Promote adequate perfusion of vital organs

The infant has a circulating blood volume of approximately 80 m./kg of body weight.(2,9) Infants can lose up toe 25% of circulating blood volume before developing signs of hypovolemia. A compensatory vasomotor response causes peripheral vasoconstriction, increased cardiac stroke volume, and compensatory tachycardia.(American Heart Association:Textbook of Pediatrics)

Heart rate is a very important assessment tool; whenver a child is tachcardic, further investigation is required to determine the reason for the increase in heart rate.

Clinical signs and symptoms of hypovolemia are divided into early and late signs, see Table 1 below:

Early signs:	Late signs:
Tachycardia	Hypotension
Cool, poorly perfused extremities	Bradycardia
Capillary refill > 2 s	Oliguria
Altered mental status
Mild metabolic acidosis (compensated)