*Baby Corner*

[angie & abed 1]

Hi everyone! I don't usually post in this forum, but I have a question about opinions about the H1N1 (Swine flu) vaccine. I have an almost 2 yo and a 3 1/2 month old. The 2 yo goes to a very small daycare (7 kids) three days a week and the 3 mo stays home with me. I know it is recommended they both get this shot, however, my husband and I really don't feel comfortable taking them to get it. Have any of you gotten your babies/kids vaccinated? If you did, have they had any reactions to it?

If not, do you plan to get them vaccinated?

I appreciate any advice or insight, I just feel like a bad mom either way I choose!

Thanks in advance!

Angie

[HLM 1]

Chrissy- praying for ur mom!!

Angie- was wondering the same thing!! Its scarey coz its almost like we are the guinea-sp?- pigs of this vaccine no one knows if it works or if it has any side effects!

I'm sure this has been discussed many times here before but it's impossible for me to go back and read the whole thread LOL, how did u ladies deal with colicky babies? its been almost the whole week that he would push so hard and scream on top of his lungs before any fart or poop and even after he does its like he takes a little break and gets on it again .... he only takes one proper nap without any of that and then the rest of the day is this painful sight of him crying and pushing! i called the office of his pediatrician and a nurse suggested "Mylicon" but when my husband went to get it the pharmacist told him that he was too young for this drug and that he needs to get a confirmation from his Dr. Let me hear how you guys dealt with this plz i need as much advice as i can!

[anya-D 8]

Chrissy- praying for ur mom!!

Angie- was wondering the same thing!! Its scarey coz its almost like we are the guinea-sp?- pigs of this vaccine no one knows if it works or if it has any side effects!

I'm sure this has been discussed many times here before but it's impossible for me to go back and read the whole thread LOL, how did u ladies deal with colicky babies? its been almost the whole week that he would push so hard and scream on top of his lungs before any fart or poop and even after he does its like he takes a little break and gets on it again .... he only takes one proper nap without any of that and then the rest of the day is this painful sight of him crying and pushing! i called the office of his pediatrician and a nurse suggested "Mylicon" but when my husband went to get it the pharmacist told him that he was too young for this drug and that he needs to get a confirmation from his Dr. Let me hear how you guys dealt with this plz i need as much advice as i can!

I used to be an aupair for a 3 month old baby and he had similar problem. We gave him prune juice and that helped a lot. Also when I saw him trying to push, I pretty much undress him and laid him on his back and hold his legs up for him. I dont know if this helped but it normally worked on him.. the first few were very hard but after that it's easier for him.

my mom said to massaeg his belly would also help things moving too.

good luck

Chrissy - I wish your mom the best

Edited October 21, 2009 by anya-D

[Eveline 9]

Angie: I have a 2.5yo in daycare and a 1yo at home. We are not going to get them vaccinated, neither regular flu nor swine flu. It's not that I want them/us to get it, it's just that I do not feel comfortable having something injected in them that hasn't been tested in any way.

@HLM: sorry for the questions but I'm losing track with all the babies here. How old is your man and do you exclusively breastfeed?

I think Anna here wrote it a while back that sometimes there is NOTHING yuo can do. They are basically born immature and that Dr. Sears calls the first three months "the fourth trimester" since that is how much time they need to fully adjust. My mom calls the first three months "the stupid first quarter year" because they just cry, fuss and try to get comfy on this side of the womb. Mylicon can be bought at the drug store without any prescription. GasX etc. is available at babies R us etc. they all have the same ingredient simethicone which helps pop the bubbles in their belly so they won't have too much excess gas. I don't think there's an age restriction on it. I remember giving it to my kids shortly after birth.

Edited October 21, 2009 by Eveline

[Nessa 23]

Ben had an eye appointment today for his blocked tearduct and the doctor said we could perform a surgery, but they'd have to put him to sleep. i asked if it was safe, he said worst case scenario is he never wakes up, but that rarely happens. i said no thanks

[Eveline 9]

Oh wow Nessa. IS there any way you can unplug the duct with massaging his eye? I've heard of some moms doing that and it worked just fine. Good luck.

[Nessa 23]

yeah he told me to keep doing that, and that as the baby's head grow the duct will eventually open. there are cases it doesn't and if that's his case, he should have the surgery when he's 10 mo.

he said he could do the procedure with the baby awake, but he doesn't recommend. i'd definitely prefer that, i know it would be terrible for the baby, but it would last a couple min, it's way better than risk one of the anesthesia problems.

the anesthesia thing i've heard nbefore, everybody can go through that, it's a risk, not only for babies, it's for everybody that undergoes that procedure.

[Eveline 9]

both my babies were put 'to sleep' for their tubes but it was for such a short time that they didn't even need an IV or anything and they were awake only minutes after finishing the procedure. I'm sure 'eye surgery' would take a little bit longer than that. I can totally understand yuor fears.

[Mommy2ZaidnSalma 11]

Nessa, tear duct probs run in my family and in every case, they just ran their course, I personally wouldnt put my kid under after a doc told me that. Im sure there are other options.

HLM. Mylicon is fine for baby altho with Colic it really doesnt help. Are you bf or formula? Zaid was put on a hypoallergenic formula for colic but it is VERY expensive although very worth it bc he was a new kid overnight and didnt even have to push to poop. it just kinda came out of him. Do you have a swing? When zaids colic was at its worst we swaddled him REAL tight and put him in the swing and we could get him to sleep for a few hours. put warm water in a water bottle and rub it on his belly (kinda put a lil pressure) carry him around on his belly with it against ur arm

and most importantly...

RUN THE VACUUM! LOL Zaid would sleep for HOURS with the vacuum on. It was loud and annoying but SO worth it. Alot of people I know with colic I recommended this and they laughed it off and finally gave in one day and tried it and couldnt believe the results. i went and bought a cheap lil 30$ vaccum so the motor on our expensive one wouldnt blow and it worked wonders!!

[tnh9479 1]

Gripe water worked well for helping Zak with his tummy issues. It is mainly herbs and water. You can buy it at the grocery store or local drug store. After 3 months, he was a much better baby. I think his GI track just needed to mature.

[caybee 21]

HLM, I know it's so hard to see him uncomfortable like that! Rayan's colic isn't as constant as it is for some babies, but I'll write out what we've done:

I've given him Mylicon a few times, but it hasn't seemed to do much good. I try to nurse him through some of the spells, since he sometimes passes a lot of gas when he's nursing, but sometimes he'll kick and swing his arms and fret while he's trying to nurse, and I keep having to help him latch on again. So far, I haven't been able to get him to keep a paci in his mouth.

For the first few weeks, I had a lot of trouble getting him to burp. I was patting his back maybe three times a second. I slowed it down to once a second at my husband's suggestion, and now I'll usually get a good burp out of him when I'm switching sides during a feeding.

Sometimes it helps to put him on his back beside me on the sofa and just bounce his feet up and down for a while; I'll put my forearm under his feet and bounce them. Even just elevating his feet on a pillow helps sometimes. Sometimes it helps to hold his knees together and press them back against his chest gently a few times, and also to bicycle his feet; that releases gas sometimes. My husband found that when he changes his diaper and he's fretting, if he leaves the diaper off for a few minutes and works with his legs like that, it sometimes releases more gas; he thinks the diaper sometimes restricts things a little. I don't know, but he does seem to like a little break from the diaper sometimes, and he passed a lot of gas once when I tried my husband's suggestion.

I have read that some babies respond well to being placed on their stomachs either across the parent's knees or across their arm, but Rayan doesn't like this. Sometimes he does calm down if I hold him with his chin over my shoulder, burping position, and twist myself back and forth at the waist. My husband actually spins all the way around with him sometimes.

I have heard that some parents take their colicky babies driving around the neighborhood. We haven't done this yet. When my parents have kept him, they take turns walking him around, and they take him in the kitchen and turn on the fan in the hood over the stove, or they turn on the tap in the kitchen. They've had some success with that, but we have not.

What seems to work the best for him at our place is to turn on the electric pump for our air mattress (not attached to the mattress). It makes loud white noise like a vacuum cleaner or a hairdryer. The first time I ever tried it, he went to sleep immediately. Sometimes, he needs a little extra with it; I'll turn on Nick Jr. with no sound plus the air pump, or I'll lie down and nurse him with the air pump on (I often fall asleep that way myself). The theory is that his nervous system isn't fully developed yet, and he's not yet able to filter out all of the stimuli he's being bombarded with, so the white noise helps act as a filter. It seems that once he's not so overwhelmed with stimuli, he relaxes a bit, his belly softens, and he is able to pass whatever it is that's bothering him because he's not all tightened up, and then he often sleeps. He also seems to respond to my mood. If I'm really tired and I'm getting tense from all the crying, my husband thinks he picks up on my tension, and he frets longer. He may be right, because if I'm stressed out and my husband takes Rayan for a bit when he himself isn't so tense, Rayan seems to relax a little more. So I try to work on my own relaxation and talk gently to Rayan, and when it gets to be too stressful, I hand him off to hubby.

It's all trial and error, and sometimes it takes a few tries to find what will work on that particular occasion. Sometimes nothing at all seems to help, though. Then, all we can do is take turns with him so the other person can leave the room and have a little break from the stress. And we keep telling ourselves that it won't be forever. Rayan is ten weeks old now, and we're hoping the colic will be in the past within the next two weeks to a month. Then the teething will start :-)

Oh, I keep meaning to try the gripe water, but I keep forgetting to look for it.

Good luck!

[Anna C. 4]

I read that in a trial mylicon (gas-x) and a placebo did as much as the other. It didn't do anything for us. We tried gripe water and I drank nursing teas high in fennel and carroway. Pushing his feet against his belly helped as well as massaging his tummy. But most importantly, waiting helped. After 3 months everything changes, it's just that 4th trimester.

My sister's son is what you call a crybaby. He is very colicky, hungry every 30-60 minutes and nurses that much, and never sleeps more than 15 minutes. It improved after consulting with an osteopath who did some adjustments and my sister got an ergo baby carrier. babies who are worn by their parents cry much less and are much less colicky. Google it on Dr. Sears - it is true. We did that too. I carried him so much and I still do when he is fussy! Anyways, my nephew is getting better with that treatment. And it for sure is not my sister's diet - there are no allergies in either side of the family. though there always might be in allergy, in the first three months the most likely culprit of issues is an immature gut and immature nervous system.

We didn't really use the swing until he was about 10-12 weeks... And never for longer than 20 minutes. It's not recommended to be in there longer than that, it's bad for the spine. My sister's friend, a pediatrician in research, told us not to do this longer as they have seen spinal malformations with kiddos who spent prolonged periods in swings, bouncers and exersaucers. Plus, it elevates the risk of SIDS while being in those, so closely monitor baby while using it.

[HLM 1]

Thank you all for the info! I will definitly try the the massaging!

Kelly- I breastfeed and he is about 2 weeks now. I can't wait for things to get better its getting to me i get depressed for him even tho i know its normal.

[caybee 21]

I may be able to second what Anna wrote about the baby carrier soon. I made a Maya wrap using online instructions before Rayan was born, but I've hardly used it. We coslept part of the night last night, and he was latched on and sleeping when I woke up to get ready for work. He usually sleeps until after I leave, but this morning, he started getting fussy, and I had so much to do. So I put him in the sling and got him nursing that way while I started a load of diapers, got my clothes out, and did a few other things around the house. I'm still wearing him, and he's still latched on and nursing and happy as a clam. I'm also typing very comfortably, which I haven't been able to do lately with him in front of me on the Boppy because he's gotten so big, and he kicks.

When he's fussy, he breaks his latch a lot, and he doesn't like to be swaddled at all. But right now, he's effectively swaddled against me in the sling, and he's nursing calmly without breaking his latch. This may work out very well for us. I'm just not looking forward to putting him down ten minutes from now!

[Nessa 23]

Plus, it elevates the risk of SIDS while being in those, so closely monitor baby while using it.

do u have more information on that? I always thought SIDS was related to suffocation. if the baby is in a sitted position facing up, how could SIDS be possible?