The Infant Respiratory Distress Syndrome is a disease of young infants as is obvious from the name of the disease. It mostly occurs in premature infants. It is caused by the lack of production of the surfactant in the lungs which helps the lungs to expand and contract without collapsing by maintaining its elasticity. To diagnose Infant Respiratory Distress Syndrome one could consider the following points.

Look at the color of the baby's skin. A blue color is reflective of cyanosis which could be because of the lack of oxygen due to lung collapsing. Observe the area over the lungs. If there is rapid breathing with loud sounds, retraction of sternum and flaring of the nostrils, there is a higher chance that your patient has Infant Respiratory Distress Syndrome.

Perform a chest x-ray of the lungs to see what kind of pattern is observed. If the pattern shows a ground glass like appearance on the x-ray film it is due to reticulogranular pattern of the lung alveoli. The reticulogranular pattern is the indicative of Infant Respiratory Distress Syndrome.

Test for the arterial blood gases saturation. For this purpose the amount of oxygen, carbondioxide and acid is measured in the arterial blood. If the amount of oxygen is low and the amount of carbondioxide is high, the chances of the baby having Infant Respiratory Distress Syndrome are high.

Make sure you rule out any other diseases before making a diagnosis of Infant Respiratory Distress Syndrome by doing an Echocardiography. Echocardiograph can pick up abnormal rhythms of heart muscle which can cause symptoms similar to Infant Respiratory Distress Syndrome.