Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Is it safe for my newborn to sleep alone?

Q. My baby is 3 weeks old. My husband sleeps in our room, bc it is cooler there. I have been sleeping on the couch and the baby sleeps in the bassinet. I'm tired of not being able to sleep in a bed with my husband. When is it okay to use a baby monitor? Is our baby too young to leave alone?

A. The current medical recommendation is to have the baby sleep close to you (in the same room) for the 1st 6 months to reduce the risk of SIDS. Why can't you put the bassinet in your room? It is better for a baby to sleep cool anyway since sleeping too warm is also a SIDS risk. They make swaddlers & sleep sacks to make sure baby stays cozy & at that age I kept a hat on my babies anyway.


How do I tell if my baby Chinchilla is nursing?
Q. I often see the baby hiding under her mother, though sometimes it does not appear as if she is nursing. Also, sometimes when she looks like she is trying to nurse, her mom will walk away from her. Is this bad?

A. If you want to know for sure that the kit is nursing, you need to buy a gram scale and monitor her weight once a day at the same time. A kit should gain 2 gm of weight a day to start out and then progress from there. They will sometimes gain 7-8 in a day once they really get going.

Other ways to tell if she's nursing well is if her tummy feels warm and round, and if her tail curls up over her back. If she's not gaining weight, she doesn't display the things I mentioned, and mom is constantly walking away, you may need to step in and take over.

Here is an FAQ I wrote regarding kit care:
Most of the time, the chinchilla mom will take care of everything and you can just have fun with the kits. The more you handle, play, and socialize with the kits, the tamer they will become. However, there are several things to watch for and do, for even healthy, thriving kits and mom.

1. To help with the milk production you can give mom an additional water bottle with 1/2 cranberry or apple juice (non sweetened) and 1/2 water. Make sure she still has her bottle of plain water also.
5. Kits will be left with mom until they are weaned at 6-8 weeks of age. You may notice your little one eating hay the very first day, but they still need all the nutrition they can get from mom. Many people say wean at 200 gm, but if your kit is a month old and 200 gm, it doesn't mean you have to wean them that soon.
6. An 8-week-old male kit should be removed from their mother and from any female siblings. The female kits can stay with mom, as long as dad is in a separate cage.

Hand Feeding
If it does become necessary to hand feed the kits, there are no commercial formulas available. One possible supplement is 1 can of goats milk, 1 can of water, 1 tablespoon baby rice cereal

Also, as a handy tip, since the formula makes such a great amount, and you only use a small amount at a time, use ice cube trays to freeze your formula. Pour it into the trays, cover them with saran wrap, then once frozen put them in a Ziplock freezer bag. When you need them, simply remove one ice cube at a time, let it thaw, and throw away the unused formula. The formula should not be kept more than 48-hours at a time. Once the 48-hour mark is reached, it's time to throw away that formula, and bring out a new ice cube.

The formula should be room temperature or slightly warmer when used, never hot. Test it as you would baby formula, against the underside of your wrist. An insulin syringe works wonderfully for supplementing kits and is easy to control, though some people have good luck with glass eye droppers. When you feed the kits, DO NOT put the food directly into the kits mouth. If you do, you could cause them to aspirate and result in their deaths. Instead, place a drop of formula at a time on their lower lip, allowing them to lick the formula off. They may struggle and hate it at first, but once they get the hang of it, they'll do great. If you need a bit of help, place the chin in a washcloth, burrito style, to help gently restrain them for feeding. You will need to feed the kits a minimum of every two (2) hours. Once they are taking 2-3 syringes full at a feeding, you will be well on your way to having healthy growing kits. As they start to get older the formula intake may increase but then once they start to eat pellets and hay the formula intake will decrease.

As an added nutritional boost, you can place the following formula that the JAGS developed in the cage with mom and the babies. Moms seem to enjoy it just as much as the kits. Be sure to provide hay, pellets, and fresh water along with this formula.

1 part calf or goat milk replacer (a dry formula-purchase at a feed store)
1 part crushed pellets
1 part 50/50 mixture of dry rice and oatmeal baby cereal

(Tip - A coffee grinder makes quick work of the pellets.)

I edited out the parts that were not pertinent to your little one at this time, because there's not enough room to post it all! If you want to read it in it's entirety, or if you have any more questions, please go to http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com. It's under the FAQ section and has some weaning information contained in it as well.

Good luck!


How old was your child when you stopped using a baby monitor?
Q. My oldest is 25 months (just turned 2) and I still have one in her room. She's my alarm clock. When she wakes up, I get up lol. I wouldn't hear her without the monitor.

A. We still have monitors in my kids' rooms with the receivers down in our family room. My son is 3, and my girls (who share a room) are 6 and 7. I know that we don't really need them anymore, but it's hard to hear the kids when we're downstairs. (Our bedroom is just down the hall from their bedrooms, so I don't use a monitor from my room.)

Honestly, I use the monitors mostly during the day so that I can hear if they start to argue and need me to run interference. ;-) It's also nice at night when the kids go to bed and we're still up so that we can hear if they need anything without them having to scream for us. We've talked about getting rid of them before, but the kids kinda use them as (one-way) intercoms now, so we've just left them.


What should a woman know before entering the delivery room?
Q. I am doing a project about Labor and Delivery Nurses and Birthing plans. I had a couple questions for some labor and delivery nurse or ob/gyns:
1. What are the responsibilities of a labor and delivery nurse?
2. What should a woman know/expect before entering the delivery room?
3. What are some common trends seen in the delivery room?
4. Do you recommend a birthing plan? If so, what should be included in it?
5. What is your favorite thing about being a labor and delivery nurse?

A. 1. L&D nurses will help coach you as to what to do during labor and they also monitor the baby's heart rate.
2. Just stay cool and follow the instructions by your doctor...that will ensure you the safest possible delivery
3. ?
4. I am an ob/gyn and do not recommend a birthing plan. Let you doctor help you make the important decisions. We've gone through lots of training to try to minimize complications during labor.
5. I'm not a L&D nurse





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