Home monitoring of body temperature patterns in infancy

For ten years the authors have been using data logging technology to monitor the overnight body temperature patterns of babies in the age range 4-30 weeks in their home environment. They have nearly 2,000 recordings from over 500 babies. These recordings have allowed the authors to characterise precisely the way in which body temperature patterns develop in infancy and how those patterns are affected by the way in which a baby is cared for, its obstetric history, and illnesses in post neonatal life. Babies are recruited for the authors´ studies at or soon after birth. All monitorings are undertaken by trained health professionals, usually Health Visitors and great care is taken to explain to parents what is involved. A typical acceptance rate is about 30% of parents approached, but this varies with Health Visitor and the group of parents the authors are working with. Successful recruitment is not confined to middle class mothers. It is possible to recruit successfully babies and parents from all social groups. The authors have many recordings from babies in `vulnerable´ groups, including single parents and those living in areas of considerable social deprivation. The recruitment success rate is no lower in these groups than in others. One group difficult to recruit, however, is infants who have spent significant time in Special Care