Letting family near baby during COVID

[Sassy14]

Hi everyone,

What is everyone doing regarding letting family near the baby during these scary times?
I am a first time mum and my baby is 3 months old.

We have kept all of our family away from the baby since she was born as our families are high risk (working with public etc) but are coming to the point where we feel we are doing more harm than good keeping the baby away from everyone as I worry about her social development.

My husband is also high risk because of where he works but he is around baby all the time.

What is everyone else doing (after we come out of lockdown) regarding letting people hold their little ones? I don't know how much longer I can carry on not seeing anyone. It's awful.
Any advice is appreciated.
Thank you

Firstly congratulations on your little one! I had DS2 in the first lockdown and felt exactly the same - not having anyone hold him/meet him properly was driving me slightly insane. We ended up making a bubble with my parents which wasn't technically allowed then but made a huge difference, and they could hold and cuddle him. The new guidance is that you can make a support bubble once this lockdown ends so one other household could meet and hold your little one.

Baby born in July, met both sets of grandparents the same day. Wont stop unless they change babies to an at risk group xx

I’m not sure how helpful it is but I try to use my judgment. My little one is three months old and when the second peak started I became really wary. I tend to look at family members on an individual basis, my partners family go to work, commute on public transport in and out of Liverpool, go here there and everywhere so (maybe unfairly) I have wanted to keep them at a distance. My dad is retired and spends most of his days gardening and occasionally goes to the supermarket. I think we can’t live in fear forever but you could make a judgment based on where you live, what the numbers are doing and what your families are doing

Baby born in June, precious after previous losses. My parents and in-laws met and held baby when I came home from hospital. And continue to do so. I know it's breaking rules but they're all so careful, don't see anyone else or go anywhere. And I don't know how I'd have survived without their social interaction let alone the baby's. DH is nhs and the biggest risk to us anyway.

In the early weeks when I was recovering and dd was allergic to sleep my mum had to come help!

Do what you need to do!

We are still socially distancing eleven months in. Very tricky with a crawling baby who can almost walk!

But this is not to protect my baby, it’s to protect her grandparents and other family from her. She goes to nursery so could be quite high risk for catching Covid.

Baby born mid July, both sets of grandparents have met & held her. No other DC at school/nursery, DH WFH and grandparents are retired.

Didn’t you hear it’s safe for 5 days a Christmas? Covid knows it’s a special time and to buggar off for 5 days!

Being serious though, could you not go out for walks etc with family?

We've found this really tricky. Our baby is 3 weeks old. Both sets of grandparents plus my partner's sisters and niece (partner's family all one household) met him when he was first born. I've now become more and more anxious about covid and want to limit it/ask people to wear masks because of the number of people in my partner's parents household (4 adults, 1 child- 3 working in schools/nurseries) but I know that's awful and really unfair.

It's causing a lot of rows with me and my partner!

You have to weigh up who you are protecting? The baby or the relatives? If it's the relatives then children are low risk spreaders. If it's the baby then chances of them catching it are very low 🤷‍♀️

Seen so many of these threads about newborns and allowing cuddles....can't help but think a lot of it is to do with natural new mum instincts not to want to "share" a new baby....

Personally, I am planning to be a bit carful for the first couple of weeks - give my child, who will be born by section, a decent amount of colostrum for a bit more immune help and give my own hormones a chance to settle about it all (as I know that part of this is fierce protect baby instinct, as others have said). Then I think ok - will request hand washing though and will keep cuddles relatively short (but only because in my experience small babies don't actually love being passed around).

My baby is 8 months old and was born right at the start of the 1st lockdown. We have formed a childcare bubble with my partners parents (my parents live 6 hours away in a high restriction area). Im a nurse, and have been back at work. My baby has been at nursery since he was 6 months old. Its true that children are unlikely to be ill from the virus, but they can pass it on which is why I think its important to limit contact where possible.

That said, as soon as my mum comes out of strict restrictions she'll be down to see my son.

I have a 3 month old and we had visitors when she was born but only allowed grandparents to hold her after washing hands. I believe you're allowed to bubble with 1 household if you have a baby under 1 from Wednesday so we'll be bubbling with my parents. It's not easy though

We are still socially distancing. Our close relatives either live too far away to visit during Covid (flying distance) or they are in high risk jobs, and most friends also have jobs that involve a lot of contact with people.

I have worried a lot about my daughter having enough social contact, but I spoke to a psychologist who assured me that during the first 18 months or so they don't really need anyone but their parents, so as long as she's getting plenty of love and attention from us, she'll be fine. So far she is a very happy baby indeed.

We miss the joy of sharing her with others, but these are exceptional times. I also want to protect her as much as I can. Children generally have mild covid cases, but we know nothing about long-term effects. HPV causes cervical cancer, for example. I worry that all the children getting infected now may have problems down the line that we cannot foresee right now, so we're protecting her as much as we can.