so you've gone through the nine months of pregnancy you've read all of the books about What to Expect When You're Expecting what to eat when you're expecting what how to even prepare for the hospital visit but what do you do now that you have your beautiful bundle of joy I'm sure that you have so many questions and you've been inundated with information well I'm here to help you sort through that information and answer your questions coming up next send in your questions to questions allhealth tv.com or allhealth goo on Facebook or YouTube or visit the ask the do page on our website allhealth tv.com hi I'm Dr Scarlet constant and welcome to ask the doctor a show where we encourage you viewers to send in your questions and we that way I can answer them in real time coming up here's a question now from Facebook this is question is from Billy my wife and I just found out that we're pregnant for the first time we're ecstatic but we're not seeing eye to eye on choosing a pediatrician I guess my question is what should we look for in a pediatrician well first of all congratulations Billy to your new bundle of joy and that's a great question it's very important to choose a pediatrician that you trust when you have a pediatrician you know you're going to come to the office quite often in the first year of life so you really want to have somebody not only that you trust but that you feel comfortable enough with to ask what you might believe are very silly questions and you don't want to feel judged so I encourage you to First find out if a pediatrician has prenatal visits a prenatal visit is when you schedule an office visit before the baby comes and you come to the office you meet the pediatrician you somewhat interview them and you ask the pertinent questions that you might have you can tour the office and you can meet the staff and I think that's a really important criteria when you're choosing a pediatrician you also want to find out about their office hours you want to see if those office hours actually align with you and your partner and if it's something that's realistic for you because like I mentioned you're going to come into the office quite often during the first year of life you also want to find out about a office hours after hours so after hours means either the clinic is open past 5:00 and they have something like an Urgent Care type of setting or they at least have a service that will answer your questions and help guide you while the office is closed and then address your concerns or send prescriptions if needed another important thing to ask about is whether or not the pediatrician is accredited at a hospital nearby and if they'll come see your baby when your baby's born we call that a newborn visit it's not essential but it does help when your pediatrician does come to see you within the first 24 hours of birth just to guide you again answer questions allay your concerns and see the baby in the hospital before they're seen in the office and finally I think it is really important to consider whether or not your pediatrician is somebody that has a flexible treatment plan and what I mean by that is that there are many different ways to treat children treat diseases and treat any type of concerns and you really need to consider the family's values and the family's beliefs when you're treating so you really want to find someone who's not so rigid in their treatment and will be flexible with you and your partner I hope that this helps Billy and good luck our next question looks like it's coming via email that's from katalina and Miguel we're about to have our first baby and would love some last minute advice for our first day home alone with melito okay so congratulations to you as well um having your first baby at home there are a couple of things that I suggest you actually have at home before you get to the house and that's uh for example your car seat the car seat is so important it's uh trickier than you think it's hard to install and it's very difficult to get it right in the perfect position for your baby so I absolutely recommend you get your car seat you learn how to use it you find out where all of the straps go you put it in the car and and actually teach yourself how to install it and remove it before you have the baby baby when you get to the hos when you're leaving the hospital excuse me you're definitely going to have to strap the baby in and usually sometimes the nurses will come down and make sure you know how to put the car seat in the car before you go home you want to make sure you have your Basset or crib ready usually in the first month of life you're going to have a bassinet in your bedroom with you along alongside the bed and so you want to make sure that you have a bassinet that you're comfortable with that doesn't have you know pillows and thick Linings because that's a hazard to the baby and you want to make make sure you have that all set up of course your Essentials like your diapers and your diaper recepticle and your wipes it sounds silly to remind you of that but you'd be surprised about the amount of things that you forget before the baby comes home having diapers most of the time we get a lot of newborn size diapers and what people don't tell you at the baby shower and during the gift giving is that those newborn diapers usually fit your baby for about two weeks so you really want to have the neck size up ready on hand so that you don't have to make those last minute runs to the store and finally you want to have really good swaddle blankets ones these ante things toys but most importantly the swaddle blankets and the onesies the swaddle blankets because swaddling is so important for a fussy crying anxious baby swaddling really soothes your baby and if you have the right size blanket that's good for swaddling that is going to save you so much when you're home with that crying baby also you want to have a lot of like um 100 100% cotton onesies so especially with the first baby we get beautiful gifts from friends all the time we get fancy pajamas the beautiful material the Monograms and and it's just amazing and I agree but after the second or third time your baby spits up or soils those beautiful pajamas you're going to be really tired of using them and washing them and changing them and having a nice easy cotton onesie on hand that you can just go through through the day is going to be so beneficial to you so those are my recommendations for the must haves and also before you leave the hospital just take advantage of these wonderful uh labor and delivery and mother baby nurses that you'll have on hand the mother baby nurses are there to help you they're here not only to nurse uh your partner who is postpartum but also just to help teach you the very basics of having the newborn they'll teach you how to bathe the baby they'll teach you how to burp your baby how to um swaddle your baby in the perfect position so that they're AR their arms don't come out and they don't break the swaddle they help you making formula and honestly I know that it sounds silly but making formula and mixing it correctly is very important if you dilute it too much or you give it to too concentrated you really could harm the baby so learning how to mix formula correctly is essential and your nurse can help you do that you also want to learn how to properly burp your baby and how to sooe your baby and for those of you that have never had young siblings or little cousins they'll teach you how to change it dier okay so let's get ready for our next question we have a question here from the allhealth tv.com um app so this is from Peggy Peggy says I would love to know when it's safe for us to go out with our new baby and when we can have visitors that's a great question so of course we get this question all of the time especially back during the covid pandemic that was really difficult um so Peggy just to let you know you don't necessarily have to quarantine the first two months when you have a baby there are two there are you know two phases to this question first of all visitors you want to have visitors that respect your boundaries you want to have visitors that know that they shouldn't really come over if they have a runny nose or they're feeling under the weather um and that they understand that you know they could actually pass on a virus or infection to your newborn so you want to have visitors that would respect that and understand but more importantly you want to avoid having visitors under the age of five this is because the younger kids carry lots of little viruses that they get at school and on the playground with their friends that might not make them so symptomatic but it's still transmissible to the baby so sometimes they just seem like they're fine and they've had the same little cough for two to three months but that doesn't mean that they're not contagious so I would really advise staying away from having the young Toddlers School AG kids we call them from coming to the house to visit your newborn baby as far as going out you could certainly go out with your newborn baby I just advise that you don't go to crowded places again you don't want to go to a place where there are a lot of people people that might have viruses or illnesses especially if you have a baby in the fall during the time where all big viruses are going around or flu season or the holiday season when you know that this is the time that it's most transmissible so absolutely go out enjoy your family try to avoid spaces that are very crowded or indoor um and try to get out and mostly travel is something that I would avoid within the newborn phase good luck to you so now we have another question and this one is coming in from Facebook again okay this question is from Penelope my husband and I are about to have our first child and we're thinking about co- sleeping with our newborn what are your thoughts on the subject well Penelope you know I I'm going to give you the facts about co- sleeping and what the recommendations are rather than my thought in my personal opinion I think it's important to remember that while co-sleeping is going to form a bond with you and your baby and I'm sure it's just absolutely delicious to snuggle your new baby remember that you are going to be sleep deprived you and your partner you are exhausted you are waking up at all hours of the night and it is very dangerous when you are this tired because you're not always aware of your surroundings and you're not always completely awake so there are risks of roll rolling over of smothering the baby or even just kind of pushing the baby out of the way and the baby falls off the bed so we have Studies have found that Co sleeping is associated with a very high risk of Sids and we've been able to actually decrease the risk of Sids by eliminating co-sleeping and encouraging back to sleep methods which I'm sure that you've heard of so now the babies's always sleep on their back and they don't roll over on the side and on the belly and if you're Co sleeping with your baby you really can't ensure that they only going to be on their back you also are providing almost like a dependency by co-sleeping and I don't mean that your child will always have to sleep with you but what it does is it eliminates the ability to learn how to self soothe and babies need to learn how to self soothe within the first let's say probably two to four months of life so co-s sleeping is not recommended and it's advised against by the American Academy of Pediatrics so the next question we have is um from Shandra Shandra says hi Dr constant we brought our baby home from the hospital a few weeks ago and he's been crying a lot does that mean he's KY and if so what can we do well Shandra that doesn't necessarily mean that your baby is ky kic usually presents in the first three months of life so um early on right from the hospital your baby's really just trying to adjust they're in a new environment they're learning um what to do next they're they're out of the womb and remember you know this is I call this like the the post pregancy phase like they could te technically still be in the womb so they're crying they're adjusting they might be a little bit gassy they might be learning how to you know get the gases out and they feel a little fussy sometimes before they pass gas they just cry and scream before it happens sometimes before they have a bowel movement they cry and scream before the bowel movement so they really are adjusting to a new environment also they might have maybe an intolerance to the formula or to the breast milk there are various reasons to be fuss to have this fussiness or quote unquote colic um some Studies have even shown that an anxious environment um contributes to colicy babies but my best advice is to try to First always make sure your baby is wellfed try to feed them again even if you just fed them try again a lot of people come home from the hospital and feel that their baby needs to be on a set feeding schedule that is not the case they are not clocks if they want to eat again in 30 minutes try to feed them again in 30 minutes before they you address it as cagy so try to feed your baby look to make sure that the diaper is changed look around your baby on the fingers and the toes to make sure that they don't have what we call a hair tourniquet wrapped around their toes that's actually a very common reason for a baby crying without without a quote unquote cause so you really want to check that everything is okay check the environment of your baby before you pick them up and figure out what else could possibly be going on and if all else is ruled out and your baby is crying for more than 3 hours out of the day for three weeks at a time then that's when you know that maybe you have a kicky baby and you certainly want to talk to your pediatrician about it and you want to um get guidance as to how you're going to address your KY baby I hope that this helps and good luck to you so our next question looks like it's coming from an email from Daniel Daniel says my wife gave birth a few months ago and things were great but lately I've noticed that she seems kind of sad irritable and a little checked out could she be tired or could it just be something or could it be something more serious I'm no doctor but I'm wondering if it could be postpartum depression well I'm really sorry to hear that this is happening Daniel um um if you want to ask any questions or send any emails absolutely send them in send in your questions to questions allhealth tv.com or allhealth go on Facebook or YouTube or visit the ask the do page on our website allhealth tv.com okay so Daniel to get back to your your question um your wife might have something called Baby Blues baby blues is when um a mother who's just given birth feels feelings of hopelessness anxiety um sad thoughts and they happen but they tend to go away and then they'll come back again so they don't really stay in persevere but they come and go they last about two weeks postpartum and they should get better so if your wife is not getting better and feels these thoughts and they're overwhelming and they're impacting her day and they're getting in the way of things she's doing she absolutely should consult either her OB or her primary care phys to get help that is the most important thing baby blues are something that usually you can get over and they're just kind of feelings of sadness and they've been associated with the hormonal changes and also just a very huge change in your life you have a new person and living in your home you are now getting far less sleep than you ever thought that you would get and then your hormones are on a roller coaster and you probably are not eating nearly as much as you should so these things all contribute to the feelings of sadness and what we call Baby Blues but it also could get complicated into postpartum depression so absolutely seek help if you feel you need it I hope that she gets better soon so we have another question that is coming in and this was an email and it's from P my cousin had a baby not too long ago and I really want to see her but she asked if I had the tat vaccine which I don't think I have do I really need to get one and what is it wellpad you do not need to get your teap vaccine if you were not going to be a primary caregiver of this baby the taap vaccine is the booster for it's a basically a booster vaccine and it has the tetanus deparia and pertusus uh components pertusus which we all know as whooping cough is still prevalent in our environment in our society and the whooping cough is something that is transmissible usually between adults and the problem with the whooping cough is that adults will tend to bring it home and uh transmit it to the newborns and in adults we will have a cough and it is a nuisance and you do want to treat it but in the newborn phase getting the whooping cough cough could actually be fatal so we really want to protect our newborns against that so what we have suggested or what the AAP has recommended is that caregivers essential caregivers and parents get the Tdap booster and that is to uh protect them against pessis but if you're someone that's coming by to visit here and there and you're not spending too much time with the baby then the risk of you actually transmitting protesis to that baby is pretty low and also you would usually know that you have the whooping cough and if you are coughing and have symptoms then hopefully you wouldn't come visit the baby now kids don't need the Tdap vaccine because they're vaccinated up to uh for the for pesus up to 11 years of age so they have full immunity any child that has been fully vaccinated is immune and is not we are not concerned about them transmitting this disease so please make sure that your kids and family members are fully vaccinated and as for the adults that will be prevalent in the baby's life and maybe even provide Health Care please have them vaccinated against the teap um against teap now you can find taap because usually your primary care physician might not have it in the office pediatricians we all care it because we do vaccinate at age 11 with the teap vaccine but if you are an adult and you need it you can get it at the health department at your local Walgreens and your local CVS I hope that this helps okay let's see if we have some any other questions looks like we have one from the allhealth tv.com this is from Sammy my sister gave birth a month ago and when she went to feed her baby sometime after 2 am.

she noticed he had a fever she freaked out and rushed him to the hospital is that normal well her response yes was normal so any baby under the age of three months that has a fever which is defined as a temperature of 100.4 or higher needs to be seen by a medical professional right away so during the day if your doctor's office is open absolutely bring them to the doctor right away but if it is after hours or like your friend 2 a.m. you definitely want to go to the emergency room and the reason for that is that under 3 months of age they are not fully immunized yet against some very detrimental diseases um bacterial and viruses so what happens is that in the first two months of Life they are at a very high risk of developing uh pneumonia menitis which is a bacterial infection in the brain and sepsis which is a bacterial infection in the entire bloodstream so when they have this fever we really need to rule out that they are they do not have one of these three illnesses so what happens is that the baby will have a blood test done they will have a blood culture which is um a test in the blood to make sure that they don't have any bacteria they'll have a urine culture which is a urine test to make sure they're not growing any bacteria a chest x-ray and in some cases depending on how sick the baby looks or is behaving they might even get what's called a lumbar puncture which is a um what we commonly call like a spinal tap and so those things need to be done because in the first three months of Life a mild infection for an adult can turn fatal in a newborn so it is very important that they go to the hospital right away or see their medical professional and we'd strongly encourage you to or discourage you from giving Tylenol or Motrin to a febrile baby a baby under 3 months should not get Tylenol or Motrin they should be seen by a medical professional right away this is something where a a fatal illness could be prevented within the first 24 hours of life so Samy she absolutely did not overreact okay looks like we have time for one more question this question is from Madison I'm having some trouble breastfeeding how do I know my baby is getting enough food should I consider giving her formula how can I tell she's getting enough food this is a great question Madison this is basically a question I answer almost every single day with the newborn visits so um well first of all I need to address some of the troubles that you're having with breastfeeding with breastfeeding sometimes the biggest problem is with the latch and if your baby is not latching well then ultimately they are not feeding well and by not latching well this means that they really haven't put their mouth around the nipple the way they should and therefore it's probably painful to you or they might be biting you or they might just get frustrated and break the latch and just decide not to feed if this is happening I encourage you to seek a consultation with a lactation consultant or speak to your pediatrician because we can always help you in the office with the latch and with the breastfeeding now if you have established a good latch how do you know that your baby is actually feeding well the one of the quick little things to do is to listen to see if your baby is actually swallowing if you hear the gulping and the swallowing they are actually getting milk sometimes you can even see the milk coming out of their mouth but if you hear them swallow then they're absolutely getting it another quick little way to check is when your baby is feeding they usually have their fists clenched really tight and they're almost desperate for food and then when they finally relax and open up their hands that's when you know that they're almost done with they're almost finished with their feed so basically their bellies are full so you know that they're relaxed they're at ease and they're getting a decent feed and once your feed is over your babies should fall asleep and take their little nap for the next feed and that's a really good way to know that they're feeding well another thing to do which is very important and this is objective is to check how many wet diapers they're making so in the first two to three weeks of Life your baby should give you about 8 to 10 wet diapers and the first two weeks of Life probably four or five stooling diapers if they're breastfeeding formula fed babies tend to um stool a little less frequent than the breastfed babies but nonetheless you should see something like five to six diapers with poop in them and these are ways that you know that your baby is feeding adequately of course in the pediatrician's office we're going to see them we're going to weigh them every visit which is why we have so many frequent visits in the newborn phase is because we really want to monitor their weight gain and their growth to ensure that they're actually feeding well at home so these are all measures that we use to make sure your baby's feeding well okay so I think we have enough time for another question let's see what we've got oh well this question is from from paa how old does a baby have to be to start sleep training and does it really work paa that's a great question um and it's a loaded question so uh sleep training basically by two months of Life your baby should be neurologically developed and capable of sleeping at least five to six six hours a stretch of five to six hours and that's really what we call sleeping overnight in the early phases 5 to 6 hours which would be usually midnight to 5:00 a.m. is a good overnight sleep and then by 4 months of age they can definitely give you 10 to 12 hours um to train your baby you know it works and there are various ways to train your baby and the first way I will tell you or I will describe is the easiest way I think is if you ever see that your baby is sleeping five hours at a time whether it's during the day or in the afternoon or in the morning then you know they're capable of doing it overnight so I suggest that you alter the feeding schedule so that they feed as much as possible possible during the daylight hours and that way overnight you can give them a nice long stretch to sleep overnight the other way to do it is if your baby's waking up once or twice overnight and you see that the feeds are not the large voluminous feeds that they're used to getting during the day then you know that these these wakenings at night are just habitual so you can take them away and by doing that you just soothe the baby hold your baby and then put them back in the crib and see if they'll stay down so hopefully that helps good luck sleep training your baby and thank you so much for watching and again remember ask the doctor you'll send in your questions and I'll try to answer them the best way I can in real time I hope that this helps and thank you for joining us send in your questions to questions allhealth tv.com or allhealth go on Facebook or YouTube or visit the askthe do page on our website allhealth tv.com e