Let Baby Cry?

     Our little David is four months old and he has taken to sudden outbursts of crying. No, not just crying, screaming actually. I may have mentioned this before but the nurse that works for the WIC program had told my daughter that you should not let a baby cry like that till after they're six months old. So her and my son freak out when little David starts these tantrums. They insist we do whatever it takes to get him to stop.

     Now while I'm not in favor of letting him scream at that level for long, I'm more in favor of laying him down if holding him and calmly stroking and talking to him doesn't work, and of course that's after I know he's been fed and needs no diaper change and has burped. It seems to me that he is very tired but is fighting sleep. I say that because when we give in and give him another bottle he stops on a dime. This happens sometimes only two hours after his last bottle. The doctor says we're feeding him too much, so another bottle should not be an option, but like I said anything to stop that crying. For awhile I was getting away with laying him on his side and calmly talking to him and stroking his forehead and cheek, that is no longer working.

     I try to explain that babies do sometimes cry and should be allowed to do so up to a point, however I'm not a nurse so I must be wrong. Anyone have any thoughts on the subject?   Photo by Brandon Baunach

Four Months Old Today!

     Our baby David has come a long way in these four months. He makes eye contact, smiles, giggles, and engages us in baby talk. I notice him saying " egay " when he's complaining about food.

     He's up to over 13 pounds now and is sucking up those bottles like crazy. We have been having a problem with him spitting up and not burping. Sometimes even with a good burp he is still spitting up. We got him some baby GasX which seems to be helping his discomfort from the gassyness, but we think we're going to try to change his formula to one he can more easily digest.

     By the way, more often than not he thinks it's funny when he gets to spit up on Grandma. Also we've been feeling some upper teeth in his gums. Yeah! We've been trying to start him on cereal but he hates it. We put a time bit of sweet  potato in it but he still won't really eat it. He mainly makes faces and cries.

Announcement

      I've not posted in awhile because my parents have been ill, and two weeks ago I lost them both, two days a part.

     My beautiful mother drifted off in her sleep, and my strong father suffered horribly till we urged him to stop fighting.

     This has been a most terrible and difficult time for me, but I must say if it wasn't for the baby it would have been worse. Both my parents got to meet him right before they died and he has been the one ray of sunshine through all this. I don't know what I'd do without him at this time.

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.