An infant is described as blue all over or pale, with a heart rate of 60, no cough or sneeze, limp, and slow, irregular weak cry. What is the APGAR score?

To determine the APGAR score for the infant described, it's important to assess the five criteria that the APGAR scoring system evaluates: appearance (color), pulse (heart rate), grimace response (reflexes), activity (muscle tone), and respiratory effort.

In this scenario, the infant is blue or pale, indicating poor perfusion and cyanosis, which earns a low score in the appearance category. The heart rate is 60 beats per minute, which is also significantly low, resulting in a score of zero in the pulse category. There is no cough or sneeze, suggesting very minimal reflexive response, which again scores low. The infant is described as limp, indicating poor muscle tone and leading to a low score in activity. Finally, the slow, irregular weak cry suggests inadequate respiratory effort, which contributes to a low score for that criterion.

Combining these observations, the infant scores:

• Appearance: 0 (blue all over or pale)

• Pulse: 0 (heart rate of 60)

• Grimace response: 0 (no cough or sneeze)

• Activity: 0 (limp)

• Respiratory effort: 1 (weak irregular cry)

The total thus far is 0 +