Normal heart rate and respiratory rate bands from preterm to adult, transcribed from one named source. Blood pressure is covered too, including why that source prints no by-age band for it. Built to print.
Source: every number on this page is transcribed from Nursing Health Promotion by Ernstmeyer & Christman, Open Resources for Nursing (Open RN), section 14.5, tables 14.5a, 14.5b and 14.5c. Published by WisTech Open, 2025. Licensed CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 14 August 2026 from wtcs.pressbooks.pub/healthpromo/chapter/14-5-applying-the-nursing-process-to-caring-for-an-ill-or-hospitalized-pediatric-client/
Heart rate and respiratory rate (table 14.5b and table 14.5c)
| Age band | Heart rate beats per minute | Respiratory rate breaths per minute |
|---|---|---|
| Preterm | 120–180 | No band published for preterm |
| Newborn 0 to 1 month | 100–160 | 30–60 |
| Infant 1 to 12 months | 80–140 | 26–60source band: one month to one year |
| Toddler 1 to 3 years | 80–130 | 14–50source band: 1 to 10 years |
| Preschool 3 to 5 years | 80–110 | 14–50source band: 1 to 10 years |
| School age 6 to 12 years | 70–100 | 14–50source band: 1 to 10 years 12–22source band: 11 to 18 years |
| Adolescent and adult 13 to 18 years, and adults | 60–100 | 12–22source band: 11 to 18 years 10–20source band: adult |
Why two numbers in two rows. The source publishes heart rate and respiratory rate in age bands that do not line up with each other. Its respiratory bands break at 10 and 11 years, its heart rate bands at 12 and 13, so the school age row and the adolescent row each sit across two published respiratory bands. Both are printed, each with the band it came from, rather than one blended number that appears in no source.
Temperature by route (table 14.5a, not age specific)
| Route | Normal range |
|---|---|
| Oral | 35.8–37.3°C96.4–99.1°F |
| Axillary | 34.8–36.3°C96.4–97.3°F |
| Tympanic | 36.1–37.9°C97.0–100.2°F |
| Rectal | 36.8–38.2°C98.2–100.8°F |
| Temporal | 35.2–37.0°C95.4–98.6°F |
Transcribed as printed. In this source the axillary range in Fahrenheit starts at the same number as the oral range, 96.4, which does not follow from the Celsius range beside it. It is reproduced here exactly as published rather than corrected. Treat that one cell as unverified and use your unit's chart.
Oxygen saturation. The same section gives 95 to 100 percent by pulse oximeter, for children and adults alike.
Bands differ between references and facilities; your unit's reference card and your assessment of the individual child come first.
Trends beat single numbers.
This source publishes no by-age blood pressure band. What it says instead is: Normal blood pressure values are determined by the child's gender, height, and age.
Pediatric blood pressure is read against percentile tables that need the child's sex, height percentile and exact age together, so a single systolic and diastolic pair per age group cannot stand in for it. Use your unit's pediatric blood pressure reference, or the percentile chart in the child's record.
No numbers appear here because this source does not provide them.
Pediatric vital signs by age. Ranges transcribed from Nursing Health Promotion by Ernstmeyer & Christman, Open Resources for Nursing (Open RN), section 14.5, tables 14.5a, 14.5b and 14.5c. Published by WisTech Open, 2025, licensed CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 14 August 2026 from wtcs.pressbooks.pub/healthpromo/chapter/14-5-applying-the-nursing-process-to-caring-for-an-ill-or-hospitalized-pediatric-client/ · Sheet made by chuck design, chuckdesign.com. Built by a web designer, not a clinician. Your facility's reference wins.
To study: read down the age column first, not across. The pattern is the thing worth holding: heart rate and respiratory rate both start high at birth and fall toward the adult band, and they arrive there at slightly different ages.
For a quick glance: press Print. It comes out black on white with the source line attached, sized to trim down and clip behind a badge, so the numbers you glance at on shift are the same numbers you can point at when someone asks where they came from.
Why the peds bands matter: a heart rate of 130 is unremarkable in a toddler and would start a rapid response in an adult.
One source, on purpose. Published by-age bands genuinely differ between textbooks, and a card stitched from four of them belongs to none of them. Everything here comes from one section of one book, printed as that book prints it, including where its own bands overlap awkwardly and where one cell looks wrong. If your program uses a different reference, use that one.
Ranges only. There is no dosing on this page, nothing weight based, and no guidance on what to do about a number that falls outside a band. Those belong to your protocol and the provider.
Ernstmeyer, K., & Christman, E. (Eds.). (2025). Nursing Health Promotion. Open Resources for Nursing (Open RN). WisTech Open. Section 14.5, "Applying the Nursing Process and the Clinical Judgment Model to Caring for an Ill or Hospitalized Pediatric Client." Tables 14.5a (temperature ranges by source), 14.5b (heart rate ranges by age) and 14.5c (respiratory rate by age). Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
Retrieved 14 August 2026 from https://wtcs.pressbooks.pub/healthpromo/chapter/14-5-applying-the-nursing-process-to-caring-for-an-ill-or-hospitalized-pediatric-client/
Under CC BY 4.0 this material may be reproduced with attribution. The tables above are a faithful transcription; the age labels are lightly reformatted for the column, and the numbers are unchanged. Nothing has been merged, averaged, or filled in from another reference.