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Miscellaneous Baby Care

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See also:

Subsections on this page:

Resources

NOTE - Baby Care starts around 4 weeks after the birth and so is mostly outside the scope of midwifery practice, but here are some worthwhile resources for those older babies.


Pacifiers may have emotional consequences for boys [9/18/12] - Pacifiers may stunt the emotional development of baby boys by robbing them of the opportunity to try on facial expressions during infancy.

Your Child Has the Flu: What's a Mother to Do? by Joan Logghe from Mothering Magazine: Issue 128 - January/February 2005


Why You Should Think Twice Before Giving Your Child Antibiotics [3/3/16] by Chris Kresser

Baby Food


Happy Baby - fresh frozen organic baby meals


Wholesome Baby Food - Easy Homemade Baby Food & Baby Food Recipes - Tasty, Nutritious & Full of Love for your Baby

Baby Constipation


IMPORTANT - Never take a baby's temperature rectally; this can perforate the rectum and kill the baby. It makes absolutely no sense to risk the baby's death because you're worried that your baby isn't pooping often enough.

Babies who are exclusively breastfed are getting a food that is designed specifically for them; breastmilk changes depending on the baby's nutritional and immune system needs.  Since the baby is taking in only custom-made breastmilk, there is sometimes very little waste.  So the baby doesn't need to move their bowels very often.  Some books say that a bowel movement every 40 days is still within normal variation.

Note that within the first two weeks, before the gut flora have become established and are digesting the breastmilk, babies typically have bowel output several times a day.  You may notice that the output begins to have a seedy texture for a while before there is any formed stool.

from Mayo Clinic Complete Book of Pregnancy and Baby's First Year, Morrow, 1993

Your baby is constipated if you notice hard, formed bowel movements that are difficult to pass. Constipation is not defined by frequency of bowel movements. Some babies have a bowel movement every day; others may not have a bowel movement for 5-7 days.

All babies turn red, make grunting noises and draw up their legs when having bowel movements. These signs do not necessarily mean they are constipated.

Here are links into web sites intended for parents:


Can Few Poops Still Be Normal? [from webmd.com]
Because breast milk is so nutritious, sometimes a baby’s body absorbs almost all of it, leaving little to move through the digestive tract. Your baby may poop only once in a while -- it’s perfectly normal for breastfed infants to have a bowel movement once a week.

Other infants just have a slower (but completely normal) gut, so they don't go very often. But if your baby seems to be in pain or you have any concerns, call your doctor.


How can I tell if my baby is constipated? (from babycenter.com)
If your baby is breastfed, there's no "normal" number or schedule – only what's typical for your baby. It's not unheard of for breastfed babies to have one bowel movement a week.


What to Watch For (from parents.com)
It's important to note that babies' poop schedules can swing on both sides of the spectrum. Some exclusively breastfed babies poop after every meal; others have been known to hold out for a week or longer, Dr. Shu says.

"Consistency is key to defining constipation in breastfed babies. Rather than liquidy, seedy, pasty stools, the constipated baby's stool will be more like little clay balls," says Jane Morton, M.D., a clinical professor of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine, "though it is extremely rare for an exclusively breastfed baby to be constipated."


There doesn't seem to be a lot of medical research into this issue, but I did find these recent studies:

The bowel movement characteristics of exclusively breastfed and exclusively formula fed infants differ during the first three months of life.
Moretti E1, Rakza T2, Mestdagh B2, Labreuche J3, Turck D4.
Acta Paediatr. 2018 Nov 7. doi: 10.1111/apa.14620. [Epub ahead of print]

RESULTS: At three months, 84 infants remained and we compared 40 who were exclusively breastfed and 13 who were exclusively formula fed. Daily stool frequency was significantly higher in the breastfed than formula fed infants during the first (4.9 ± 1.7 vs. 2.3 ± 1.6, p < 0.001) and second (3.2 ± 1.6 vs. 1.6 ± 1.5, p = 0.003) months. Stools were more liquid in the breastfed infants during the first three months. Infrequent stools occurred in 28% of breastfed and 8% of formula fed infants at least once. (p = 0.25).

CONCLUSION: Exclusively breastfed infants produced more stools than exclusively formula fed infants during the first two months and more liquid stools during the first three. Infrequent stools were 3.5 times more likely in the breastfed infants.


Infrequent stools in exclusively breastfed infants.
Courdent M1, Beghin L, Akré J, Turck D.
Breastfeed Med. 2014 Nov;9(9):442-5. doi: 10.1089/bfm.2014.0050. Epub 2014 Sep 22.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Infrequent stools were defined as an interval of >24 hours between bowel movements. . . .

RESULTS: In Study 1, 37% of exclusively breastfed infants experienced at least one episode of infrequent stools that occurred at <1 month of age in 19% of cases.  . . .  In Study 2, the median duration of all combined episodes of infrequent stools was 10 weeks (range, 1-34 weeks) with a maximal duration of 28 days. . . .

CONCLUSIONS:
Parents/health professionals should be informed of the prevalence of infrequent stools in exclusively breastfed infants and adopt a wait-and-see attitude.



Somewhat surprisingly, this research shows that probiotics given to treat colic in breastfed infants does not affect their bowel movement pattern. This contradicts what parents have reported to me.

Effectiveness and Safety of a Probiotic-Mixture for the Treatment of Infantile Colic: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial with Fecal Real-Time PCR and NMR-Based Metabolomics Analysis.
Baldassarre ME1,2, Di Mauro A3, Tafuri S4, Rizzo V5, Gallone MS6, Mastromarino P7, Capobianco D8, Laghi L9, Zhu C10, Capozza M11, Laforgia N12.
Nutrients. 2018 Feb 10;10(2). pii: E195. doi: 10.3390/nu10020195.

RESULTS: . . . No differences between groups were found regarding anthropometric data, bowel movements, stool consistency or microbiota composition. Probiotics were found to affect the fecal molecular profile. . . .

Other Miscellaneous Newborn


How Can I keep My Kids Healthy This Winter?

Fever in children: 5 facts you must know [8/11/11] - Definitely consult your baby's healthcare provider also, but this is a helpful perspective.



 

 

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