When you are sick

[llghoney]

Has your kid(s) gotten sick too? I'm sick as all get out with a nasty cold & am so scared to be around Grace a lot. I know it sounds silly but I so don't want her to get sick.

 

[Birbitt]

I did two things when I was sick one I would be sure to wash my hands even more than usual and I would keep clorox wipes around to wipe everything down when I was done with it. Two when I was holding my baby I would avoid as much as possible breathing on the baby and I would make sure to not cough or sneeze at the baby (I kept a cloth on my shoulder to cough and sneeze into). I don't know if these things helped or not but most often when I was sick the baby didn't get sick and if he did get sick it wasn't nearly as bad as what I had.

 

[sleepythesahm]

no it makes sense to me. My son has compromised immune system (he was a preemie,28 weeks) so him getting sick is always catastrophic. I put hand sanitizer everywhere,and wash my hands more. I use clorox wipes on everything.When he was younger I honestly used face masks. We couldnt risk it.Now i try to find activities that minimize holding. While hes asleep Ill put all is faves somewhere they shouldnt be,like the living room.It keeps him busy and it excites him

 

[gracepaints]

We were sick A LOT this first year of DS's life. I would say, he got what we had less than 50% of the time. Just wash your hands a lot but otherwise, don't worry too much. She's already breathing in all the same germs you have, so the best you can do is try and cut down on the skin to skin transmission. Besides, a little contact with germies will just make her immune system more robust.

 

[llghoney]

I have been trying to not breathe right in her face & hubby has been helping me thank goodness. We were going to get some masks too but I think like Gracepaints said the germ is in the house & she is either gonna resist it or get it. I just pray she resists!

 

[gracepaints]

We did wind up buying an air filter thingy. I'm not sure it made much of a difference, but it made me feel like we were at least trying to keep the germs down.

 

[tiredwalker]

I was worrying about this too. We haven't had any illnesses yet, but I'm sure we'll get them sooner or later. I do expect and even want her to get public germs (not hospital ones...nonono) to build up her immune system like GP said, but she's still a little young yet.

 

[sleepythesahm]

the air filter is a pretty good idea, but a lot of them statistically dont work. I hope you feel better

 

[jgonz]

Generally speaking, in the case of a healthy baby:
If you are breastfeeding any germs that the baby has been exposed to are transferred to you (via your milk ducts) and your body immediately makes antibodies to whatever you have. So the baby may end up with a little congestion (even if you have a horrid cold/flu), but Nothing as bad as you have.

 

[llghoney]

^^ lol, I'm not BF hence my rant in the formula feeding thread.

 

[gracepaints]

Don't feel bad, lg. I was a breastfeeding pro and my kiddo still got sick 3+ times this last year starting at 7 weeks old.

 

[sleepythesahm]

Generally speaking, in the case of a healthy baby:
If you are breastfeeding any germs that the baby has been exposed to are transferred to you (via your milk ducts) and your body immediately makes antibodies to whatever you have. So the baby may end up with a little congestion (even if you have a horrid cold/flu), but Nothing as bad as you have.

the most wonderful thing,dont you think?
Im so amazed by the miracle of everything about being a mom. Ill save it for another thred though

 

[jgonz]

llghoney, I'm sorry. I get everyone mixed up so I forget who's nursing and who's formula feeding. Old age I guess. lol

One thing you can do for a formula feeding baby is to add probiotics to the baby's bottle. There is a brand specifically for adding to formula... "Life Start" made by Natren. (I'm sure there are others, but this is the only one I've been able to get here.) Anyway, probiotics help the gut work better by adding good bacteria... which helps the body work more efficiently as well.

You could also do infant liquid vitamins every couple of days to help boost the baby's immune system.

HTH~

 

[llghoney]

It's ok Jgonz. I had bought some vitamins but read or heard that it's not good to give infants extra vitamins. I can't remember why they said that. It may have been in the Dr. Sears book.

 

[gracepaints]

Probiotics are enzymes (good gut bacteria) not vitamins, so they are okay. Even Dr. Sears recommends them.

 

[llghoney]

Yeah I knew the probiotics weren't vitamins but, I'm so funny with giving Grace anything extra. I guess because my system can't handle stuff like that so I'm thinking hers may not.

 

[illudium_phosdex]

This may sound horrid on my part but often when I was sick, I was thankful if my kids got what I had too. Here's why. If I got sick and the kids didn't, it took that much longer for me of get over what ever I had because I was having to still keep up with two active babies/toddlers. Whereas if they got sick too, I'd bundle us all up in our bed and we'd get over it together. When they were sick too, they were not nearly so active and we could all get well faster. And they loved sleeping right next to me when they were sick.

This is not to say that I intentionally breathed my germs on them. I never did that. I took all the precautions I could but sometimes it just can't be avoided and as I said, I was thankful a lot of the time.

 

[Neenie1]

Well at the moment I have a cold too. Neither of my kids have it. Dh has it but only slightly.

I haven't taken any precautions for them not to get sick, nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe I'm slack - I just didn't think about it. We are very busy at the moment which is probably why I have a cold.