When I began my faculty OB practice at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center Lying-In Hospital in 1982, I made sure that all the babies I delivered were outfitted in little Thinsulate® turbans: blue for boys; pink for girls.

At first, some of the other obstetricians thought this looked a bit strange but I wasn’t making a fashion statement. Newborns can have difficulty stabilizing their body temperature when they first leave the womb. There is a precipitous drop in temperature from in utero existence (~99 degrees F.) to room temperature 72 to 75 degrees F. in the delivery room and the nursery. Up to 50 percent of your new baby’s body heat can escape through the head as he or she adjusts to life outside mom’s cozy body. This heat loss differential is lessened by drying the infant, placing him or her under a radiant warmer and covering its head.

Today, almost all hospitals cover newborns’ bald little noggins to compensate for this heat loss. As a side benefit, they do look cute in their blue and pink caps.

– Yvonne Thornton, MD, MPH