed (undried) on the plastic sheet, which is folded over to completely (but loosely) enclose th