No touching newborn for 1st 3 months?

we washed hands before touching baby as previously instructed and then watched as their dog sniffed baby and lay it's head on baby. It was bizarre

Truly bizarre.
I have see this. The dog is allowed to sniff the newborn's face to get used to it (after probably sniffing it's own and other dogs' backsides), but a human has to sanitise before coming within 10 feet of the baby.

the handgeling method won't last long I meant.

OP, a couple of weeks of sleep deprivation and their crazy ott parenting ideas will soon fly out the window!

Enjoy your grandchild!

(I also agree its not worth falling out with them about. Indulge them and go along with it for the sake of the peace). like I said it won't last

How did all those newborns babies survive before the invention of hand gel?

Stop arguing with them and just follow their rules. It is their baby not yours. Do not tut, roll your eyes or pass comment.

Oh, and apologise for arguing with them.

Congratulations in your first grand parenting lesson. It is a totally different deal than parenting. Your opinion is not important, and even if asked for, avoid judgements.

Make sure you take some food they like when you first visit, offer to make tea rather than expecting to be waited on, don't stay v long, and don't wear perfume or demand the baby until offered. Good luck!

Why do some people get so horrified at the thought of washing their hands or using sanitizer. That's gross. Be polite and hygienic and wash your hands before touching a newborn.

If you stay two hours, and you have to sanitize your hands every time you want to take the baby, even if it has only be 7 minutes, while someone else was holding him, yes that would be insane. But do it and then laugh about it some years down the road when you remember with the parents how dumb they were

I wish I'd had the balls to do this with my baby instead of having horrid smoky aunts get in from a cig and pick him up and pass him around.

Of course he's being ott and pfb, but, for the sake o f your long term relationship, smile nicely, humour him, and let them work it out for themselves.
Im sure most of us had some odd ideas about what we were /werent going to do before the baby arrived.
Im also sure that most generations do things differently fro their parents generation.

Absolutley bugger all to do with you wether they are current guidelines or not. Just respect their wishes. Are you going to be controlling about everything? Jeez

The reason I brought that up was because the OP mentioned the belief that being in a more sterile environment as a newborn would cause a weaker immune system. If you kept it up in later life, well yes it would. But keeping clean around a tiny baby is just common sense and good care, not crackers.

Washing hands after being outside and picking up baby when only few days old is normal. Sanitising hands before every contact in first three months is OTT unless baby is poorly in some way.

I'm not sure why you said so what? I meant that having some handwashing and sanitiser for a couple of months at the outset didn't seem to do DS any harm in terms of immunity, he's very healthy.

Since then he has indeed had plenty of exposure to allsorts of germs, and rightly so. We live in London and DS goes on public transport, we have a muddy garden in which he often digs, an old house which can never be totally clean because of all the nooks and crannies, and until recently an incontinent cat. These things have probably all contributed to his good immunity. (DH also smokes, although that would be more likely to decrease immunity, he does not do it in the house though).

My dd got a cold at 10 days old. It was horrendous, she didn't cough and sneeze, she just cried, didn't sleep couldn't breathe properly.

If being a bit more careful with who I handed dd over to rather than trying not to be pfb we might have avoided that cold.

And my dd hasn't had a single sniffle in 2 years, but we have a dog, I'm not big on hand washing and her dad smokes 20 a day.

So what?

My DS is the least sickly child I have ever heard of. I don't think he has had a sniffle in three years. So I don't think a couple of months of hand sanitising at the outset did him any harm!

I am finding it really strange that people think it is "crackers" to wash your hands before handing a newborn baby! I am a Londoner so I suppose that is a factor, I wash and sanitise my hands the minute I get home anyway, and there are no babies here.

If the chap is asking for a new handwash and sanitise every time the baby is picked up (e.g. in the middle of the night, for the hundredth time it is crying etc), well that would be rather strange and impossible to stick to. But surely when you come into a house and are planning to go near a newborn (or anyone with potential compromised immunity) you wash your hands (and take off any very smoky clothes if you are a smoker).

What a melodramatic thread title. They haven't said "no touching the baby for three months", they've merely asked that you have clean hands. I figured most people would wash their hands before holding a tiny baby - it would be automatic for me. Last time I held a newborn I got my own bottle of hand gel out!

I'm wondering if the OP smokes and maybe that's the issue.

Another Londoner here, and DS is now 5yo. It was the start of flu season when he was a baby, and yes, I did ask visitors to wash their hands before holding him. I'm sure people rolled their eyes, but they all did it.

I actually don't think I was OTT, because it was sensible to take a precaution that was easily achieved. When he was bigger, I got more relaxed.

I worry about some people- they think that keeping a sterile atmosphere is worth cutting of grandparent contact! There are a lot of control freaks around!

They are crackers and overprotective
You are crackers if you think having a barney about it with them before the child is even born is going to help
Just be serene and supportive and go with their flow, they will lighten up.
They will look back in a few months time when they find their crawling child chewing on a dead spider and laugh

I would automatically wash my hands before touching a newborn. Isn't it a natural instinct to want to be clean and keep them clean? I really appreciated it when friends/family visiting my babies did this. I particularly appreciated it when people said "I won't hold him - I've getting over a cold" - just shows some consideration for the child beyond your own desire for a snuggle.

It's no big deal. He is being protective and yes, as others have said, he'll relax into it. We were all the same. My sis and Dbil have just had a baby and it tickles me to see them fussing and reminding me how to hold their baby and educating me on the latest advice regarding baby care...when I have two fairly small children myself. I just smile, indulge and roll eyes inwardly.

I always offer to wash hands before holding a newborn anyway, don't most people do this? I would hate to pass on a cold or bug needlessly when parents are already knackered and living on next to no sleep. Snotty babies are no fun!