Melamine In Formula

      Traces of melamine have been found in formulas you could be using now. One of the Fresh Starts and the one we've been using, the Enfamil Lipil. The FDA doesn't know what amount is safe so they are doing nothing. There has been no recall so my daughter is still using the formula as this is what she recieves from the Wic program. We've noticed no ill effects so far, but who knows down the line?

Baby Neck Smell or Baby Neck Cheese - ?

     I was looking over some questions from new mothers and have discovered that many of them say that their infants have foul smelling necks. Moreover they describe a "cheese like substance" on or in the folds of the neck. Apparently this is quite common. It is however a surprise to me. I do not recall having this problem with either of my kids or my new grandson.

     I am not a medical professional but here's my take on the smelly neck situation.

     Breast milk, formula, and drool fall into the folds on baby's neck and are not cleaned right away. What we do with David is make sure he is wearing a bib for feedings and keep it snug, not tight, right under his chin. When we see formula drip we wipe it right away with the spit up cloth we use for burping. Which brings up another part of this problem.

     From what I've read, a lot of new mothers don't take burping seriously enough. Every baby has trapped burps from feedings. What we do is try to burp a couple times during the feedings. He's up to taking about 5 ounces at a time right now, so we usually stop to burp after about 2.5 oz. Sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn't, First we position him over our shoulder and alternate between patts on the back and circular massages on the back. If that doesn't work we sit him on our lap and repeat the patting and massage. If he still won't burp we continue to let him finish the rest of the bottle.

     When he is done with the bottle we repeat the above burping procedure. That does not always work. So we will lay him flat for a couple of minutes, maybe do a diaper change during this time. Very often as soon as we pick him up he'll burp on his own, or after a couple patts. The point is he must burp. If you give up and don't get the baby to burp he will spit up most or some of the formula he just drank, and if you have him laid on his back he'll probably start choking on it too. BABIES MUST BURP ! Do not give up. I believe this spit up is part of why some babies necks develop this odor.

     David is about six weeks old and he often, even most times will hold his head up when we are holding him upright. He does have a neck, it is visible, and if you just move his head around you can easily clean it.

Starting To Focus

     For the last week or so, we've been noticing that baby is starting to focus more and more on our faces and in our eyes. He's starting also to takes cues from us for smiling and today I even got a silent laugh from him when I spoke in a funny voice to him.

     Today was a good day for him. He looked so content and so happy that it made me happy just to look into his beautiful bright face. So easy to fall in love with him.

Sleeping With An Angel

     It's a bad, bad idea to ever sleep with a baby. I did however have the baby on the bed and accidentally dozed. I wasn't in a sound sleep and I had pillows around him. I propped him up on a pillow and held his hand. I noticed that he slid himself off the pillow in an attempt to sleep on his side rather than his back. He held my hand with both of his close to him and somehow was getting himself closer and closer to me.

     I watched him as he drempt and all the different expressions and eye movements he had, and I felt such peace and love. I know it sounds sappy but it was so soul nourishing for me, I felt so peaceful. It was incredible.

Can You Spoil A Baby?

My daughter can't bear to hear her baby cry which I can understand, so on those rare occasions when baby's needs have all been filled and he's still crying, she insists on his being held. I suggested to her that he will get spoiled that way and not be able to get himself to sleep or learn how to calm and entertain himself.

She informed me that one of the nurses at the hospital told her that it's impossible to spoil a baby during his first year and if you don't hold them they will feel alone. I went along with this theory up until two days ago when I did everything for him and he wouldn't settle down. I ended up holding him for a few hours. She had the same experience with him the night before and started to rethink this whole spoiling thing.

I told her that once in a while just to put him down and let him cry for a short while. You can still let him know he's not alone and let him see you and talk to him. So that's what we are doing now and it's working fine. It doesn't happen very often because he is such a good easy going baby, but at some point he'll have to get used to the fact that you can't always get what you want, but you can still get what you need.

Bringing Baby Home

    I wanted to give more frequent posts about the baby, however beside being busy with him, our modem was out for over a week, my mothers been in the hospital a couple times and my dad is dying of cancer. The baby is the one spot of light in my life right now.

     LM doesn't realize what a good baby she has. He cries pathetically softly when he's hungry, has gas, or needs to be changed. Once his needs are met he stops and just goes to sleep.

     I do admit that at times burping can be a problem so we've found other ways of getting him to burp. Once he does he's fine. Here's what we do for burps...

• Try for a burp after every couple of ounces or at least twice a bottle
• the usual pats on the back
• a pattern of patting on the back from the waist to the neck area in that order
• changing burping position to sitting on our laps
• laying him down flat for two or three minutes
• waiting a few minutes then a gentle circular massage on the back

     If he still doesn't burp, we lay him down but not flat we prop him up on a high pillow and on his side, because if he doesn't burp he will spit up. If he's flat on his back he starts to choke. Making sure we get the burp has made for a much more content baby.