HOW MUCH PROTECTION FROM INFECTION DO BABIES NEED?
The idea that people have to wear masks and gowns when they are around babies comes from the fact that nurses and doctors take great care not to spread infection from one patient to another;
but this does not mean that a mother need cover her mouth and nose when she handles her baby, either inside hospital or when she gets home.
First of all babies, especially if they are breastfed, obtain antibodies from their mothers which fight off infection so they are very unlikely to catch anything from their own mothers. Secondly, exposure to a certain amount of infection is necessary to help the baby build his own antibodies, which he gradually does over the first few months and years.
Extra protection is needed, however, in some areas. It is essential that all bottle-fed babies be given only scrupulously sterilized feeding utensils. The major risk from bottle feeding is infection from inadequately sterilized gear. Secondly, a course of protective immunizations are available to all babies and small children, and should be given; the health visitor will explain them, and how and when they are given, and every caring mother will listen to her rather than to the sort of friend or neighbor who says ‘It doesn’t matter these days’. It does -diseases like diphtheria, polio, measles, and many others which used to kill babies are kept at bay only because of immunization programmes.
One form of protection that may be forgotten it protection from cold. Winter babies especially need to be watched. There is a condition called neonatal cold injury which can affect a baby if he is not kept adequately warm. He should be nursed in a room with a temperature of 21°C (70°F), and in really cold or foggy weather there is no virtue in putting him out in his pram – fresh air is agreeable, but really cold fresh air is harmful. There is no need to over wrap a baby or keep him constantly indoors, of course – that is almost as bad as chilling him! – but he does need protection from cold in the first three months or so of his life.
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