Newborn Baby Heart Rate

The normal heart rate for a newborn baby is 70 to 190 beats per minute at rest — a range much higher, and much wider, than an adult’s. This is expected: the baby’s heart is small and pumps little blood per beat, so it needs to beat more often to keep up with a rapidly growing body. While crying, the rate rises toward the top of the range and returns to normal afterward.

Normal values in the first year

Age	Resting HR (bpm)
Newborn (0 to 1 month)	70 to 190
Infant (1 to 11 months)	80 to 160

Those two bands are what MedlinePlus publishes for the first year. Finer month-by-month splits circulate widely — “1 to 3 months”, “3 to 6 months” and so on — but they are not in this source, so they are not printed here.

The width of the newborn band is the point, not a defect in it: 70 bpm is a deeply asleep baby and 190 is a crying one, and both are normal. That is exactly why a single reading, taken at an unknown moment, says very little on its own.

During sleep, it’s common for the rate to drop to the floor of the range; while crying or feeding, to rise toward the top. These variations are part of normal.

Why the rate is so high

The smaller the heart, the less blood it pushes per beat. To compensate and keep up with the flow the baby’s fast metabolism demands, nature adjusts the rate upward. As the heart grows over the first years, each beat pumps more blood and the required rate gradually drops — until reaching the adult range of 60 to 100 bpm at around age 10.

How to count the baby’s beats

At home, the most practical way is to check the pulse or use an infant finger pulse oximeter, which also shows heart rate. Count for one full minute, since the baby’s rate varies quite a bit from one instant to the next. Keep in mind that crying, being startled, and fever raise the number temporarily.

When to see the pediatrician

Seek evaluation if the resting rate stays outside the 70 to 190 bpm range persistently, or if it comes with: very fast or labored breathing, listlessness, excessive sleepiness, refusal to feed, paleness, bluish lips or extremities, or fever. In babies, any sign of effort to breathe deserves prompt attention. This content is informational and does not replace medical evaluation.

See the child heart rate chart and the heart rate by age chart.