Baby's First Days: Bowel Movements & Urination

Urination

Your baby may urinate as often as every one to three hours or as infrequently as four to six times a day. If she’s ill or feverish, or when the weather is extremely hot, her usual output of urine may drop by half and still be normal. Urination should never be painful. If you notice any signs of distress while your infant is urinating, notify your pediatrician, as this could be a sign of infection or some other problem in the urinary tract.

In a healthy child, urine is light to dark yellow in color. (The darker the color, the more concentrated the urine; the urine will be more concentrated when your child is not drinking a lot of liquid.) Sometimes you’ll see a pink stain on the diaper that you may mistake for blood. In fact, this stain is usually a sign of highly concentrated urine, which has a pinkish color. As long as the baby is wetting at least four diapers a day, there probably is no cause for concern, but if the pinkish staining persists, consult your pediatrician.

The presence of actual blood in the urine or a bloody spot on the diaper is never normal, and your pediatrician should be notified. It may be due to nothing more serious than a small sore caused by diaper rash, but it also could be a sign of a more serious problem. If this bleeding is accompanied by other symptoms, such as abdominal pain or bleeding in other areas, seek medical attention for your baby immediately.

Bowel Movements

Beginning with the first day of life and lasting for a few days, your baby will have her first bowel movements, which are often referred to as meconium. This thick black or dark-green substance filled her intestines before birth, and once the meconium is passed, the stools will turn yellow-green.

If your baby is breastfed, her stools soon should resemble light mustard with seedlike particles. Until she starts to eat solid foods, the consistency of the stools may range from very soft to loose and runny. If she’s formula-fed, her stools usually will be tan or yellow in color. They will be firmer than in a baby who is breastfed, but no firmer than peanut butter.

Whether your baby is breastfed or bottle-fed, hard or very dry stools may be a sign that she is not getting enough fluid or that she is losing too much fluid due to illness, fever, or heat. Once she has started solids, hard stools might indicate that she’s eating too many constipating foods, such as cereal or cow’s milk, before her system can handle them. (Whole cow’s milk is not recommended for babies under twelve months.)

Here are some other important points to keep in mind about bowel movements:

• Occasional variations in color and consistency of the stools are normal. For example, if the digestive process slows down because the baby has had a particularly large amount of cereal that day or foods requiring more effort to digest, the stools may become green; or if the baby is given supplemental iron, the stools may turn dark brown. If there is a minor irritation of the anus, streaks of blood may appear on the outside of the stools. However, if there are large amounts of blood, mucus, or water in the stool, call your pediatrician immediately. These symptoms may indicate an intestinal condition that warrants attention from your doctor.
• Because an infant’s stools are normally soft and a little runny, it’s not always easy to tell when a young baby has mild diarrhea. The telltale signs are a sudden increase in frequency (to more than one bowel movement per feeding) and unusually high liquid content in the stool. Diarrhea may be a sign of intestinal infection, or it may be caused by a change in the baby’s diet. If the baby is breastfeeding, she can even develop diarrhea because of a change in the mother’s diet.
• The main concern with diarrhea is the possibility that dehydration can develop. If fever is also present and your infant is less than two months old, call your pediatrician. If your baby is over two months and the fever lasts more than a day, check her urine output and rectal temperature; then report your findings to your doctor so he can determine what needs to be done. Make sure your baby continues to feed frequently. As much as anything else, if she simply looks sick, let your doctor know.

The frequency of bowel movements varies widely from one baby to another. Many pass a stool soon after each feeding. This is a result of the gastrocolic reflex, which causes the digestive system to become active whenever the stomach is filled with food.

By three to six weeks of age, some breastfed babies have only one bowel movement a week and still are normal. This happens because breastmilk leaves very little solid waste to be eliminated from the child’s digestive system. Thus, infrequent stools are not a sign of constipation and should not be considered a problem as long as the stools are soft (no firmer than peanut butter), and your infant is otherwise normal, gaining weight steadily, and nursing regularly.

If your baby is formula-fed, she should have at least one bowel movement a day. If she has fewer than this and appears to be straining because of hard stools, she may be constipated. Check with your pediatrician for advice on how to handle this problem.

World Breastfeeding Week

1–7 August 2012

World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year from 1 to 7 August in more than 170 countries to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies around the world. It commemorates the Innocenti Declaration made by WHO and UNICEF policy-makers in August 1990 to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding is the best way to provide newborns with the nutrients they need. WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding until a baby is six months old, and continued breastfeeding with the addition of nutritious complementary foods for up to two years or beyond.

World Hepatitis Day

28 July 2012

WHO World Hepatitis Day is marked to increase the awareness and understanding of viral hepatitis and the diseases that it causes. It provides an opportunity to focus on specific actions such as:

• strengthening prevention, screening and control of viral hepatitis and its related diseases;
• increasing hepatitis B vaccine coverage and integration into national immunization programmes; and
• coordinating a global response to hepatitis.

Hepatitis viruses A, B, C, D and E can cause acute and chronic infection and inflammation of the liver leading to cirrhosis and liver cancer. These viruses constitute a major global health risk with around 240 million people being chronically infected with hepatitis B and around 150 million people being chronically infected with hepatitis C.

A Special Message to New Fathers

While this time can be challenging for new fathers, it can also be uniquely rewarding.

Adjusting Priorities

Just as mothers occasionally need to readjust their priorities, fathers now have a golden opportunity to show more of their nurturing side by caring for Mom, the baby, and possibly other siblings. Although not all fathers have the option of paternity leave from work, those who do and take advantage of it may find it priceless. If Mom was the center of a sibling’s universe and Dad was only an afterthought, Dad may suddenly be more “cool” once a newborn comes home. By adjusting his priorities (at home and at work) and “rising to the occasion,” Dad can strengthen an already strong bond with Mom as well as with the new child. By working as a team, parenting couples may be amazed at how well they can adapt to their new, stressful circumstances.

Teamwork

Of course, balancing the seemingly constant demands of the baby, the needs of other children, and the household chores is not always easy. Nights spent feeding, diapering, and walking the floor with a crying baby can quickly take their toll in fatigue for both parents. But by working as a team to relieve each other for naps, for exercise, and for “downtime,” parenting couples might find that even though they share less “quality time” together, they may actually feel closer than ever. Sometimes there may be conflict and jealous feelings. These are normal, and thankfully, temporary. Life soon settles into a fairly regular routine that will once again give you some time to yourselves and restore your sex life and social activities to normal. Meanwhile, make an effort for just the two of you to spend some time together each day enjoying each other’s company while the baby is sleeping or somebody else is caring for her. Remember, you’re entitled to hold, hug, cuddle, and kiss each other as well as the baby.

Playing with Baby

A positive way for men to deal with these issues is to become as involved as possible in caring for and playing with the new baby. When you spend this extra time with your child, you’ll get just as emotionally attached to her as her mother will.

This is not to say that moms and dads play with babies the same way. In general, fathers play to arouse and excite their babies, while mothers generally concentrate on more low- key stimulation such as gentle rocking, quiet interactive games, singing, and soothing activities. From the baby’s viewpoint, both play styles are equally valuable and complement each other beautifully, which is another reason why it’s so important to have both of you involved in the care of the baby.

FEEEDING GUIDELINES FOR PARENTS

Parents’ responsibilities include: 

• Choosing food 
• Setting routine 
• Creating a positive, nonstressful mealtime environment 
• Being a role model for their child

• Regarding mealtime as a family time

Parents need to:

 •Offer new foods repeatedly (8-10 times) to establish acceptance or rejection of that

food 

•Offer 3 meals and 2 healthful snacks per day 

•Teach skills such as handling of spoons and drinking from a cup to encourage self-feeding.

VITAMIN D

TEETHING

Teething usually starts during these months. The two front teeth (central incisors), either upper or lower, usually appear first, followed by the opposite front teeth. The first molars come in next, followed by the canines or eyeteeth.

There is great variability in the timing of teething. If your child doesn’t show any teeth until later than this age period, don’t worry. The timing may be determined by heredity, and it doesn’t mean that anything is wrong.

Teething occasionally may cause mild irritability, crying, a low-grade temperature (but not over 101 degrees Fahrenheit or 38.3 degrees Celsius), excessive drooling, and a desire to chew on something hard. More often, the gums around the new teeth will swell and be tender. To ease your baby’s discomfort, try gently rubbing or massaging the gums with one of your fingers. Teething rings are helpful, too, but they should be made of firm rubber. (The teethers that you freeze tend to get too hard and can cause more harm than good.) Pain relievers and medications that you rub on the gums are not necessary or useful since they wash out of the baby’s mouth within minutes. Some medication you rub on your child’s gums can even be harmful if too much is used and the child swallows an excessive amount. If your child seems particularly miserable or has a fever higher than 101 degrees Fahrenheit (38.3 degrees Celsius), it’s probably not because she’s teething, and you should consult your pediatrician.

How should you clean the new teeth? Simply brush them with a soft child’s toothbrush when you first start seeing her teeth. To prevent cavities, never let your baby fall asleep with a bottle, either at nap time or at night. By avoiding this situation, you’ll keep milk from pooling around the teeth and creating a breeding ground for decay.

Cereal in a Bottle: Solid Food Shortcuts to Avoid

While the habit of adding cereal to an infant’s bottle is one that has been around for a long time, there are several compelling reasons why you really shouldn’t do it unless advised by your pediatrician.

• Ready or Not. A baby’s digestive system is not thought to be well prepared to process cereal until about 4 to 6 months of age. When he is old enough to digest cereal, he should also be ready to eat it from a spoon.
• Too Hard to Handle. Offering cereal in a bottle (or even on a spoon) before babies are developmentally ready can increase the likelihood of gagging and/or inhaling the thickened mixture into their lungs. Unless there’s a medical reason for giving it early, it’s not worth jumping the gun.
• Allergy Activation. Exposure to solid foods before the age of 4 months may put babies at risk for developing food allergies in the future—a risk that can be minimized by simply waiting until 4 to 6 months when the time is right.
• Overfeeding. Perhaps the biggest reason not to take the addition of cereal in a bottle too lightly relates to overfeeding. By instinct, your baby knows how much breast milk or formula to drink based on volume, not calories. While it is said to be difficult to overfeed a baby, this applies when you’re talking about breast milk or formula alone. As soon as cereal gets added in, things get a little murky—so murky, in fact, that putting cereal in the bottle is considered by some to be a form of force-feeding that can cause babies to “overdose” on calories.

How much sleep is normal for children?

Are all childhood vaccines available at MUSKAN CLINIC

Yes all childhood vaccines are available at MUSKAN CLINIC. Vaccines required for International Travel i.e.,

1. University students
2. Haj Travel 
3. Yellow fever vaccine  

are available at International Travel Vaccine Clinic

What is the latest Immunization schedule in India ?

DETAILS OF CLINIC

Muskan Clinic is being run by Dr. Ajay K Gupta ( CHILD SPECIALIST ) & Dr. Deepa Gupta providing medical care for children and mothers for last 15 years in VASUNDHARA ENCLAVE.


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