Bugs And Babies: Keeping Your Newborns Healthy

The excitement of holding and cuddling a newborn can be met with parent’s fears of their infant becoming sick.

“It's really important to know that the first four months of a newborn's life, they can get sick quite easily,” family medicine doctor Pamela Lynch, MD, told WCBK radio. “Be really respectful of family members and their desire to preserve their baby’s health.”

Dr. Lynch, who practices at Franciscan Physician Network Mooresville Family Care, offers tips for keeping baby healthy, regardless of the time of year.

1. Hygiene Matters

“It's important for family not to be offended when the parents don't want to pass the baby around the room, and to understand that washing your hands and not kissing on the baby's face is appreciated,” Dr. Lynch said.

2. Cold Sores Are Contagious

“When you have a cold sore, that actually can be very contagious and dangerous for newborns,” Dr. Lynch said. “If somebody gets cold sores, if they feel one coming or they actually have a sore active, it's really better for them not to hold a newborn because that infection can cause a meningitis in newborns. That's really scary. And you would hate to be that person that made a baby that sick.”

3. Fevers Are Warning Signs

“It's a really big deal for a baby under four months to get a fever,” Dr. Lynch said. “Even if it's just a cold, we have to make sure that there isn't anything else going on, like a bladder infection or a pneumonia that could actually spread and within hours make the baby really, really sick.”

For babies under four months of age, a fever is considered to be an emergency.

“If a baby feels warm, parents should unwrap it and see if it cools down,” she said. “If its armpit temperature is over 99 degrees, then we usually have them call us.

A rectal temperature over 100.4 may require a visit to the emergency room for an evaluation.

4. Breastfeeding Boosts Immunity

“Breastfeeding has so many benefits that we are just learning,” Dr. Lynch said. “One of the most amazing ones is that the mother's milk produces antibodies to keep the baby well specifically for the infections that are going around at that time. If the mom is sick or the baby's siblings are sick, or someone in the house is sick, the mom's milk actually produces stuff to fight that specific illness so the baby doesn't get sick. So just preserving their life the first four months and protecting them from illness is the start, which is truly miraculous and amazing.”

5. Family Immunizations Matter

Because a newborn’s immune system is not fully developed, a baby relies on the people around them for protection.

“Flu shots are really important in the winter because a baby cannot get a flu shot until they're six months old, so they don't have any way to protect themselves from that really,” Dr. Lynch said. “Close family should have a tetanus shot that's pretty recent. Because the tetanus shot includes whooping cough protection, and whooping cough is really dangerous for newborns. They don't ever get a cough. They just actually have apnea, which means they stop breathing, so it can be life threatening for a baby.”

6. A Baby’s Immune System Builds Over Time

“Sometime between three and four months, a newborn becomes more resilient and develops a sufficient immune system to protect itself,” Dr. Lynch said. “Until then, it either gets antibodies from its mother's milk to protect it, or just the natural fact that it doesn't walk around the room chewing and putting everything in its mouth yet helps protect it.”