Patient's question:
The baby just turned one month old and recently caught a cold. They have a cough, runny nose, but no fever. My wife is worried the baby might get pneumonia. I told her that pneumonia only occurs with a fever, but she doesn't believe me. So, does newborn pneumonia cause fever?Doctor's answer:
The characteristics of neonatal pneumonia are usually low fever, or even no fever or fever rise. Atypical clinical manifestations are features of neonatal pneumonia, such as no cough, wheezing, and lung rales. The main symptoms are cyanosis around the lips, extremities, and nail beds, pale or gray skin, poor general condition, little or no crying, listlessness, rapid breathing, sometimes irregular breathing, frothing at the mouth, wide nostrils, nasal flaring, visible tripod sign, milk choking, and milk rejection, etc. Diagnosis mainly depends on clinical history, such as amniotic fluid aspiration history, contact history with patients suffering from respiratory tract infections, and the above atypical clinical manifestations.