Kudos to PhD student Jane Ralphe and her advisors for the submission of her National Association of Neonatal Nurses small grant application entitled "Body Temperature in the First Two Postnatal Weeks, and the Pathogenesis of Respiratory Morbidity in the Premature Infant less tha 29 Weeks’ Gestational Age." This proposal requests funds for a one-year period with a start date of Nov. 1, 2018. 

While both hypothermia and hyperthermia, in the early hours of life, have been implicated in the development of Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in the very low birthweight (VLBW) infant, we propose that body temperature instability and abnormal central-peripheral temperature patterns over time, along with dynamics of those events, further increase the risk of and/or severity of respiratory morbidity. Thus, the purpose of this secondary analysis is to examine the relationship between extreme body temperatures and thermal patterns, during the first two weeks of life in 22 VLBW infants, and acute and chronic respiratory morbidity prior to discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit.