Why does a baby's nasolabial triangle turn blue? Blue lips in a child: is it dangerous?

Quite often, mothers notice that the baby’s nasolabial triangle area turns blue. This is a fairly common phenomenon and in most cases there is no danger behind such a change in skin color. But sometimes blue discoloration of the nasolabial triangle can be a symptom of a serious illness.

What is cyanosis?

Blue skin in medical terminology is called cyanosis. Essentially, this is a symptom indicating a lack of oxygen in the child’s body, accompanied by increased content reduced hemoglobin. It is this that gives the skin such an atypical shade.

The blueness that mom observes in the area of ​​the nasolabial triangle is called peripheral cyanosis (acrocyanosis). It could be physiological norm, and pathology. Most often, acrocyanosis is diagnosed in babies born prematurely.

Causes of acrocyanosis

Reasons why it turns blue nasolabial triangle in infants, may be physiological - acceptable norm– and pathological, i.e. be a sign of a serious illness.

Physiological reasons

Here we can highlight the following:

• Inappropriate physical activity for age.
• The nasolabial triangle turns blue with prolonged crying. When a child cries, there is reduced content oxygen, because the baby often exhales, but inhales little air.
• Blue skin during feeding. To get milk from the mother's breast, the baby has to make some effort. Under the influence of stress, the subcutaneous vessels expand, and the skin receives a characteristic bluish tint.
• The nasolabial triangle of a baby may also turn blue if the child spends too long in mountainous areas. This condition is not dangerous.
• The nasolabial triangle turns blue in infants and during hypothermia. If you warm the child, the cyanosis will go away.

But if the skin does not restore its usual color, and cyanosis is accompanied by a blue discoloration of the tongue and other parts of the body, then the child must be urgently shown to a doctor.

Pathological cyanosis

Pathological cyanosis has an internal gradation determined by the mechanism of its origin.

Persistent cyanosis

The reasons here may be:

• birth injury;
• increased intracranial pressure;
• immaturity of the respiratory/vasomotor center of the brain.

For these pathologies, blue discoloration of the nasolabial triangle in combination with a reduced sucking reflex is typical. Additionally, the doctor determines the atypical tension of the large fontanel.

Respiratory cyanosis

In this case, problems arise with respiratory function. Pulmonary cyanosis is always combined with pale color skin and blue in the eye area. Also, in some cases, you may notice that when the child inhales, the intercostal muscles are retracted.

The cause of the appearance of pathological coloration of the nasolabial triangle can be:

• pneumonia;
• bronchitis;
• hiatal hernia;
• bronchial asthma;
• penetration into Airways foreign body etc.

Cyanosis of cardiovascular origin

With congenital pathologies of the cardiovascular system, the nasolabial triangle in a child turns blue, starting from the first days of life. But it is not possible to hear noises in the work of the heart muscle right away. That is why it is necessary to visit a pediatrician and undergo medical examinations, since only in this case can the presence of pathology be detected at the earliest possible date.

Is there any reason to worry?

Should you always worry when you notice a change in the color of the nasolabial triangle? Answer the following questions:

• Is the child developing in accordance with average standards?
• Did he have a heart murmur?
• Is the development of cyanosis accompanied by cough or difficulty breathing?
• When the nasolabial triangle is cyanotic, do other parts of the body turn blue?
• How quickly does a child get tired when compared with his peers?
• Is your baby sleepy and lethargic?
• Is his skin too pale?

If you answered yes to at least one question, then it is advisable to take your child to the pediatrician. Since only a specialist can identify the presence of pathology. If necessary, the child will be given a consultation with a neurologist and cardio-rheumatologist.

What can you do?

First of all, it is necessary to monitor situations in which a child develops cyanosis of the nasolabial triangle. If the skin turns blue after bathing or when the baby is cold, then this is a physiological norm.

But if the skin remains blue constantly, then it is necessary to consult a pediatrician observing the baby. The doctor will prescribe for the child necessary tests and studies, in particular, EGC, ultrasound of the heart, x-ray chest.

Summary

Blue discoloration of the nasolabial triangle is a symptom that deserves close attention. If the reason lies in hypothermia or prolonged crying, then there is no need to worry. But if acrocyanosis develops without any visible reasons, then the baby needs to be shown to a doctor. Timely treatment reduces the development of complications to almost zero.

Blue lips in a child, this is a symptom that indicates internal violations or illness. The shade changes due to fluctuations in the level of hemoglobin in the blood and its oxygen saturation. Such manifestations in children become common cause diseases of the respiratory system and heart. First you need to provide first aid, then contact a medical facility.

Common reasons why lips turn blue are heart failure and blockage of blood vessels. The phenomenon is caused by tissue hypoxia. If the lower or upper lip turns blue, then a violation occurs as a result of weak outflow venous blood and imbalance of arterial inflow.

The cause is subcutaneous tumor, inflammation. The process is caused by nearby vessels in the lip muscle. Such manifestations occur in a child when swimming in cold water or when it is hypothermic.

When crying, often small child lips turn blue. If baby will cry for a long time, this provokes a flow of blood into the area of ​​​​the lips and chin, the spraying of oxygen accelerates the pace as a result of the high activity of the lungs. If the child has calmed down and the cyanosis has subsided, there is no need to worry.

Reasons why a baby’s lips may turn blue that are not related to illness:

• lack of oxygen in enclosed spaces;
• hypothermia while walking at low temperatures;
• strong physical activity.

A possible cause of lip discoloration is a combination of all factors.

The main causes of blue lips in a child:

• pneumonia;
• pneumonia;
• asthmatic attack.

If the baby has no appetite, is losing weight, is lethargic, is crying, coughing, has a fever, then you need to urgently contact an ambulance.

There is such a reason for the blue triangle near the mouth as respiratory syndrome. The disease is not very dangerous, it is directly related to age-related changes. Associated with overexcitation.

Symptoms:

• the lower lip turns blue;
• triangle near the mouth;
• face;
• throat spasms.

There is a lack of calcium in the child's body. In children over 4 years of age, the disease goes away on its own.

Metabolic cyanosis can cause blue lips in newborns.

In such cases, an excess of phosphates occurs in the body and a lack of sufficient calcium. Such phenomena occur after hemorrhage inside the skull or cerebral edema.

Congenital heart disease in infants causes blue lips. A sign of pathology is poor circulation. These babies develop the following symptoms by 9-12 weeks:

• dyspnea;
• loss of consciousness;
• blue discoloration of the nasolabial triangle;
• convulsions.

Treatment requires surgical intervention aged 3 to 6 years.

Cyanosis occurs due to the presence respiratory disease- croup Children under 3 years of age are susceptible to it.

Symptoms:

• dry cough;
• wheezing;
• heat.

A dangerous condition is accompanied by salivation, choking, and the upper lip turns blue.

What danger cyanosis poses is determined by the condition of the baby’s tongue and nails.

If they have a pink tint and a healthy appearance, there is a possibility of perioral cyanosis, which is not dangerous.

If a bluish tint appears on the tongue, nails, or lips, you should immediately consult a doctor.

Possible complications

If a child's lips turn blue, this may be due to asphyxia. It causes the following complications:

• suffocation;
• blockage of blood vessels by a thrombus.

It is urgent to call an ambulance.

When determining shock, a baby may have:

• weakness;
• hard breath;
• pallor, grey colour skin;
• acceleration of pulsation;
• weak consciousness.

Poisoning of the body, attack bronchial asthma are accompanied by an increase in symptoms within 24 hours:

• shortness of breath appears;
• dizziness occurs;
• blue discoloration of mucous membranes and nails.

The presence of signs of blueness for a long time may indicate chronic diseases.

Complications associated with methemoglobinemia:

• antibiotic overdose;
• hereditary pathology.

In a child whose lips turn blue during the first weeks of life with hereditary pathology, there is a change in the color of the earlobes, nails and triangle. Complications – subsequently, such children often lag behind in psychomotor development.

If treatment is not prescribed on time, the baby may subsequently develop the following complications:

1. Psychoneurosis.
2. Damage to the brain structure.
3. Asomnia.
4. The body's protective functions are reduced.
5. Loss of appetite.

IN severe cases possible coma.

How to eliminate blue lips

If cyanosis is accompanied by a lack of air, the child’s breathing becomes more frequent and the child feels unwell, first aid at home:

• open the collar and chest so that clothes do not squeeze;
• provide air flow by opening the window;
• rub your legs and arms;
• call emergency help.

In a hospital setting, the child is examined by a pediatrician and specialized doctors to determine the cause of blue lips.

What will help make your lips pink:

• restore blood flow;
• normalize blood pressure;
• prevent a seizure.

These steps will help avoid complications. Then you need to find out the reason that caused the blueness.

The following diagnostic methods are used:

• blood analysis;
• x-ray of respiratory organs;
• tomography;
• calculation of blood flow speed;
• determination of the composition of exhaled air;
• electrocardiography.

The treatment method will depend on the diagnosis. The goal of therapy is to eliminate oxygen deficiency.

After hypothermia for crying baby the following measures must be taken:

1. Wrap your body in a warm blanket.
2. Give warm tea.

Such actions will help you warm up faster, blood circulation will resume, and blood flow will ensure pink color mouth

If your lips turn blue at fever, you should immediately consult a doctor. Children under 1 year of age are prescribed special medicines in extreme cases.

Drug treatment for older children will allow:

• improve air flow to the lungs;
• increase blood concentration.

The influx of a sufficient amount of hemoglobin with oxygen leads to normalization of color and eliminates cyanosis. For hypoxia and heart disease, a hardware procedure is prescribed - inhalation of concentrated oxygen.

Positive action:

• improves blood flow to distant tissues;
• improves the condition of the respiratory system.

The doctor may prescribe oxygen cocktails:

• the components are aimed at increasing the concentration of oxygen in the blood;
• cyanosis near the oral triangle disappears;
• absolutely safe for the body.

You can use cocktails at home without medical care. In some cases, it is possible to use traditional recipes.

Parents constantly turn to pediatricians for advice when a newborn appears in the house. Often the need to consult a specialist is caused by blueness of the nasolabial triangle. Doctors call this phenomenon cyanosis and reassure worried mothers and fathers: this phenomenon is very common in children infancy. Usually it is not dangerous symptom, gradually goes away on its own. But pathological cyanoses also occur, which signal possible problems with the baby's health.

How to distinguish a physiological condition from a pathological one? Let's figure it out.

Why does a baby's nasolabial triangle turn blue?

A clear manifestation of the condition can be noted only in those places where the capillary network is located as close as possible to the skin. This is the area of ​​the face under the baby's nose. Similar phenomenon can also be observed on the fingers and toes, but often with physiological state it is missing. When a lack of oxygen is detected in the body, the accelerated production of a special hemoglobin begins, which gives the blood an unusually dark color.

If the phenomenon has spread to the surface of the body, head or limbs, you should immediately seek the help of a specialist. Often this phenomenon indicates a pathology of the circulatory, bronchopulmonary or cardiovascular systems.

Physiological causes of cyanosis

• prolonged crying - the child at this moment inhales much less air than usual and exhales full breasts, which contributes to a temporary decrease in oxygen levels in the blood

• feeding – sucking at the breast or bottle is a serious burden on the body of newborns

• stay in high mountain areas - long stay raising your baby too high above sea level can lead to decreased oxygenation in the body

• hypothermia - if the toddler is frozen, cyanosis of the nasolabial triangle appears, caused by a sharp outflow of blood from peripheral vessels to larger ones.

Normally, such phenomena disappear within a few minutes after the cause is eliminated. If the blue discoloration intensifies or does not go away on its own, you should definitely consult a pediatrician.

Pathological causes of blueness

• Central origin - may result birth trauma, increased intracranial pressure, immaturity of the respiratory or vasomotor centers of the brain.

• Pulmonary origin - blue discoloration forms not only under the baby’s nose, but also around the eyes. The skin turns pale, and when inhaling, the child retracts all the pectoral and intercostal muscles. This indicates the presence of pathologies of the bronchopulmonary system.

• Cardiovascular origin - congenital heart defects lead to cyanosis of the nasolabial triangle. Another noticeable manifestation will help confirm the presence of pathology - “ marble leather"(when the arms, legs and some parts of the baby’s body acquire a color characteristic of natural stone, usually translucent with veins of vascular network).

Any pathological manifestation requires urgent contact with a medical center.

Very often, infants may experience cyanosis of the nasolabial triangle. There are several groups of factors contributing to this phenomenon:

• Physiological factors.
• Somatic diseases.
• Pathological conditions.

Physiological reasons

In infants, blood oxygen saturation varies between 92–95%, so a decrease in saturation below 92% can cause cyanosis of the skin due to a lack of oxygen in the body tissues. Normally, blue discoloration may appear around the mouth in the following situations:

• Strong and frequent crying. It is observed in capricious children due to a decrease in oxygen supply to the blood. Cyanosis is observed exclusively when the baby cries and goes away on its own at rest.
• The baby's thin and light skin. The blueness of the nasolabial triangle is due to the close location blood vessels to the surface of the skin, and therefore the blueness may increase when crying or sharp changes ambient temperature.
• Hypothermia. Often, after bathing a child, cyanosis may occur around the mouth, which is due to the difference in temperature in the bathroom and the child’s room. At the same time, you can feel that the child’s limbs are cold to the touch, which certainly indicates that the baby is cold.

Somatic diseases

A decrease in blood oxygen saturation may occur due to impaired gas exchange or due to impaired air flow into the lungs. For example:

• Pneumonia. Serious infection, which has bright clinical manifestations and, in addition to cyanosis of the nasolabial triangle, is accompanied by such manifestations as shortness of breath, fever, cough, wheezing during auscultation, heavy breathing, pale skin, etc.
• Entry of a foreign body into the respiratory tract. Against the background of apparent well-being, coughing, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing suddenly begins. Soon, due to difficulty breathing, the nasolabial triangle or the skin around the mouth begins to turn blue.

In this situation, you need to act quickly. The child must be placed on a bolster or on your knee, head down and patted on the back. Due to compression of the chest, the foreign body will be pushed out and breathing will be restored. If this fails, urgent hospitalization is necessary.

Pathological conditions

This category of factors includes congenital diseases of cardio-vascular system. Typically, this includes heart defects. Most common congenital defect is a non-closure of the oval window, in which mixing of the venous and arterial blood which leads to sharp decline blood saturation with oxygen and the appearance of blue above upper lip.

Fine oval window should close immediately when the baby is born, because during intrauterine development, this hole was necessary for fetal breathing in the womb. As soon as the child takes his first breath, there is no need for this hole.

If foramen ovale is not overgrown at birth, then clinically this can be characterized by the presence of persistent cyanosis of the nasolabial triangle, which tends to intensify with anxiety, crying, sucking, etc. This problem requires urgent consultation with a cardiologist and monitoring of the defect for 1 year of the baby’s life. As a rule, the defect can heal within a year without any therapeutic interventions. Otherwise, surgery may be required.

As is already becoming clear from all of the above, in order to eliminate the fears of the parents of the baby who has such alarming symptom, you need to show it to three specialists:

• Pediatrician. Upon examination, he can roughly guess what the cause of cyanosis is and refer for further examination.
• Cardiologist. First of all, it is necessary to eliminate serious congenital pathologies which often require urgent treatment.
• Neuropathologist. Blue discoloration of the nasolabial triangle in combination with tremors of the limbs and chin, regurgitation, anxiety and frequent crying may indicate increased intracranial pressure or about vegetative-vascular dystonia The child has. These neurological problems may be the result of a complicated birth, difficult pregnancy and/or immaturity nervous system child.

Regardless the real reason the appearance of cyanosis in children under one year of age, timely contact with a specialist will help to avoid disastrous outcomes of serious illnesses.

Such a phenomenon as a blue nasolabial triangle in a baby occurs quite often, and in many cases does not pose a danger to the child’s health. However, there are situations when such a symptom manifests a dysfunction cardiovascular activity, as well as respiratory organs. What is cyanosis and why does it appear?

Cyanosis is a symptom of oxygen deficiency in the body, which increases the formation of methemoglobin. It is this reduced type of hemoglobin that makes the skin and mucous membranes darker. Blue discoloration of the epidermis in the area of ​​the nasolabial triangle infants may be of a pathological or physiological type.

Norm

Basically, this phenomenon is a consequence of increased physical activity. This area also turns blue due to:

• long crying, during which the baby exhales a large number of air, but inhales little, which is why there is a deficiency of oxygen in the blood;
• during feeding. Nutrition breast milk– this is a large load for the baby, due to which the superficial vessels expand and become more noticeable;
• prolonged exposure to altitude leads to a non-pathological decrease in the level of oxygen in the blood;
• hypothermia during swimming or changing clothes causes cyanosis of the area above the upper lip. If after infant warm up, the blue discoloration will disappear, which means this condition is not dangerous.

If the baby’s nasolabial triangle turns blue and does not return to its original appearance in the near future, a blue tint appears on the tongue and fingers, you should immediately consult a doctor.

Pathology

Cyanosis pathological nature is divided into 3 groups depending on its development algorithm.

• pneumonia;
• airway aspiration;
• runny nose;
• bronchitis;
• bronchial type asthma;
• inhalation tobacco smoke or carbon monoxide;
• diaphragmatic hernia.

1. Pathology of the cardiovascular type. Appears due to congenital heart defects from the first days of a child’s life. Since this diagnosis cannot always be made immediately after birth, it is necessary to regularly visit routine examinations to prevent the development of dangerous complications.

How to distinguish the norm

To analyze the baby’s health status, parents just need to carefully monitor him. If the nasolabial triangle has acquired a blue tint, pathology can be excluded:

• with normal growth and development of the child;
• in the absence of heart murmurs;
• with normal skin color in the area around the mouth and other parts of the body;
• in the absence of cough or difficulty breathing, when cyanosis appears;
• with a normal pinkish skin tone;
• in the absence of a drowsy and lethargic state.

If at least one of the listed points does not coincide with the actual condition of the baby and the area above the upper lip rapidly turns blue, it is required urgent consultation doctor

What do we have to do

If your baby's area above his upper lip turns blue, you need to look at why it appears. If a symptom occurs during bathing and quickly disappears, it does not pose any danger to the baby’s health. If this skin condition persists, you should:

1. Contact your pediatrician as soon as possible. At your appointment, the doctor may prescribe additional research to put correct diagnosis and tell us why the upper lip area turns blue. Among the procedures, the doctor may prescribe: an electrocardiogram, ultrasonography heart muscle, radiography chest area. Also, in some cases, it is necessary to visit a neurologist to carry out full examination child.
2. change your lifestyle. It is required to maintain optimal temperature regime and air humidity in the room where the child is. You should go for walks more often, and also soothe the baby when crying. This advice This also applies to healthy children, since correct and timely development occurs only in a comfortable environment.
3. Do massage. Carrying out a daily massage will stimulate the activity of the nervous system, as well as normalize the functioning of the respiratory system. If a foreign body enters the child's respiratory tract, you should carefully and quickly place the baby stomach down on your lap and lightly hit him on the back. If this method does not work, you should urgently call a doctor to prevent the appearance of blue skin in the area of ​​the nasolabial triangle, as well as suffocation.