The D.C. area is firmly in the grasp of winter, and after waiting two years for any sign of snow, kids were understandably excited about getting outside and playing in it this week. Odds are they won’t want to stop, with the possibility of more snow Friday.
And if you’re a parent, you might not want them inside the house all day driving you nuts anyway. But it’s your job as a parent to be careful, especially with the cold weather.
“These cold temperatures can be really dangerous,” said Dr. Christian Wright, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital. “We get concerned about hypothermia because the problem is you’re losing more heat than you’re generating. And especially if the kids are out there playing for a long time — which is great, it’s definitely great to get outside and to enjoy the snow — but as they use up their energy as they maybe start to get sweaty in their winter clothes, they can start to get more chilled.”
The first sign to watch out for is shivering, but other signs can be more subtle.
“They can be things as simple as being a bit fatigued, having some nausea or some hunger,” said Wright. “You could have shivering, their skin cold, very pale and dry and cold to touch. And as hypothermia gets worse, you might have things like the child being kind of confused or clumsy, drowsy or having slurred speech.”
The biggest red flag is if a child goes from shivering to not shivering while outside. Otherwise, how fast hypothermia sets in will really depend on factors such as the outside temperature, the wind and what they’re doing.
If it’s a baby’s first time in the snow, be aware that they can’t shiver.
“A newborn might just be more quiet or not want to feed, or might seem a little bit more floppy, or have a more weak cry,” Wright said of the symptoms in newborns with hypothermia.
The easiest thing to do is have your kid change out of their wet clothes and into something dry, with some dry blankets wrapped around them for extra warmth. But if body temperatures fall below 95 degrees, you probably want to seek medical attention.
If frostbite to any exposed extremities is a concern, Wright said you’ll want to be gentle.
“Any of those exposed areas that are red or white or kind of cold to touch, you’re going to make sure that you’re warming goes up very gently, just using some kind of warm to touch water,” said Wright. “You want to avoid doing anything like rubbing fingers that you’re concerned about having frostbite or putting them in front of a stove or anything like that because they’ve lost feeling to those areas with frostbite, you could injure those extremities even more if you’re not careful.”
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