10 problems for newborns (jaundice, milk rash, spitting up, stuffy nose, hiccups, etc.)

1. Jaundice

What is jaundice?

There are two types of jaundice: physiological jaundice and pathological jaundice. Most newborns will have mild yellowing of the skin, oral mucosa and whites of the eyes starting 2 to 3 days after birth, while the palms and soles of the feet generally do not show yellowing. This jaundice will disappear on its own within one to ten days after birth. During this period, their feeding, sleep and growth are all good, their urine and stool color is normal, and they do not show other discomfort. If a blood test shows that the serum total bilirubin concentration is normal, this phenomenon is called "physiological jaundice." If jaundice occurs within 24 hours after birth, serum bilirubin is abnormal, limbs and/or palms and soles appear yellow, progresses rapidly, and does not subside for a long time, or reappears after a slight subsidence, and symptoms such as drowsiness, refusal to feed, irritability, and even convulsions occur, then it is pathological jaundice and you must go to the hospital for treatment.

Why do babies get jaundice?

There are many reasons for physiological jaundice, mainly because the fetus lacks oxygen 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, he can breathe oxygen directly, so the oxygen supply is sufficient and no longer requires too many red blood cells to carry oxygen. As a result, these excess red blood cells are destroyed by the body, producing excess bilirubin. Bilirubin needs to be converted by the liver to be excreted from the body, but the liver function of newborns is not yet perfect, so excess yellow bilirubin accumulates in the blood. When it exceeds a certain amount, it turns the skin, mucous membranes and whites of the eyes yellow. Physiological jaundice generally has no effect on children's health and does not require special treatment.

How to treat baby jaundice?

1. Slow jaundice disappears in premature babies: If the baby is a premature baby, the jaundice will generally disappear more slowly and may last for 3 weeks or even longer, but the jaundice should tend to gradually decrease and the general condition is good. Otherwise, seek medical attention promptly.

2. If the baby is completely formula-fed and jaundice is still obvious 2 weeks after birth, you should see a doctor immediately.

3. Don’t worry about breast milk jaundice:

For a breastfed baby, if jaundice is still obvious or continues to deepen one week after birth, but the baby is in good spirits, has a good appetite, has yellow stools, is gaining weight well, and no abnormalities are found in examinations, it can generally be considered to be breast milk jaundice. Generally, jaundice will subside 3 days after stopping breastfeeding, and will significantly subside 5 to 7 days after stopping. Breast milk jaundice generally does not cause adverse effects on the baby (unless the jaundice is too severe). Since suspending breastfeeding may cause discomfort to the child or the mother, breastfeeding can be continued under observation if the jaundice is not severe. Breast milk jaundice usually disappears completely within 2-3 months after birth.

2. Milk ringworm

What is milk ringworm?

Milk rash, also known as infant eczema, is a common problem in infancy. It usually begins 1 to 2 months after birth and disappears within 1 to 2 years. It manifests as millet-sized red papules on the skin with small white spots on the surface, and the baby may not feel any discomfort. In severe cases, exudation, crusting, and even secondary infection may occur. The baby may become irritable and restless, and even have problems sleeping and eating.

Where baby's milk ringworm grows:

1 The first part to appear is the cheek (small red rash), followed by the forehead, neck and chest.

2 The small red rashes turn into small blisters, which ooze water after bursting and then form yellow scabs. Over and over again.

Case BOX: My baby was 16 days old and had a lot of milk ringworm on his face. The elders said it was okay and it would get better naturally in time! But adults get very itchy when they have ringworm on their bodies, so I was really worried that the baby would be uncomfortable. (Wang Qing, 6-1, baby, 6-11 months)

Why does ringworm occur?

Milk ringworm is a skin allergy phenomenon. The exact pathogenesis is still unclear. Milk ringworm phenomenon generally indicates the following two problems:

1. Allergens are present in food. Formula milk is made from cow's milk, so bottle-fed babies are more likely to develop eczema. Breastfeeding is more likely to occur after the mother consumes seafood and milk.

2 The baby has an allergic constitution. This type of infant is more likely to develop rhinitis, asthma, etc.

What should we pay attention to in our daily life?

Mild eczema generally does not require any treatment. Pay attention to keeping the skin clean and dry, avoid scratching, sun exposure and other irritations, and wear soft, clean and loose clothes.

If the eczema is obvious, you need to use ointments containing corticosteroids appropriately under the guidance of a doctor, and take anti-allergic drugs such as chlorpheniramine and calcium gluconate orally when necessary.

How to care for babies with milk ringworm

1. Wash your face and take a bath with warm water to keep your skin clean.

2 Choose pure cotton underwear.

3 Trim your baby's nails frequently to prevent him from scratching the affected area.

4 The indoor temperature should not be too high, otherwise it will aggravate the itching of milk ringworm.

3. Spitting up

What is spitting up?

Spitting up is a common phenomenon in newborns. It can be caused by improper feeding or various diseases.

The difference between spitting up and spitting up milk

Vomiting is a complex series of excitatory reflex processes involving neuromuscular system, while regurgitation is simply the result of physical principles that cause the milk in the stomach to reflux through the esophagus into the mouth and corners of the mouth (the baby's epiglottis is relaxed, and in cases of improper body position and stomach pressure, the milk in the stomach passively overflows), which is not true vomiting.

Why do babies spit up milk?

For newborns who appear healthy, vomiting may be caused by feeding too frequently, feeding too much milk, changes in milk formula or inappropriate concentration, feeding too quickly or too fast, inappropriate milk temperature, and swallowing too much air.

If an infant spits up severely or has other abnormalities at the same time, you should consider the possibility of illness and seek medical treatment in a timely manner. Vomiting in older babies may be related to infection, intestinal disease, etc.

The best way to solve spitting up is to help the baby burp

1. Hold the baby to feed, and keep the baby's body tilted at about 45 degrees.

2. Do not change the holding position of the baby immediately after feeding, and let the baby burp, which will not easily cause vomiting.

3. For babies who use pacifiers: Be sure to choose the most suitable pacifier hole. If it is too small, it is easy to inhale air; if it is too large, it is easy to choke and cause severe coughing. Both may cause vomiting.

4. Feed while lying down. Do not let the baby lie on his back immediately after feeding. Instead, let him lie on his side for a while, and then change to lying on his back.

4. Nasal congestion

Why does the baby have a stuffy nose?

A stuffy nose does not necessarily mean a cold. This rule is especially applicable to newborns. The nasal cavity of a newborn is narrow, and nasal congestion is particularly prone to occur when the nasal mucosa is edematous or blocked by secretions. If the room temperature is too low, your baby's nasal congestion symptoms will be more obvious. Don't worry, for most children, these nasal congestion conditions are caused by physiological structure and are not a disease. Some babies often have a small amount of nasal discharge, which becomes nasal mucus after drying and is light yellow in color. This is also normal.

Dealing with newborn baby's nasal crust

If you see nasal crusts in your baby's nose, you can first gently squeeze the nostrils on both sides with your fingers, and then roll them out with a clean cotton swab after the nasal crusts are slightly loosened. If the nasal crust is not easy to loosen, you can first drop a drop of saline solution or cold boiled water into the nasal cavity. The nasal crust will be easier to loosen after moistening.

What should mothers pay attention to when taking care of their babies in daily life?

1. If it is not smooth, but it does not affect sucking, you can try to raise the pillow and see if it works.

2. If your baby has severe nasal congestion, try changing his sleeping position, which will alleviate the symptoms.

3. If the baby stops for a while to breathe through the mouth after taking a few sips of milk, or cries while drinking milk, it is very likely that his nose is blocked by snot or nasal crust, so you must make sure to clean it.

Differentiate between abnormalities of nasal congestion

1. If there is a lot of clear nasal mucus, or the mucus is dried and blocks the nostrils, and the baby can only breathe through the mouth, it may be a cold and you should see a doctor in time.

2. If the mucus has a foul odor and contains blood, and the nose is swollen, there may be foreign matter in the nose.

3. If a newborn has a stuffy nose for a long time and some methods have been ineffective, it is necessary to exclude the hypertrophy of the neonatal adenoids. You may consult an otolaryngologist.

5. Hiccups

Hiccups in newborns are a very common phenomenon and not a disease. It is not very clear why newborns are prone to hiccups. It is currently believed that this is due to the imperfect development of the children's nervous system, which leads to diaphragm spasms, so they hiccup more often than adults. Hiccups may cause anxiety to parents, but will not have adverse effects on newborns. Many places introduce various treatment methods, which parents can try. But from a medical point of view, hiccups in newborns are a physiological phenomenon that does not require any treatment.

What causes hiccups in newborns?

1. Hiccups caused by drinking cold air or catching a cold

2. If you drink cold milk or eat food that is not digested well, it is easy to induce hiccups.

3. Choking while eating after crying can also induce hiccups

How to relieve baby hiccups?

1. If your baby continues to hiccup for a period of time, you can feed him some warm water to stop the hiccups.

2. When it is cold, you can put a hot water bottle outside your clothes to eliminate the cold air in your body.

3. Soaking a small amount of orange peel in water can help to unblock the Qi, eliminate stomach turbidity, and regulate spleen qi.

When dealing with baby hiccups, what should mothers pay attention to in daily care?

1. Don’t feed your baby when he is crying, as this may cause hiccups.

2. Pay attention to the correct posture when breastfeeding, and make sure the head is higher than the body.

3. When breastfeeding, be careful to avoid the milk flowing too fast. When feeding with milk, be careful not to be too hasty. Tilt the bottle at a 45-degree angle to allow the bubbles to flow to the bottom of the bottle, so that the baby will not eat the bubbles and burp.

4. After each feeding, hold the baby upright and pat his back gently until he burps, then put him down. This will help the baby's stomach feel more comfortable.

6. Sleep problems

Sleep characteristics of newborn babies

Newborns spend most of their time sleeping. Generally, newborns sleep 18 to 20 hours a day. However, since newborns spend a long time in light sleep, they may have facial expressions such as smiling, frowning, pouting or making funny faces during this time. Sometimes they stretch their limbs, make humming sounds, and have uneven breathing speeds. These are all normal physiological characteristics of newborns.

Note to new mothers: Do not disturb your baby's sleep

Babies under three months old may experience physiological startle, which is a normal phenomenon caused by the immature development of the brain and does not require treatment. When your baby is sleeping at night, don't give him too much care or attention because you are afraid that he is hungry, thirsty or wet his urine if he makes a little noise. This will disturb his normal sleep and is not conducive to his brain development.

Love TIPS:

Newborn babies sleep 18 to 20 hours a day, 16 to 18 hours at 2 to 3 months, 15 to 16 hours at 5 to 9 months, and their life pattern is close to that of adults at 1 year old.

7. Red hip

What is a newborn baby with diaper rash?

"Does your baby have a red bottom?"

Don't be dazed, this is talking about a common skin disease in newborns - diaper rash. As the name suggests, it means the skin on the buttocks becomes red. Mild symptoms only show a slightly red epidermis and dry surface; severe symptoms will have obvious skin erosion, exudate, and may be accompanied by red papules and blisters. In addition to the buttocks, similar symptoms are prone to occur in other parts of the diaper, such as the perineum, lower abdomen, thighs, etc.

Why does red buttocks occur?

Prolonged contact with wet diapers is the root cause of diaper rash, so diaper rash is also called diaper rash. In addition, different individuals have different susceptibility, and there are certain individual differences in the occurrence of red buttocks. Some babies may have local fungal infections, which can aggravate the symptoms of diaper rash.

How to prevent diaper rash?

Keeping your skin dry and clean is the key to preventing and treating diaper rash. Specific measures include:

1) Choose clean, soft and absorbent diapers, which can be pure cotton cloth or disposable diapers.

2) Change the diaper as soon as possible after it gets wet; after each urination or defecation, wash the buttocks with warm water, and apply 5% tannic acid ointment after drying it to prevent diaper rash.

3) Pay attention to the cleanliness and hygiene of diapers, and make sure to use qualified disposable diapers that meet hygiene requirements. If you reuse cloth diapers, you should promptly wash them with soap and scald them with boiling water. After rinsing off the soap, dry them in the sun before reuse. On rainy days, you can use an iron to dry them to avoid bacterial infection.

What to do if you have red buttocks?

For newborns with diaper rash, never wash their buttocks with soapy water. If there is exudation on the local skin, you can apply a wet compress. After it dries, apply calamine ointment containing 0.5% neomycin or 0.5% neomycin zinc oxide paste.

In comparison, although the top ten problems are very troublesome for new parents, after experts’ explanations, various problems are not as terrible as we imagined. As long as we figure out the skills to deal with various problems, the baby will grow up healthily under our gentle and sensitive care.

Four-word tips

Four tips for dealing with baby problems to help parents navigate the world:

1. Relax - Relax. Most babies are healthy. Don't panic over trivial matters.

2. Be careful - Carefully observe the baby's physical manifestations, so that you can understand the baby's needs and the crux of the problem more quickly.

3. Wide - Don’t be confined to the information circle at home. Read more scientific parenting magazines and obtain accurate knowledge from good channels.

4 Patience - Since we are newbies, we are faced with many unexpected things. Being more patient can help us succeed.

8. Abdominal distension

What is bloating:

Abdominal bloating is usually felt as a subjective discomfort. Since newborns cannot express their subjective feelings, and normal newborns may have physiological abdominal distension, the key to judging and treating a baby's abdominal distension is not simply to see whether the baby has abdominal distension, but to see whether there are other abnormal phenomena.

Why does bloating occur?

As mentioned above, normal newborns have physiological abdominal distension, especially in immature premature infants, mild to moderate abdominal distension can be seen after feeding. This phenomenon is related to the fact that newborns mainly breathe abdominally and produce more gas in the digestive tract. Bloating symptoms may worsen if the baby cries too much, takes in too much air due to improper feeding methods, or is overfed, or is severely constipated and is not helped to defecate in time.

Case BOX: My daughter is 23 days old. In the past week, I found that she was always holding her breath, just like an adult straining to defecate, and her face was red. If she farted, she would feel better. Is this bloating?

(Adult: 6-1 months old, Baby: 6-11 months old)

How to deal with abdominal distension in newborns?

It is usually not easy for young parents to judge whether their baby has abdominal distension because the baby's abdomen is relatively bulging. As long as the baby shows no discomfort, eats well, has no obvious vomiting, has normal urination and defecation, and especially has normal mental state and growth and development, there is no need to take any action. If the bloating is accompanied by other discomfort symptoms or signs, such as poor feeding, obvious vomiting, abnormal bowel movements, abnormal crying, abnormal body temperature, etc., you should go to the hospital for examination in time. Here is a trick for mothers: How to treat baby's bloating

Rub your hands together vigorously, and when your palms feel hot and burning, press your right hand or left and right palms on the baby's abdomen, and massage in a clockwise direction with the belly button as the center, until the baby wants to defecate or pass gas. Note that the technique must be gentle.

9. Eye mucus

Eye characteristics of newborns.

The eyes of newborns have special anatomical and physiological characteristics, which can easily lead to conjunctival inflammation.

Why do newborns have so much eye mucus?

The most common reason for excessive eye mucus in newborns is congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction, which is a normal phenomenon. The tears from a baby's crying will form white objects that stick to the eyes and will also increase the secretion of eye mucus. Congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction is mostly normal and will most likely heal on its own, so mothers do not need to worry too much.

Case BOX: On the day of cesarean section, my baby had milk powder drip into his left eye due to improper feeding. Since the day before yesterday, my baby's left eye has started to produce eye mucus, so much that it sticks to the eye. I don't know if it is infected. (Xie Beibei? 6? 1 Baby? 6? 11 months)

What are the dangers of excessive eye mucus in newborns?

Excessive eye mucus may also be caused by some diseases. If you find that your baby is not crying 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 check-up.

Some tips on dealing with newborn baby eye mucus problems?

1. Do not wipe your child's eyes with your hands or unclean towels.

2. When putting eye drops into your baby's eyes, hold the baby horizontally with his back to the light, and gently shake his upper body and head up and down. He will automatically open his eyes, and you can then put the eye drops or eye ointment into his eyes.

10. Anorexia

The amount of milk a newborn baby consumes will change significantly within one week after birth. For example, on the first day after birth, the baby may only need 30-50 ml/kg/d, which then gradually increases. After one week, the amount of milk consumed may reach 120-150 ml/kg/d, and then maintain a relatively stable amount. Therefore, whether the amount of milk is appropriate is related to the baby's age after birth. The amount of milk given at each feeding may vary throughout the day, and the intervals between feedings may range from 2 to 6 hours (depending on the baby's sleep and activity cycles), but the total amount of milk given each day will not vary much. The amount of milk different babies need varies, which is related to the baby's activities, sleep, individual differences, etc.

Therefore, to judge whether the baby has enough milk or whether the baby is anorexic, you cannot simply look at the amount of milk each time, but should look at the baby's growth and whether his mental state is good.

What is neonatal anorexia? (Why does anorexia occur)

Neonatal anorexia can be caused by many pathological reasons, and a diagnosis can only be made after a comprehensive examination in the hospital.

How to judge baby anorexia?

Normal newborns will actively forage for food when hungry, or become alert, increase physical activity, increase facial expressions, or even cry. They will suck vigorously and swallow well when fed. The interval between feedings is related to the amount of milk fed and the sleep cycle, and is generally 2-3 hours. It is normal for older babies to sleep for 4-6 hours at night without feeding. If the baby lacks the above normal reactions, and has weak sucking or refuses to eat, or the amount of milk does not meet the normal requirement, it can be considered that the baby is not feeding well.

What to do if the newborn baby has anorexia?

If there is a temporary lack of milk supply but the baby is in good spirits and growing normally, no treatment is needed; otherwise, you should seek medical attention promptly.