There are many physiological phenomena unique to newborns that new parents must understand in advance so that they are not overwhelmed when taking care of their little ones ~ a. Ringworm What is ringworm? Ringworm, or infant eczema, is a common problem in infancy that begins 1 to 2 months after birth and disappears within 1 to 2 years. It is characterized by small rice-sized red papules on the skin and small white spots on the surface, and the baby may not feel any discomfort. In severe cases, oozing, crusting, and even secondary infection may occur, and the infant may experience irritability and disturbance of sleep and eating. Ringworm growth sites The first sites to appear are the cheeks (small red rash), followed by the forehead, neck and chest. The small rash turns into small blisters that break and run, and then may form yellow scabs. It is repeated over and over again. Why do you have ringworm? Ringworm is a skin allergy. The exact pathogenesis of ringworm is not known, but the phenomenon generally suggests two things: 1. The presence of allergens in food. Formula milk is made from cow’s milk, so artificial feeding is more likely to cause eczema. Breastfeeding is prone to occur after the mother consumes seafood and milk. 2. The infant has allergies. These babies are more prone to rhinitis, asthma, etc. How to care for a baby with milk fungus For mild eczema there is generally no need to deal with it. Pay attention to keeping the skin clean and dry, avoid stimulation such as scratching and sun exposure, and clothes should be soft, clean and loose. If the eczema is obvious, you need to use corticosteroid ointment under the guidance of a doctor and take anti-allergy drugs such as paracetamol and calcium gluconate internally if necessary. Spitting up What is spitting up? Spitting up is a common phenomenon in newborns. Spitting up can be caused by improper feeding or by various diseases. The difference between spitting up and overflowing milk Spitting up: there is an obvious vomiting action, the child has nausea, open mouth and neck, painful expression before spitting up, which is pathological, and the amount of milk spit up may even be larger than the amount fed in, accompanied by a sour smell and sometimes abnormal color. Milk overflow: caused by physiological poor closure of the gastroesophageal sphincter, children do not feel nauseous, milk naturally overflows from the mouth, the amount is small, and the color does not change; most babies have slight milk overflow within 1 month of birth, and it will gradually improve after 3 months. Why do babies spit up? Too frequent breastfeeding, too much breastfeeding, improper formula changes or concentration, too fast and too urgent feeding, improper milk temperature, swallowing too much air, etc. may all lead to spitting up. If the infant is vomiting severely or has other abnormalities at the same time, the possibility of disease should be considered and a doctor should be consulted promptly. Vomiting in older babies may be related to infections, intestinal diseases, etc. How to prevent baby vomiting 1. Try to pick up the baby and feed him/her, so that the baby’s body is at a tilt of about 45 degrees; 2. Don’t change the holding position immediately after feeding and let the baby burp, which is less likely to cause vomiting. The reason why newborns are prone to hiccups is not very clear. It is thought that the hiccups are more frequent than in adults because the diaphragm spasms due to the imperfect development of the pediatric nervous system. Hiccups in newborns are extremely common and are not a disease. From a medical point of view, hiccups in newborns are a physiological phenomenon that does not require any treatment. The external causes of hiccups in newborns are 1. The hiccups are induced when the baby drinks cold air and suffers from wind chill; 2. Sometimes hiccups are induced when the baby eats cold milk or has poor food digestion; 3. The hiccups can also be induced when the baby chokes for a while after crying in fear. How to slow down baby hiccups 1. If your baby continues to hiccup for a period of time, you can feed your baby some warm water to stop the hiccups; 2. When it’s cold, you can put a warm water bag outside your clothes to eliminate the cold air in your body; 3. Use a small amount of orange peel in boiling water, which has the effect of unblocking the qi, turning the stomach turbid and regulating the spleen. Daily care precautions 1. Don’t eat when your baby is crying, it’s easy to burp; 2. Pay attention to the correct posture when breastfeeding, pay attention to the head being higher than the body; 3. Pay attention to avoiding the milk flowing too fast when breastfeeding and avoiding too fast when artificially feeding, tilting the bottle at an angle of 45 degrees will allow the air bubbles to run to the bottom of the bottle and won’t make your baby burp from eating into the air bubbles; 4. Hold the bottle vertically after each feeding Gently pat the back until you burp and then put it down, your baby’s intestines will be more comfortable. Why does a baby have a stuffy nose? A stuffy nose is not necessarily a cold, and this rule is especially for newborns. The nasal cavity of newborns is small, and nasal congestion is particularly likely to occur when the nasal mucosa is edematous or obstructed by secretions. If the temperature of the room is too low, the symptoms of nasal congestion will be more pronounced in babies. Don’t worry, for most children, these nasal congestions are caused by physiological structures and are not a disease. Some babies also often have a small amount of nasal discharge that dries into a booger with a yellowish color, which is also a normal condition. Coping with newborn baby’s nasal scabs When you see nasal scabs in your baby’s nose, you can first use your fingers to gently squeeze both sides of the nose, and then use a clean cotton swab to roll them out after they have loosened slightly. If the nasal scab is not easy to loosen, you can first put a drop of saline or cool boiled water into the nasal cavity, the nasal scab will be easier to loosen after moistening. Daily care precautions 1, nose breathing is not good, if it does not affect the sucking, you can try to cushion the pillow, observe whether it works; 2, when the baby’s nasal congestion is serious try to change the baby’s sleeping position, the symptoms will be reduced; 3, when the baby eats a few mouthfuls of milk to stop for a while to breathe with the mouth, or eat milk while crying, it is likely that the nose is blocked by snot or nasal scabs, pay attention to clean up. Distinguish the abnormal situation of nasal congestion 1, if there is a lot of snot, color clarification, or dry nasal stool blocking the nostrils, the baby can only keep breathing through the mouth, it is necessary to consider that it may be a cold and flu, should promptly go to the doctor; 2, if the outflow of snot has a foul smell, with blood, nose swelling, there may be a foreign body in the nose; 3, the newborn nasal congestion for a long time, with some methods do not work, then to exclude the newborn Adenoid hypertrophy. You can ask the ENT physician to consult. V. Red buttocks What is red buttocks for newborns Red buttocks, as the name implies, is red skin on the buttocks, and the symptoms are only slightly red epidermis and dry surface; in severe cases, there is obvious skin erosion, exudate, and may be accompanied by red papules and blisters. In addition to the buttocks, other parts of the diaper bag, such as the perineum, lower abdomen and thighs, are also prone to similar symptoms. Why red buttocks occur Prolonged contact with soaked diapers is the root cause of red buttocks, which is why it is also called diaper rash. In addition, the susceptibility of different individuals varies, and there are some individual differences in the occurrence of red buttocks. Some babies may have a combination of local fungal infections, which can aggravate the symptoms of red buttocks. How to prevent red buttocks Keeping the skin dry and clean is the key to preventing and treating red buttocks. Specific measures include: 1. Use clean, soft and absorbent diapers, such as cotton cloth or disposable diapers; 2. Change diapers as soon as possible after wetting; after each urination and defecation, wash the buttocks with warm water and apply 5% tannic acid ointment after drying, which can play a role in preventing red buttocks; 3. Pay attention to the cleanliness and hygiene of diapers and use qualified disposable diapers that meet hygiene requirements. If you use diapers repeatedly, you should wash them with soap and scald them with boiling water in time, rinse them with soap and dry them in the sun before using them again; on rainy days, you can use an iron to dry them, so that you can avoid germ infections. What to do if you have red buttocks Newborns with red buttocks should not wash their buttocks with soap and water. If the skin is oozing locally, apply a wet compress, and after it is dry, apply glycopyrrolate application containing 0.5% neomycin or 0.5% neomycin zinc oxide paste. Six, jaundice What is jaundice There are 2 types of jaundice, one is physiological jaundice and one is pathological jaundice. Most newborns begin to show mild yellow staining of the skin, oral mucosa and the whites of the eyes 2 to 3 days after birth, while the palms of the hands and feet generally do not show yellow staining, which will subside on its own a week to 10 days after birth. This phenomenon is called “physiological jaundice”. If the jaundice occurs within 24 hours after birth, the serum bilirubin is not normal, the limbs and or hands and feet appear yellow, progresses rapidly and does not recede, or recedes slightly and then reappears, drowsiness, refusal to eat milk, irritability, and even convulsions and other symptoms, it is “pathological jaundice” and must be treated in a hospital. Why does jaundice occur in babies? The fetus lacks oxygen in the womb and needs a lot of red blood cells to compensate for the lack of oxygen carried by each red blood cell. After the baby is born and can receive oxygen directly, the supply of oxygen is sufficient and there is no longer a need for too many red blood cells to carry oxygen, so these extra red blood cells are destroyed by the body and excess bilirubin is produced. Bilirubin has to be transformed by the liver to be excreted from the body, and the newborn’s liver is not yet functional, so excessive yellow bilirubin accumulates in the blood, and when it exceeds a certain amount, it stains the skin, mucous membranes and whites of the eyes yellow. Physiological jaundice generally has no effect on the health of the child and does not require special treatment. How to solve baby jaundice 1, premature babies slow to subside: If the baby is premature, the jaundice will generally be slower to subside, may last 3 weeks or even longer, but the jaundice should be a gradual tendency to reduce, otherwise you should seek medical attention; 2, if the baby is completely formula-fed, jaundice is still evident 2 weeks after birth, you should immediately seek medical attention; 3, breastfeeding jaundice do not worry: breastfed babies, if born Jaundice is still evident or continues to deepen after 1 week, but good spirit, good appetite, yellow stools, good weight gain, and no abnormalities through examination, can generally be considered as breast milk jaundice; Note: Jaundice generally decreases after 3 days of stopping breast milk, and significantly subsides after 5 to 7 days of stopping. Breast milk jaundice does not usually cause adverse effects on the infant (unless the jaundice is too deep). Since suspension of breastfeeding may cause discomfort to the child or mother, it may be possible to continue breastfeeding under observation provided that the jaundice is not severe. Breast milk jaundice usually subsides completely within 2-3 months after birth. VII. bloating What is bloating Bloating usually has a subjective feeling of discomfort. Since newborns are unable to express subjective feelings, and since normal newborns can have physiological abdominal distention, the key to determining and dealing with abdominal distention is not simply to see if the baby has a distended abdomen, but to see if it is combined with other abnormalities. As mentioned above, normal newborns have physiological abdominal distention, especially premature babies, and mild to moderate abdominal distention can be seen after feeding. This phenomenon is related to the fact that newborns are predominantly abdominal breathers and produce more gas in the digestive tract. Symptoms of bloating may be exacerbated if the baby cries excessively, takes in too much air or is overfed due to improper breastfeeding practices, or is severely constipated without timely help with bowel movements. How to deal with newborn bloating Young parents usually can’t easily tell if their baby is bloated because the baby’s abdomen itself is relatively bulky. As long as the baby does not show any discomfort, eats milk well, does not vomit significantly, has normal urine and stool, and especially has normal mental condition and growth, there is no need to do any treatment. If there are other uncomfortable symptoms or signs of abdominal distension, such as poor milk eating, obvious vomiting, abnormal stools, abnormal crying, abnormal body temperature, etc., you should go to the hospital in time for examination. The baby’s abdominal distension will be treated by rubbing both hands together, and when the palms are hot with a burning sensation, the right hand or left and right palms pressed on the baby’s abdomen, with the navel as the center of the clockwise massage, massage until the baby wants to poop or exhaust. Note that the technique must be gentle. Eight, more eye stool Why does the baby have so much eye stool The most common cause of more eye stool in newborns is congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction, which is a normal phenomenon. Tears from crying can form white objects that stick to the eyes, which can also contribute to increased secretion of eye droppings. Most congenital nasolacrimal duct obstructions are normal and will heal on their own, so mothers need not worry too much. If you find that your baby does not cry but has a lot of tears and likes to rub his eyes with his hands, it is best to take your child to the hospital for a checkup. How to deal with newborn baby’s eye drops 1. Don’t wipe your baby’s eyes with your hands or unclean hand towels, etc. 2. When giving your baby eye drops, hold your baby up horizontally with the light at your back and gently shake his upper body and head up and down, he will open his eyes automatically, then you can put eye drops or eye ointment in. Nine, sleep problems newborn baby sleep characteristics of the newborn baby most of the time in a sleep state. Generally, newborns sleep for 18-20 hours a day and night. But because of the newborn shallow sleep for a long time, shallow sleep can appear facial expressions such as smiling, frowning, pouting or making strange faces, sometimes stretching the limbs a little, humming, breathing unevenly fast and slow, etc. These are the normal physiological characteristics of newborns. Note Within three months of the baby there is a physiological jump phenomenon, which is a normal phenomenon caused by the immature development of the brain, do not need to deal with. At night when the baby sleeps, do not because there is a little movement, fear that the baby is hungry, thirsty or wet, to the baby too much care or care, this will instead disturb the normal sleep of the baby, is not conducive to brain development. Baby sleep time Newborn babies sleep 18 to 20 hours a day, 2 to 3 months for 16 to 18 hours, 5 to 9 months for 15 to 16 hours, to 1 year old close to the adult life pattern. Comparison down, although these problems of the baby are a headache for new parents, but after explanation, these problems are not all as scary as we think. As long as we figure out the techniques to deal with various problems, the baby will grow up healthy under our tender and careful care.