Baby's First Tests & Procedures

our newborn is just a few minutes old, yet he’s already taking his first tests. But don’t let performance anxiety get to you. In-hospital tests are there to help doctors assess your baby’s health and to give them an earlier opportunity to discover potential (sometimes life-threatening) disorders before they adversely affect your baby’s health.

Tests vary from state to state; some are required, some are offered, but all are there to help assess the well-being of your newborn and to make sure your baby is on the right track to a healthy, happy life.

APGAR
HEARING SCREENING
GLUCOSE TEST
EXPANDED NEWBORN SCREENING
EYE OINTMENT
VITAMIN K
HEPATITIS VACCINE

APGAR
Scored one minute after birth, and again at five minutes after birth, the APGAR assessment checks the overall condition of your baby. Even though this “test” was named after Virginia Apgar, MD, APGAR is also an acronym for Appearance (skin color), Pulse (heart rate), Grimace (reflex irritability), Activity (muscle tone and neurologic alertness) and Respiration (breathing). The score given at the one-minute mark helps determine whether or not your baby needs immediate medical assistance, while the score assigned at the five-minute mark shows how your baby is progressing or responding to intervention. Scoring ranges from 0-2 for each characteristic, with 10 being the highest score. But don’t freak out - babies rarely score a 10 on this test.

HEARING SCREENING
Most states require this hearing test to be done before your baby is discharged from the hospital, but if it’s not required in your neck of the woods, try to have it done within the first three weeks of your newborn’s life. Tests are done by two methods: an ABR (auditory brainstem response) evaluation and/or OAE (otoacoustic emission). Both are fairly accurate and non-invasive (your baby can rest while the tests are being done). Using headphones, doctors are able to see how a baby responds to sound by measuring brain-wave patterns. Many hospitals wait until a baby is at least 12 hours old and administer the test when a baby is both quiet and alert. Although hearing loss is rare, early diagnosis and intervention leads to better outcomes later in life.

GLUCOSE TEST
She’s so sweet, she must be made of sugar, right? Still, some newborns are at risk for developing low blood sugar levels and need to be checked soon after birth. Most commonly, blood sugar tests are done routinely on very large babies, preterm babies, those born to mothers who had diabetes, newborns that are small for their gestational age, and after stressful deliveries. The most common way to check blood sugar is with a prick of baby’s heel, and typically blood glucose is checked at two hours of age and then up to four times a day during the first one to two days of life. Why is this test important? Prolonged low blood sugar could lead to a risk of long-term problems with development, learning, or short-term complications like poor feeding or seizures.