5 mistakes parents make with newborns -- and how to avoid them
Empowered Patient is a regular feature from CNN Medical News correspondent Elizabeth Cohen that helps put you in the driver's seat when it comes to health care. When you take your bundle of joy home from the hospital, it's inevitable you won't do everything right. We asked pediatricians for the five most common mistakes parents make with their newborns. startclickprintexclude--> Exposing your baby to lots of germy people is a problem for two reasons. One, he could get a life-threatening bacterial infection. Two, even if he gets a fever from a virus (which is less dangerous), doctors will still have to hospitalize him to make sure it's not something more serious. "A fever in a baby less than six weeks old is an automatic ticket for a two-day hospital stay," says Brown. "Your kid's going to get a spinal tap, blood drawn, and catheterized for urine." what could be more depressing than being cooped up with a kid who's not talking to you and cries all the time?" says Brown. Brown encourages her patients to take their newborns for walks outside. She also tells them if they need to take the baby to the grocery store, to pick a time when it will be less crowded. startclickprintexclude--> • They don't vaccinate their babies even though the pediatric academy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and virtually every scientific organization recommends it. • They don't bring a baby with a fever to see the pediatrician. Any newborn with a fever needs to be evaluated by a doctor. |
