Researchers have developed a new low-cost, reusable infant warmer that promises to significantly reduce the rates of neonatal hypothermia.

The Dream Warmer is a non-electric infant warmer specifically designed to prevent and treat symptoms of hypothermia. The warmer is technically a mattress comprised of 12 wax candle-like structures, which will melt at skin temperature, Childrenshospital.org reports.

The warmer first has to be boiled in 1.7 litres of water to bring it up to body temperature. It’s then fitted in an insulator, which allows the Dream Warmer to keep its heat for up to 6 hours of use.

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It was developed by a team of researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and collaborators in Rwanda, News Medical explains.

The researchers held a study to measure the effectiveness of the Dream Warmer. The study was conducted from November 2019 to July 2020. In total, the Dream Warmer was used 892 times on 464 infants across 10 of the largest hospitals in Rwanda. The researchers compared these results to data taken from over 1,000 babies who were not treated with the warmer. The results were recently published in The Lancet.

In conclusion, the researchers found that the infant warmer can drastically reduce the likelihood of neonatal hypothermia. Infants treated with the warmer only had an 11% risk, whereas those who did not use the warmer were 29% likely to incur hypothermia. Similarly, the rates of fatality dropped from 2.8% to 0.9% among infants using the warmer.

The study also produced other findings. The research team discovered that using the warmer did not drastically increase the core temperatures of the infants. It also did not result in any sort of injury to the babies, such as burns or rashes.

The researchers hope the results of the study will help the Dream Warmer become more widely available, especially in developing countries where incubators are not always readily available. The low cost of the Dream Warmer can make it much more accessible. Whereas the Dream Warmer costs around $100 to manufacture, incubators usually start at around $5,000. The Dream Warmer also does not require electricity (unlike incubators), adding to its convenience.

The study’s leader, Anne Hansen, MD, MPH, who is the Medical Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Boston Children’s, emphasized that the Dream Warmer does not require a lot of preparation or training. There was no misuse of the warmer observed in the study, pointing at its ease of use. Hansen also noted the warmer is easy and intuitive to clean.

Neonatal hypothermia is when a newborn’s body temperature drops below 36.5 degrees Celsius or 97.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Conversely, a newborn’s internal temperature is usually between 97.5 to 99.3 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 36.5 to 37.4 degrees Celsius, if taken under the arm, Honor Health explains. Neonatal hypothermia is responsible for 1 million deaths in infants across the world each year, and particularly affects low and middle-income nations, News Medical notes. It can also result in a myriad of health issues, such as stunted growth.

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Sources: News Medical, Honor Health, Childrenshospitals.org