News Moms Need

Your baby’s bowel moments depend on her age and eating habits. Every baby is different. Some babies have a bowel movement right after each feeding. Others have it only once a day.

In the first week of life, newborns should produce some stool at least once a day. If your baby is not, let her health care provider know. You want to be sure all systems are functioning normally. After a week or two her system will shift into a pattern that works well for her. It is not uncommon for a breastfed baby (3 to 6 weeks of age) to pass stools every few days or only once a week. Formula fed babies, however, should pass stools at least once a day.

If your baby is having irregular bowel movements but her stools are soft (no firmer than peanut butter), this isn’t a sign of constipation. But if your baby’s stools are firm, she seems fussy or cries when having a bowel movement, she might be constipated. At any age, if the stools are large, hard and dry and hurt to pass, or if you see blood on or in the stool, talk to your baby’s health care provider. He may recommend giving her small amounts of water or prune juice.

In toddlers and older children, aside from increasing the amount of water they drink, you may need to add more high-fiber foods to their diet – foods like apricots, prunes, plums, peas, beans, broccoli and whole-grain cereals and breads. Back off foods that can tend to bind you up like bananas, white rice and plain white bread.

Today’s post is written by Sarah Ingersoll, Text4baby Campaign Director, National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition

September marks National Infant Mortality Awareness Month and while millions of families prepare their children for a new school year, this is also a time to reflect on the thousands of families who have lost a child far too soon. The infant mortality rate (6 in 1,000 live births) in the U.S. is one of the highest among developed nations and rates are much higher within the African-American community, regardless of income, educational level, or location. More than twice as many African-American babies die compared to their White counterparts during the first year of life, statistics that reflect a true health crisis in our country.

We know that providing mothers with the best possible information and access to care can help. This is where text4baby comes in. Text4baby is the nation’s first free text messaging service for pregnant women and mothers of infants under age one. Moms receive three text messages every week, timed to their due date or baby’s birth date, throughout pregnancy and up to baby’s first birthday. Moms get information on labor signs and symptoms, developmental milestones, breastfeeding, car seat and sleep safety, and many other topics. To sign up, textBABYto511411.

In honoring Infant Mortality Awareness Month and striving to empower more moms with text4baby, those who sign up between September 1 and September 30 will be entered to win a year’s supply of baby products courtesy of the program’s Founding Sponsor, Johnson & Johnson. Sign up now and be sure to share with your friends and loved ones!

Learn more at http://text4baby.org/. Follow up on Facebook and twitter (@mytext4baby)!

Eczema is a long-term skin condition that involves red, scaly, itchy patches and sometimes blisters. Eczema isn’t really one thing – it’s actually a number of different skin conditions in which the skin is red and irritated. The most common cause of eczema is atopic dermatitis, sometimes called infantile eczema, although it occurs in older children as well as infants.

Children who get eczema usually are overly sensitive to allergens in their environment such as pollens, molds, dust, animal dander, and certain foods. They often have a family history of allergies. Although eczema may not be caused by allergies, their hypersensitive skin reacts when exposed to an irritant.

The most common place for eczema to first show on an infant is on the cheeks or forehead. From there it may spread to behind the ears and down the neck. The skin can have tiny blisters or look dry and scaly, almost as if there were a salty crust to it. As a baby ages, the most common places to find eczema are creases in the elbows and behind the knees.
 
Eczema is a chronic disease. You can prevent some types of eczema by avoiding irritants, stress, and the things you are allergic to. Use soap as little as possible because of its drying effect on the skin. Keep bath water warm, not hot. The most important thing to do to help the skin irritation is to apply a plain skin moisturizer (no alcohol, fragrances or dyes) several times a day. Your pharmacist can recommend a good one.

In older babies and children who are eating a variety of solid foods and have severe eczema, a health care provider may want to experiment by eliminating foods and tracking reactions. (You shouldn’t withhold foods on your own, however, without coordinating this first with your child’s provider.) For very rough, raw patches, a mild hydrocortisone cream may be prescribed. Sometimes an antihistamine is helpful in reducing the itchiness.

If you’re having trouble getting your child’s eczema under control, take a look at this interactive Eczema Health Check.

For photos of eczema and more information, click on this link.

The Apgar Score is well-known, even to those with only passing familiarity of hospital delivery rooms and birthing centers. Yet to summarize Virginia Apgar’s entire career in the scoring system that measures a baby’s heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, reflexes, and color is much like trying to scale Mount Everest from one’s backyard. True, the Apgar Score is a standard clinical procedure that protects the lives of babies, but how does it fit in with Dr. Apgar’s other achievements?

Virginia Apgar, MD (1909-1974) was an obstetrical anesthesiologist who joined the March of Dimes to expand her outreach as an advocate for mothers and babies. She became a pivotal figure in helping to redirect our mission to birth defects prevention in the 1960s. In fact, she was the first medical leader at the March of Dimes to recognize prematurity as a serious problem that demanded a strengthened focus on the importance of early prenatal care.

At a time when fetal monitors were not yet invented and babies were given scant attention after delivery, Dr. Apgar questioned how best to evaluate the newborn infant to improve health and survival rates. With years of experience observing the effects of anesthesia on mother and child, she created a simple five-point scoring method designed to focus attention on the newborn to check its vital signs. Later, at the March of Dimes, she initiated a program for rubella immunization and insisted on making genetic history and pregnancy history a routine part of medical record-keeping on the pregnant mother. And, she always believed it a primary responsibility to remove the stigma of birth defects in her educational outreach.

In 1960, less than a year after joining the March of Dimes, Dr. Apgar participated in a prematurity prevention symposium in Pittsburgh. Thereafter, she continued to educate both the medical and lay communities about prematurity as she brought the problem to the forefront of her work to prevent birth defects. The Apgar Score, as the first clinical method to recognize the newborn as a patient, stimulated research in the prevention of birth defects, but Dr. Apgar’s larger achievement included a holistic perspective on pregnancy and infant health that did not fail to recognize the problem of premature birth. One could easily say that Virginia Apgar was the “founder” of prematurity as an essential part of the March of Dimes mission.

Virginia Apgar was an irrepressible and charismatic champion for babies whose wit and lively personality captivated everyone she encountered in her constant quest for improvements to infant health. She was a caring, enthusiastic physician with super-abundant energy, and she was always ready to explain to anyone who would listen why it is so important “to be good to your baby before it is born.”

In this video, Dr. Siobhan Dolan visits a new mom to give her tips on how to put her newborn to sleep.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and five retailers are announcing a voluntary recall to provide refunds to consumers who own crib tents and play yard tents made by Tots in Mind, Inc. The crib tents and play yard tents can present an entrapment and strangulation hazard to infants and toddlers if the dome portion inverts inside the crib or play yard, or if the product becomes partially detached from the crib or play yard.

CPSC staff urges parents and caregivers to stop using these crib tents and play yard tents immediately. Do not attempt to repair these products. CPSC is aware of 27 tent failures including one fatality and one serious injury that occurred between January 1997 and April 2012 from crib tents and play yard tents made by Tots in Mind, Inc.

Since Tots in Mind, Inc. is no longer in business, retailers who sold these products have stepped up to offer refunds or store credit to consumers. The recalled products were sold at numerous retail stores including Bed Bath & Beyond/Buy Buy Baby, Burlington Coat Factory, Toys R Us/Babies R Us, Walmart and online on websites including Amazon.com, for between $60 and $85.

Consumers should contact the store where the product was purchased to receive either a refund or store credit, depending on the retailer. Click on this link for more contact information.

Some parents think that a baby, even a breastfed baby is constipated if she isn’t having a bowel movement every day. That’s not necessarily so. As long as the movement is  very soft, there is no reason why a baby needs to have a bowel movement every day. Each baby is different – some will have two a day, others will have one every other day. The important thing is the stool must have a soft consistency.

Once solid foods start being introduced into her diet, it may take a while for your little one’s bowels to adjust to digesting more complicated food. At this point, her stools will firm up and she’ll have a movement less often.  That’s normal, but if the stools seem hard and uncomfortable to pass, tell your baby’s doctor. He will probably OK giving her a little prune juice or stewed prunes. Most babies seem to take to prunes fairly well.

Constipation should be just a temporary problem. If it lasts longer than a week, check with your baby’s doc or nurse practitioner for ways to correct it.

Every week of pregnancy is crucial to a newborn’s health. Earlier this month the March of Dimes unveiled a new public education campaign to raise awareness about the important development that occurs during those last few weeks.

The campaign, called “Healthy Babies Are Worth the Wait,” encourages women to allow labor to begin on its own if their pregnancy is healthy. It aims to dispel the myth that it’s safe to schedule a delivery before 39 weeks of pregnancy without a medical need.

Babies born after 37 weeks of pregnancy are full-term. However, new research has shown that a baby’s brain nearly doubles in weight in the last few weeks of pregnancy. Also, important lung and other organ development occur at this time. And, although the overall risk of death is small, it is double for infants born at 37 weeks of pregnancy, when compared to babies born at 40 weeks, for all races and ethnicities.

“Some women mistakenly think that the only thing a baby does during the last weeks of pregnancy is gain weight, making labor and delivery more difficult,” said Judith Nolte, a member of the March of Dimes national Board of Trustees and former editor-in-chief of American Baby Magazine Group, who worked with the March of Dimes to develop the new awareness campaign. “When the moms in our focus groups learned about the important brain and organ development that occurs, they were more than willing to put up with their own discomfort so their baby could get a healthy start in life.”

Only 25 percent of women know a full-term pregnancy should last at least 39 weeks, according to research published in the December 2009 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

“Women may feel worried, anxious, or simply uncomfortable near the end of their pregnancy. But unless there are medical complications, the healthiest and safest place for that developing infant is in the womb,” said Eve M. Lackritz, MD, chief of the Maternal and Infant Health Branch, Division of Reproductive Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who outlined the health consequences of an early birth. “Term labor and delivery are not just normal and natural – they’re the healthiest alternative for both the mother and the infant.”

Information about the new Healthy Babies Are Worth the Wait educational campaign can be found at marchofdimes.com/39weeks.

There are lots of benefits to infant massage – benefits to baby and to parents alike. Parents bond closer to their baby and communicate better through this gentle touch and babies, even ones with colic, have a whole host of health benefits.

Studies have shown that infant massage promotes the release of growth hormones; it lowers the level of stress hormones which improves the immune function; it improves blood circulation and the absorption of food; it reduces colic and improves sleep (which will improve sleep for parents, too!). In premature infants, it can improve weight gain and motor development.

So when and how do you do this? It’s best to wait for baby to be in a calm state when starting massage. Some parents find the time right after a baby’s bath to be ideal. Find a warm, quiet spot where you won’t be disturbed by others or the phone. Take off jewelry so you won’t accidentally scratch your little beauty and wash your hands in warm water to warm them up.

Place your naked baby on a towel or soft blanket and, using a small amount of edible oil, like olive oil or vegetable oil (you know your baby’s hands and possibly feet are going to find their way into her mouth), gently use your fingertips and palms of your hands to massage your baby. Use a light touch and don’t use more pressure than you would when you massage your own temples. Talk in a low soothing tone.

Keep oils away from your baby’s face, but be sure to gently rub her temples and forehead. Using your thumbs, make her upper lip smile and lower one frown. Rub her ears from the bottom of the lobe to the top of each ear. Place both hands together on the middle of her chest and gently push out to the sides, then circle back to the center of her chest. Massage your baby’s tummy in a circular pattern going in a clockwise direction as you look down at her. Rub the arms and legs from shoulder to fingertips, hip to toe with gentle squeezes and light twists. Gently knead her thighs. You can hold her ankles and slowly make bicycling movements while she bends her knees. You might get some chuckles out of this one, not to mention little baby toots!

Infant massage can last for 15 minutes or as long as you both like. Once she is crawling, it might not last more than a minute or two! Enjoy your special time together.

This year we posted numerous recalls on drop-side cribs.  The U.S. Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Chairman Inez Tenenbaum, U.S. senators and a parent whose child died from a faulty crib announced on December 15th that the CPSC has approved new federal rules to end dangerous, traditional drop-side cribs.  The new federal crib standards, set to take effect in June, would stop the sale, re-sale, manufacture, and distribution of drop-side cribs and would also prohibit drop-side cribs at motels, hotels and childcare facilities. Drop side cribs have resulted in the deaths of at least 32 infants since 2001.

CPSC’s new federal standards will also make mattress supports stronger, crib hardware sturdier and compliance testing more rigorous.  This is the first time in nearly 30 years that federal crib standards have been updated.