On Medicating the Baby

If you are lucky, you will never have to worry about this. If your kid is normal, you will. I heard one mom mention before that she had such difficulty medicating her baby that she had to resort to the child getting an injection instead. Poor munchkin! I guess she should have cooperated. Too bad she didn't understand it was for her own good.

I have been lucky. While I have had to give medications to my little one, he's always been good for it. As my husband pointed out, it's probably because I've spent so many years medicating dogs and cats. I realized he is right. It helps to have a background in dealing with patients that can't communicate verbally so you can tell them what you are doing and how you need them to cooperate.

I have found that giving the medication by syringe is pretty easy. This was the only tool I was given the first time I had to give my baby medications and found it to be quite effective. Simply draw up the medication, place the tip between the lips and inject small amounts at a time giving the baby enough time to taste and swallow. Small amounts are harder to spit out too and given slowly, even if the baby positions the tongue to deflect the medication back at you, it isn't coming fast enough to do so. The tip of a normal syringe should be more than small enough to push through even the tightest lip purse.

At one point, it was recommended I give the baby probiotics. This presented a little bit of a challenge since it was recommended that the powdered product be put in water or other non-carbonated beverages. For babies, it recommended that it get mixed with formula. These instructions were problematic because my avid nurser was never given formula and while he'd drink out of a sippy cup, would not reliably drink the entire contents of a cup. The other suggestion was to place it in apple sauce or other soft baby food. Well, again, we don't do baby food and my munchkin would rather feed himself than get food shoved in his mouth with a spoon. I decided, my best bet was to go back to my good ol' friend, the syringe. I filled up a syringe with water, mixed in the powder and lo and behold, it worked like a charm. Given slowly in small increments, he took it well and received the entire dose each time.

When he's older, maybe we'll switch to one of those measured sip cups, but for now, the syringe works like a charm.

EDIT: Ack! Turns out, he is now fighting me and I have to eat my words! I guess he decided they taste terrible. So, my new solution for meds that may not taste as good is as follows. I lay him on his back on the floor and extend my legs on either side of him. I pin his head into place using my feet (hey, it works) and use my left arm to pin his hands/arms down. With my right hand I can easily administer the medications using the syringe. The further back I get it the better because he will blow raspberries and spit it out if I have it too far forward. This is another reason to give small amounts at a time, raspberries are harder with less liquid!

Also, for his ear drops that I have to give him, it works well to lay him on his stomach across my lap and secure his head into position with the crook of my left arm. With the right hand, I administer the ear drops into his ear and massage the base of his ear to make sure the medication coats his ear canal before he sits up and it drips out. This is for the left ear, I'd probably just turn him around and switch hands if I had to do the same for the right ear.

Good luck to you!

On Cloth Diapering - On the Go

If ever there was something I wouldn't find myself doing it is cloth diapering on the go. Now, I use cloth diapers at home and I love them. Sure, I have to do laundry more often, but that is way better than taking the trash out all of the time. Aside from that, it really isn't much different than using disposables. When the baby is wet or dirty, you change the diaper. And while I know that I have two things to put on (diaper and cover) as opposed to a single all-in-one diaper/cover option, those are still available.

In any case, I did use disposables while out and about because I figured it was easier than carrying around a dirty diaper. I noticed however, that when I went to the grocery store, my yoga class, or my mommy group meetings that I wasn't always changing his diaper. I'd get home and leave him in the disposable until it was time to change him. I started feeling like it was a waste to change him to a disposable just because we were going out. This got me to thinking that maybe keeping him in a cloth diaper wasn't that difficult.

Under the direction of a fellow cloth diapering mom, I picked up a camping bag at a local store which is way cheaper than using a wet bag made specifically for diapers. With this bag, I can carry around wet or soiled diapers and keep the mess contained. The bag is also completely washable so if it gets dirty from the diapers, I can just throw it in the laundry with the diapers. When I purchased the bag, I chose a package of three bags so if one is dirty or in the laundry, I always have a back up.

This is great for my day-to-day life. I no longer worry about putting a new disposable diaper on him every time we leave just in case I have to change him. I just make sure to have diapers along with me. I do carry extra disposables in his diaper bag just in case I run out, but that hardly happens.

I am also going to add some more plain baby wash cloths to my collection to use as travel wipes, after all, I use cloth wipes at home too. These wipes will be carried dry and moistened in a sink one at a time. I'll carry them in a small cosmetic bag and put them in the wet bag with the diaper after use.

Now, at this point, I'm not brave enough to cloth diaper on trips. We'll see if my opinion changes over time. For now, if I'm carrying around a dirty diaper for a couple hours I figure it's not that big of a deal. I don't really want to do it for a couple of days. In any case, this works for me for now. I hope you are encouraged to try it yourself!