To worry about winter baby and germs?

[rhu22]

Ive mentioned a couple things to my husband and he's given me the 'that's a bit over the top they need to be exposed to germs'.

All I've mentioned is that we should get back into the habit of washing our hands when we come in from being out be it shopping or whatever and when stepdaughter comes in from secondary school. Also that I don't want anyone coming over if they have a cough or sniffle let alone a full blown cold.

Depending on when he arrives baby will be having first vaccines just before or after Xmas

Your dh is right. Babies and children DO need frequent exposure to germs and bugs and washing your hands too much will not help with this. I never, ever wash my hands 'when coming' in from outside and no-one in my family does either. It is pointless. We are rarely ill and that includes my young children.

Germs and bugs are GOOD not bad.

And don't worry if you don't or can't breastfeed. Of course it's great if you can but my four DC were exclusively bottle fed from birth and have all been fine. X

I had one winter baby, one spring, one summer - winter baby was my sickest, contracted whooping cough and pneumonia at 4 months. Other babies both fine

I've had 2 winter babies all good , got colds and were absolutely fine

A person could come over with no symptoms but who is contagious

Try not to worry , I was bonkers in my pregnancies swimming helped

Kindly, @PipinwasAuntieMabelsdog don't try and diagnose me :/

I bought up handwashing as no one does it in my house and husband disagreed briefly, I don't want to be seen as unreasonable asking people to wash hands or stay away with colds which is exactly why I'm asking as I wasn't sure if it was or not.. I certainly didn't ask to be diagnosed with something I don't have

Exactly. We've had sickness bugs spread in this house by people that had no idea they'd caught something. Same with chicken pox. All my kids caught it two weeks after a friend came to stay with her DS who had no spots at all for three days after they'd left.

Mine was born last December. I was relaxed about germs, he did get his first cold at 2 weeks but then nothing until a couple more colds when he started nursery at 3 months.

I don't think it's fair to suggest OP has a problem for asking this.

I actually agree with this, just thought you were meant to be careful in the first 8 weeks but I may have been misinformed!

We plan to take him camping from young and he'll be incredibly dirty I have no doubt, I'm not a hygiene freak in general I just thought new babies were a bit delicate in that way and I know some of my immediate family won't bother about hand washing or staying away if ill. I wish I'd never asked on here though ha

Of course babies/toddlers/children need to be exposed to germs. But OP is talking about a baby of a few days-weeks old.

I'm relaxed about these things generally - once you've fished a snail out of a 6 month old's mouth there's really not much point worrying too much! But wanting to minimise, where possible, the chances of a tiny baby getting ill isn't a sign of anxiety. I personally didn't ask people to wash their hands when holding either DD, but I wouldn't think it was unreasonable if someone asked me to.

Makes 0 difference, I have a simmer baby and a winter baby,no one had more illness than the other

I was always a bit more careful until about 8 weeks old, when they’d had some jabs and their immune system had matured a bit (will post the obligatory link for those who will scoff at this)

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/is-your-newborn-babys-immune-system-strong-enough/amp/

DS was born 2 weeks early, when he was a week old some relatives flew in to stay with MIL in the next town and wanted us to bring the baby along so they could see him. When we turned up the first thing they said was how unwell they felt because they’d picked up a cough/temperature bug, from the plane they thought.

When I explained in that case we couldn’t bring DS in as he wasn’t even at his due date, MIL threw a hissy fit that I was being precious and had spoiled the visit 🙄

People can be so selfish. I love my baby relatives and therefore I would never want to make them poorly! If someone’s happy to pass their cold on to a newborn then they can’t care about them much can they?

I would get people to stay away if unwell to be fair but would be fine if they were only a bit unwell e.g just a slight sniffle.

Vile and deeply unpleasant??!! What?!?

My son never got sick until he was spending long time around other kids, never as a newborn in January

Are you reading the same thread? OP hasn't been vile or deeply unpleasant (and I think I might be one of the people she said was referring to when she talked about posters being snippy, although it wasn't my intention!)

DD1 was born mid-December, no issues with colds/bugs etc, I think she got a cold a bit younger than Spring born DD2 but that's about it

@letsdonextweek also confused... I didn't even respond to this persons other comment assuming I would even suggest my stepdaughter is dirty.. or that she will find it difficult with a new sibling and I need to be careful - like they know anything about our family situation! Let alone diagnosing me. Deeply unhelpful.

So odd! I feel they've read something different to the rest of us 🤷‍♀️

Perfectly reasonable and sensible OP. As a general rule the older a baby is when they get their first respiratory infection the better. What might be a mild sniffle for an adult can put a baby in NICU.

Obviously older siblings are going to bring stuff home, but if you can avoid illness by taking sensible precautions then do it. What you are suggesting used to be standard advice before the world went mad and decided babies need infecting with stuff to ‘develop their immune system’

You aren't being over the top at all. I don't know why people are so horrible on here. It's definitely not unreasonable for people to stay away if they have colds and wash their hands before holding a newborn. People are selfish and just want to see baby for cuddles so sometimes you do need to tell them not to come if they aren't 100%. My son was born in December just before Christmas. I told people to wash their hands before holding him and not come if they were unwell. I didn't want to catch anything either considering I was a sleep deprived zombie just about surviving. I didn't even want people holding my son if I'm being honest because I just felt this strong urge to get him back when he was with others. They get to a stage where they put everything in their mouths and there's no avoiding germs and then the toddler stage is just a bigger germ fest. But you aren't being over the top, I think you are being sensible

Breastfeeding isn’t essential but it will give an extra layer of protection. I had a rubbish immune system
in the immediate pp period and at one point had to be sick into a bucket whilst holding ds1, in the first 12 weeks of his life I had a sick bug, conjunctivitis and a horrible fluey type illness. Ebf newborn baby didn’t get as much as a sniffle as the milk does give them antibodies of things you’re fighting off.

Well that's just poor hygiene

I had 2 winter babies. I actually had a cold when giving birth to the second one. She obviously caught it. Thankfully I was breastfeeding so as well as the germs she got my immune response too.

in general, good hand hygiene should be encouraged. I know my mum got us to wash our hands when we got in from school. I’ll admit to not being so hot on it with my kids but do need to try harder.

I don’t think you’re unreasonable to try to improve hand hygiene in your family.