blue baby
1
6.7
- noun
- /bluː ˈbeɪbi/
:
bebé azul
- Excess nitrates in the water can reduce an infant's ability to process oxygen, producing "blue baby" syndrome.
- blue baby syndrome
Examples
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Parents were concerned after learning that their newborn had developed blue baby syndrome, which affects oxygen levels in the blood.
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Nitrogen pollution of well water is responsible for "blue baby" syndrome, a life-threatening condition present.
Blog text (21) -
My mother did her RN training in a hospital in Bethlehem, PA, and she would tell me how when they got in a "blue baby," all they could do was watch it die.
Blog text (24) -
A blue baby they called him, born with a defective valve in his heart, a good baby, all eyes, who lay quietly in his basket studying the faces that hung over him.
Fiction book (1996) -
He was born in the early seventies, a blue baby, and there were ways of curing Jacob, surgery not exactly routine but certainly not experimental.
Fiction book (2001) -
Another health effect of excess nitrates is methemoglobinemia, or "blue baby" syndrome, a form of oxygen starvation in infants.
Academic text (2000) -
The doctor explained that the baby was diagnosed with blue baby syndrome due to a heart defect.
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If untreated, blue baby syndrome can lead to serious health complications for infants, making prompt medical care essential.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward descriptive compound: 'blue' (color) + 'baby' (infant) yields an infant who is bluish in color, so a B1 learner knowing both words can infer a baby with blue-tinged skin. The medical explanation (cyanosis, congenital heart defect) is specialized, but the surface meaning is literal and cross-linguistically transparent.
Etymology
Blue baby comes from the simple image of a baby whose skin looks blue because its blood has little oxygen. So, the phrase means 'an infant with a bluish skin color caused by a heart or blood problem'.