Vital signs across the lifespan
A wide line chart across seven age bands with heart rate and respiratory rate descending, systolic pressure rising, no numeric ticks, and a bracket at the right labeled PULSE PRESSURE WIDENS.
Strip 1 · The direction Heart rate and respiratory rate fall from birth to adulthood while blood pressure rises. That one sentence makes the rest of this page derivable.
Strip 2 · Newborn A term newborn breathing in the thirties to forties with a heart rate around one hundred forty is behaving exactly as expected. Brief periodic breathing is normal. Apnea lasting beyond twenty seconds is not, and it is reported.
Strip 3 · Infant and toddler Rates stay high through the first years. A toddler whose respiratory rate has settled into the adult range is a concern, not a reassurance, because in a sick child that number often means exhaustion.
Strip 4 · School age Values converge toward adult numbers. Blood pressure in a child is interpreted against age, sex, and height rather than a single ceiling, so a number that looks fine in isolation may not be.
Strip 5 · Adult The reference set you already carry: a resting adult heart rate in the sixties to high nineties, respirations in the teens, and blood pressure read against current adult categories. Exact bounds live in → BOOK 07 · P4.
Strip 6 · Older adult Arterial stiffening widens the pulse pressure. The febrile response is blunted. Orthostatic drop on standing is common and it is what puts them on the floor. The hook: a normal temperature does not rule out infection in an older adult, and new confusion may be the only sign there is.
Strip 7 · The measurement itself A cuff too small reads falsely high. An arm below heart level reads high. The first reading taken right after arrival is not the one to act on alone.
Margin noteread the age before you read the number.
Watch outin an older adult, absence of fever is not absence of sepsis.
Takeawaythe same number is normal at one age and an emergency at another.
Pediatric vital sign table → BOOK 13 · P5.