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Dealing with Illness in Babies

During the first year of your baby’s life, it is likely he’ll get ill. A lot. And there’s not so much you can do to prevent this. Here are some tips that may help with the more common minor illnesses.
 

Colds

It’s a myth that breastfeeding protects against colds. What it may do is reduce the chance that the cold will become a chest infection, or reduce the length of the cold, but the baby will still catch every cold that is doing the rounds in your community.
Of course, this is particularly bad in open communities such as Jewish ones, where people are frequently traveling to weddings and other simchas, often long-distance in the bug-circulating devices known as airplanes.
Breast feeding will help your baby get over his cold faster than formula feeding, but there are things even all mothers can do to help.

  1. Pray to Hashem. Seriously. Works better than anything else.
  2. Raising the mattress (pillow under the mattress or cans under the crib feet at the head end).
  3. Buying a humidifier for the room.
  4. Squirting salt water up a very congested nose (I think the resulting screaming loosens the snot more than the salt water!). Make by mixing 1 tsp salt with 1 cup cooled boiled water.
  5. Dripping various menthol-containing liquids on his pillow/sheet (check from what age allowed).
  6. Nursing in a steamy room (to help him open up his airways to make feeding more easy).
  7. Know when to use Calpol/Acamol/Tylenol for babies when he’s really unhappy/has a fever.
  8. Understand that breastfed babies will want to feed more frequently for shorter periods to get more foremilk (for hydration) and less hindmilk (as it is too fatty and may cause more mucus production).
  9. Take him to the doctor if he has a fever/the cold has gone on for ages/has developed into a cough/he’s screaming on the bottle (could be an ear infection).
  10. Praying some more.

Tummy bugs

Newborn babies are usually kept in a clean environment. However, most stomach viruses are not food born, but air born. Therefore, no matter how sterile you keep your baby and it's environment (which may not be doing it so much good in the long term), it will probably get diarrhoea at some point.
  1. Ensure the baby is hydrated. If he/she won't take milk, offer water. If he won't take a bottle, allow him to suck water off a damp flannel/cloth.
  2. If the diarrhoea is copius (and I mean more than usual runny breastfed poo), consult a doctor.
  3. It is normal for breastfed babies to poo more than a few times a day. This does not mean the baby has diarrhoea.
  4. In a baby that is weaned, banana, apple and rice can firm up the stools if the diarrhoea is mild.

Ear infections

My second son was unfortunately blessed with horizontal or kinked eustachian tubes. This means his ears do not drain properly and cannot clean properly, leading to frequent ear infections.
I did a lot of research and didn't like most of it. Olive oil, garlic and other things may help outer ear infections, but middle ear infections usually require antibiotics. There is no evidence that it is related to dairy foods, especially in a baby with no other reactions to dairy (like diarrhoea, stomach pain etc).
Ear infections usually cause a lot of pain. My baby was smiling through it, he just wouldn't eat.
After a year of on and off antibiotics, we had tubes put in his ears. He still gets infections, just less often and can be helped with drops.
 
Every country has a different method of dealing with ear infections in babies. Some don't give antibiotics and allow the infection to pass on it's own, giving pain killers either orally or in drop form. If you are unhappy about your baby's treatment, seek a second opinion. Untreated severe ear infections can cause partial hearing loss.
 
 
 
I wish your baby a refuah shelama and you an easy parenthood!
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