Screening for hypoglycaemia of the newborn

Certain groups of neonates are at particular risk of hypoglycaemia and should be screened as follows:

• pre term infants - earlier than 37 weeks - should have a BM stix estimation half an hour after birth, and regular monitoring in the first few days of life until feeding is properly established.
• small for dates infants, less than the third centile, should be monitored as the preterm infants
• infants of diabetic mothers should should have a BM stix estimation half an hour after birth, then at two hourly intervals until six or eight hours.
• all other at risk infants, including those with birth asphyxia, hypothermia, sepsis, respiratory disease, rhesus disease, and those not tolerating feeds should have measurement of blood glucose, which should be repeated if there abnormality.