Baby Cold – The Gentle Way To Medicate

Posted on February 8, 2012 by James

Baby cold medicineOur toddler has been put on a course of antibiotics to help with a baby cold but she refuses to take them.

I needed a solution to the problem of how to get a baby with a cold to take medicine. We came up with something that worked really well for us that we call the gentle leverage technique.

Most importantly we made sure that we very carefully explained all about medicine and what it does and why we have to take it. We didn’t want to create any fear about it. We told her that the Doctor said that she had a baby cold and cough and that you have to take the medicine to make you feel better.

The first time we tried to get the baby cold medicine in her mouth she spat it out straight away. Even though it was a fairly bland tasting kind of gel the fact that she didn’t see it coming probably freaked her out more than the actual taste.

I just kind of snuck up on her while Mum was changing her and I shoved the little plastic syringe in her mouth and squirted in as much as I could. Not one of my greatest ideas. She spat it all right back at me and then looked at me as if to say, “What the..?” Not a good start.

After that she struggled and squirmed, cried and screamed and in the end we gave up. Things were not going as planned. We would need to re-group and consider another strategy and start again tomorrow morning.

We discussed the option of forcing her. Yep, that’s right. Holding her down and forcing the baby cold medicine in her mouth and then holding her nose until she swallows it. I was starting to get quite uncomfortable with where this was heading.

Not only did it feel violent and abusive but I am sure we were starting to create issues not only around medicine taking that would come back to bite us in the future. There had to be a better way.

What we needed was some bargaining power. Some way to make her drink it voluntarily. What is it that she really wants to do and how can we swap that activity for a dose of baby cold medicine?

Let’s face it, you have no bargaining power just before bed. I mean what can you say? OK Johnny, if you don’t drink your medicine you can’t go to bed. “No problems Dad I really wanted to go to bed anyway so I’d be happy to take your stinky medicine.” I don’t think so.

We wanted to be careful not to give her a treat as a reward. Three treats a day for ten days is way too many in my book and besides treats are for exemplary behaviour not everyday activities.

The only thing we could think of was not letting her get out of bed. Every morning she calls out and one of us will go and get her out of bed. If we tell her that she can’t get out of bed until she has her medicine then maybe we have a chance. She really wants to get out of bed.

The next morning I went in to get her out of bed with a loaded plastic syringe in hand.
“Good morning sweetheart”
“Morning Dadda” she says” Uppy.”
“We have to have our medicine before we get uppy don’t we?”
“No. No like med-cin.”
“The Doctor says we have to take it honey.”
“No”
“Well we can’t get up until we have it”
“No!”
“OK then, Daddy will just have to wait here until you are ready.” I pulled up a chair and proceeded to get comfortable. This could take a while.

She looked at me for a few seconds just to see if I was serious before leaning over and opening her mouth. I squirted the required dose in and she swallowed it all without a fuss.

This worked in the same way again after her midday nap and in the evening before bed we swapped medicine taking for watching her favourite 5 minute cartoon. She had already had the medicine twice that day and quickly realized that it wasn’t nearly as bad as missing Dorothy the Dinosaur.

After that it was smooth sailing. She knew that she wasn’t getting out of bed or watching Dorothy until her dose of baby cold medicine was complete so she complied. I know that it all sounds way too easy (we were surprised ourselves) but that is exactly how it happened. I can’t tell you how glad I was that we didn’t have to force her.

Open wide…

Posted in Health, Parenting | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Breastfeeding

Posted on January 30, 2012 by James

Feeding a new baby can be a frustrating and confusing time so I thought I’d put down the breastfeeding routine we followed for the first 6 months of our little one’s life. Please note that this is a guide only as your baby may sleep/feed/play for longer or shorter periods.

As bub gets older there will be less feeding time (they will drain your breast faster) and more awake time so this will need to be adjusted according to your baby’s stage.

The most important thing we found was keeping to the exact routine, that way bub gets to know the drill pretty quickly. If you are changing from some other breastfeeding scenario then expect a bit of resistance to start with as baby might be a little confused but don’t worry they will adjust.

The times used here are only a guide as the routine starts whenever bub wakes up. If you are confident and definite about your actions then baby will sense this. The reverse is also true so even if you are not sure then pretend that you are!

7.00am – Wake up, change nappy and then offer left breast until empty.
7.20am – Offer right breast and feed until baby is done.
7.40am – Put baby on shoulder and pat back lightly to ‘burp’.
7.45am – Playtime with eye contact and talking.
7.55am – 5 minutes of ‘tummy time’ is good for babies muscle development
8.00am – Another Nappy change, cuddle and back to bed for sleep until 10am.

For the sake of this exercise we will presume that bub sleeps for 2 hours in the 3 hour routine.

Even though most medical practitioners will tell you that breastfed babies don’t need burping we found this not to be the case. A tell-tale sign is unstoppable crying with a slight bluish tinged upper lip and jittery movements in the limbs.

If your bub won’t settle check for wind, temperature, comfort levels, soiled nappies or even sickness before putting them back to bed. If all of these things are OK and they still won’t settle then it’s usually a case of them wanting attention or being overtired.

We would not pick up our bub during this time – rather we would go to her cot and place a soothing hand on her for a couple of minutes and reassure her softly to let her know that we are close at hand before leaving quietly. If she continued to cry we would wait a couple of minutes and do the same thing again and again until she settled.

Remember that it takes all of your infant’s strength just to draw the milk out of your breast so if they have had a good feed then they should be exhausted pretty quickly and ready to sleep.

10.00am – Wake up, change nappy and then offer right reast until empty.
10.20am – Offer left breast and feed until baby is done.
10.40am – Put baby on shoulder and pat back lightly to ‘burp’.
10.45am – Playtime with eye contact and talking.
10.55am – 5 minutes of ‘tummy time’ is good for babies muscle development.
11.00am – Another Nappy change, cuddle and back to bed for sleep until 1pm.

…and on it goes every 3 or 4 hours.

We always let our bub sleep until she was ready rather than waking her upon the 2 hour mark to feed. Subsequently when she did sleep for longer she was even hungrier when she woke which makes for a better feed.

You can be flexible about the start time of the routine but not the actual routine. The only thing that should change is the amount of time baby sleeps. Everything else should remain the same.

It’s also a good idea to rotate which breast you offer first during each feed as they may not drain the entire second breast so that one should be offered first for the next feed. If you are having trouble remembering then tie a ribbon or pin a safety pin to the corresponding bra strap.

This breastfeeding routine worked excellently for us and after a week or two everyone knew what to expect which made for some relatively smooth sailing. Most importantly we could be confident that our little one was getting enough to eat and at the end of the day that is what it is all about.

Now let’s check that nappy…

Posted in Infant feeding, Parenting | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hello Parents!

Posted on January 18, 2012 by James

As a stay at home Dad to a two year old daughter I am discovering just how difficult it is to  care for a child.

Even though there is a lot of parenting advice out there sometimes it can be really difficult to find exactly what you need at any given moment.

For the most part I have found the best advice comes from the experiences of other parents just like you so I thought I would share the parenting advice I receive as well as other techniques I have made up along the way and together we can hopefully navigate through this awkward but rewarding time.

The biggest problem I have encountered is that every child and every parent is different and unique. That means that there is no “one size fits all” strategy and subsequently any advice is to be taken as a guide only. This is not particularly helpful when you really just need someone to tell you exactly what you are doing wrong.

Even though all babies are unique, some parenting advice is universal and these are the things that I will try to concentrate on. For example, all babies need food, shelter, clothing and lots of love if they are to develop into happy and healthy kids and adults.

The first three may sound obvious but love I hear you say? Many unfortunate studies have shown that babies who do not receive any love and affection in the early stages of their lives do not develop properly and in fact can actually die.

Nobody knows the exact chemical reasons for this however speculators say that the lack of love and affection causes babies to feel as if they are not wanted in this world and they simply give up living before their little lives have even started. I can’t tell you how sad that makes me. I wish that I could hug them all.

All kids need love and the focus of this site is to not only deliver practical parenting advice on basics like feeding and pooing but also to try to develop some other ways to teach our kids about the rights and wrongs of life with heaps of love and respect for their little developing minds and bodies.

Some of these techniques may seem a little strange sometimes but rest assured I will not publish them unless they have already worked (or been a spectacular failure) for me or for someone else.

If you are looking for advice on how to punish your child or the best way to spank them then you will not find this here. My focus is on positive reinforcement, mutual respect and plenty of love and patience to show our kids the correct ways to behave.

So let’s get the discussion started…

 

 

Posted in Development, Parenting | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment