Cautious first time parents...

How careful is too careful and how much should you expose your newborn to?

There are so many changes in our world now as compared to even 5 years ago.

We are still dealing with the Covid- 19 aftermath and it is still ongoing.

Ultimately how much you expose your newborn to is really determined by you as parents as well as your living conditions and situations which differ greatly amongst us.

This is what happened to me for my first born :

I said to myself that I am not going to be that paranoid Mum ( even though I know that I am!) and I will let my baby be carried by anyone and allow anyone to visit, etc.

After delivery for my first born, I had about 2 hours to be attended to by nurses and just coming out of delivery and my first visitor arrived. I had visitors the entire day until 8pm that night and the next day was exactly the same. I somehow managed to cope but by day 3 I was ready to leave.

My baby had been carried and held by many, many people and I was ok with it. Then we went home and still had family and friends visiting. After the traditional 11 day ceremony that we do, 2 days later I noticed some nasal congestion. I tried all the home remedies that I knew, natural chest rubs, keeping baby warm, essential oils in the room and daily Sterimar and cleaning of nasal passages but it did not improve. A day later he started getting a dry cough and looked to have a bit more nasal congestion and was definitely more irritable. My instinct as well as my healthcare background made me realise something was not right.

I made an appointment with a paediatrician in the area and he diagnosed my newborn with RSV ( Respiratory Syncytial Virus ). You could have knocked me over with a feather! I did not see that coming and he advised urgent admission.

We were both admitted on the same day and were attended to by another specialist paediatrician. Upon further routine tests my 13 day old newborn was diagnosed with a Klebsiella Urinary Tract Infection. Again another blow for me!

My husband had just left to Cape Town and he had to come back when baby got admitted. It was such a terrifying experience for me. Also , sleeping on a recliner 2 weeks post caesarean was not exactly my idea of recovery but I coped as best I could.

After a lot of nebulising, Intravenous 7 day antibiotics , extreme love and care and an amazing health care team and family , we made it back home. This time to my place and not my Mum's.

It was an eye opener for me, even though I sanitised regularly and tried to be as hygienic as possible I could not prevent this. He obviously picked it up from one of the visitors and since then my paranoia increased even more!

I would suggest wait at least 6 weeks until at least baby has had more vaccines and then you can expose him/ her to others. The rate at which people and kids contract the many bacteria and viruses we don't even know exist is alarming. You will get so many people that feel like you are being overbearing but at the end of the day when your child is unwell it is really you and your partner that attend to them and nobody else.

Please try to sanitise or wash hands before changing and after and keep all people and especially kids ( who carry a lot more bugs than we think they do! ) that have flu like symptoms away until fully recovered.

Be safe and keep baby safe too.