Blue hands from cold?

[Rachel]

Just wondering if this has happened to anyone elses child. We have noticed recently that our DD hands have gone blue occasionally. now, i'm talking blue, as in cyanosed blue, not mottled. At first we thought it was from holding her under the arms for a prolonged period of time - you know when you are playing around with them, but then it happened yesterday and we weren't holding her under the arms, but had her sitting on my hip so i was holding her under her bottom. So then we thought maybe she was cold as we turned the heater on and held her hands to warm them up and they pinked up. Obviously we are finding this quite concerning. She isn't bothered by it at all. Does this sound normal? Has anyone else experienced this and was it just from being cold? We are not really sure whether we should be concerned or not. I am hoping that someone else has had this happen and it was no big deal so that I can put my mind at ease. Thanks, really appreciate your help.

[Captain]

Hi Rachel
DD used to get blue hands from the cold. Not sure if it's as blue as your DD, but I was pretty concerned about it to. I asked the Dr when we went for a check up and he said not to worry, that is was just the cold, just more noticable because of her pale skin. If your DD's skin pinked up when she warmed up it's probably the same thing, but if your concern ask the Dr.
HTH

[Alan]

Hi Rachel
Don’t worry hun this is not a problem. What is happening is that your DD’s body is protecting itself against the cold. Her body is reducing the blood supply to her skin to prevent heat loss. The blue colour is caused by this reduction in blood. This is the body’s natural response to cold and will not cause any harm

[wite_wickah]

My neice's feet do exactly the same thing. My DP's mum said it is normal and its because she is a bit paler it is much more noticable and its just from the cold weather.

[Rachel]

Thanks for your replies. We definitely hope that it is the cold but if that was the case would you expect her hands to actually feel cold too? They feel cool but not cold. We're just gonna keep an eye on it and see if we can see a definite cause. She's not bothered by it so that's our main concern. Thanks again.

[Rachel]

We have, but she just sucks on them and makes them all wet which makes them colder. I forgot to mention it isn't always just her hands, sometimes it is her arms too.