NREMT Paramedic

Answer: C - The most accurate way to determine an infant’s respiratory rate is to watch the abdomen rise and fall. Because their chest walls are less rigid than those of adults, infants primarily use their diaphragm to breathe through their nose. Infants use their diaphragms to generate the negative pressure necessary to ventilate their lungs. They produce surfactant continuously from birth. Remember the rule of 60s; in the pediatric patient, respiratory rate should never rise above 60, and the heart rate and blood pressure should not fall below 60.