Quality Healthcare For Your Newborn

Daily care tips and advice on caring for your new baby in the first six weeks of life

Your baby’s first six weeks form part of a three-month period commonly referred to as the fourth trimester. It’s a time when both mom and baby go through a number of changes. Your baby needs to adjust to life outside the womb and as a new mom, you need to adjust to physical changes after your pregnancy and learn how to nurture and care for your newborn.

Holding Your Baby

• Your baby’s muscles aren’t yet well-developed so he or she has very little head and neck control. When you hold baby, you must provide head and neck support
• Place one hand behind your baby’s head and use the other arm to support his or her back
• When you pick your baby up, either bring him or her up to your chest or shoulder, or place his or her head in the crook of your arm and support the rest of the body with your free arm

Feeding Your Baby

• Don’t watch the clock to breastfeed your newborn, rather watch your baby. If baby sucks hard on a dummy or on his or her fingers or turns his or her head to the side, offer a breastfeed. Newborns can take feeds eight to 12 times per day
• If you bottle-feed your baby, prior to preparing the bottle, you must wash the bottles and teats in warm water and soap to remove milk residue. Thereafter, sterilise all equipment in sterilising fluid suitable for baby care. If this is not done, baby may get sick. You can also sterilise bottles on a stove top. Bring a pot of water to the boil and place the washed bottles into the water. Keep at a running boil (bubbling) for five minutes.
• Read the instructions carefully to ensure that you mix the formula exactly to the instructions on the back of the tin. If the baby doesn’t finish a feed (he or she turns away or stops sucking) try again 30 minutes later. Discard any left-over formula after an hour
• You can take your baby to a local pharmacy for a weigh-in before the six-week check-up, to ensure that he or she is thriving and gaining weight
• Do not give your newborn any solid food, porridge or soft pap his or her digestive system is not mature enough to handle anything but a breastmilk or milk formula diet. Your healthcare provider or clinic sister will advise you when to introduce solid food

Changing Your Baby

• Always wash your hands with soap and water before and after every nappy change
• When you change your baby’s nappy, apply baby bum cream (barrier cream) to prevent nappy rash, a painful red rash caused when ammonia, a chemical in the urine (wee), irritates skin in the nappy area
• If your baby has passed a stool (poo), clean the area with warm water and cotton wool or a moist baby wipe
• Breastfed babies may pass stools a few times a day, or every few days or even once per week. All are considered normal and will depend on your baby’s system. The stool is mustard-yellow in colour and is quite soft, without much odour
• Formula fed babies have a firmer, brown stool with a ‘poo’ smell. Your baby should pass a stool once or twice per day. If baby doesn’t pass a stool regularly or strains when trying to pass a stool, he or she may be constipated. Contact your healthcare provider
• Check your baby’s umbilical cord stump (belly button) at every nappy change. Keep the stump clean and dry. Allow it to fall off naturally – don’t pull it. If the area looks red or there is swelling or any discharge around the stump, contact your healthcare provider

Bathing Your Baby

• Newborns don’t need to be bathed every day. You can choose to bath your baby every second day or even three times per week is adequate
• When you do bath your baby (use a plastic tub or bathroom basin), check the water temperature using a bath thermometer (37-38°C) or on the inside of your elbow. The water should be warm and comfortable, never too hot or cold
• Wrap your baby in a towel so he or she feels warm and secure and wash baby’s hair first. Lie baby on a flat surface and apply a mild baby body wash with a little warm water. Next, place him or her into the prepared water to rinse off
• On days when you don’t bath your baby, give him or her a sponge bath – called ‘top and tailing’. Use cotton wool dipped in warm water or a soft cloth. Use a clean piece of cotton wool for the face and nappy area or rinse the cloth as you move to a different body area
• Wash your baby’s face, corners of the eyes, behind the ears, around the neck creases and between fingers and toes. Move down baby’s trunk (chest/tummy) and back and wash in the skin creases under the arms and at the top of the legs. Wash the whole nappy area
• Apply a moisturising cream formulated for babies to keep the skin soft and moisturised, to prevent chafing and dryness

Putting Your Baby to Sleep

• Put your baby on his or her back to sleep. Never place baby on his or her tummy or side as this can increase the risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) or cot death, as your baby may turn his or her face into the bedding and be unable to breathe
• Place your baby on a firm sleep surface (cot mattress) with a fitted sheet but don’t use a pillow. Most newborns like being swaddled (wrapped securely). Choose cotton or muslin wraps as these fabrics are light and breathable. Wrap baby from the shoulders to keep the fabric away from the face. Once baby is wrapped, tuck in the cloth to keep it secure
• When your baby starts to move or roll, switch the wrap to a sleep sack (which baby wears) as it cannot move over his or her head
• Do not place toys, duvets and other soft items in your baby’s cot or bassinet

Six-Week Check-up

At six weeks, your baby needs a check-up with your healthcare provider. You can take baby to the paediatrician (children’s doctor) who saw him or her in the hospital after the birth, or you can change to your preferred paediatrician. Before you see the doctor, ensure that you have registered your baby as a dependant on your chosen medical aid. The payment may then be made from the specialist benefit.

Your baby received a vaccine against polio (drops by mouth) and a BCG vaccine against tuberculosis at birth. A second round of vaccines are due at six weeks.

The following vaccines are given at six weeks:

• Second bivalent oral polio vaccine (b-OPV) – drops by mouth
• First rotavirus vaccine (a virus that causes diarrhoea in babies and children)
• First pneumococcal conjugated vaccine (PVC) – against pneumococcal disease including ear infections and pneumonia
• First DTaP-IPV-Hib-HBV vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis (whooping cough), inactivated polio, haemophilus influenzae type B and hepatitis B

If you have concerns about any aspect of your baby’s care, contact your dedicated healthcare provider.

Resources: https://www.verywellfamily.com/; https://www.lullabytrust.org.uk/; https://www.parents.com/;
https://www.mayoclinic.org/; https://www.nurofen.com.au/; https://www.pregnancybirthbaby.org.au/; https://www.whattoexpect.com/; https://www.nichd.nih.gov/; https://www.hygienecouncil.org/