Lesser Known Baby Care Tips

I'm back from my unintentional blog break - turns out it's hard to mother three children, blog, AND stalk Amazon's Christmas lightening sales. Something had to give. Now my Christmas shopping is done and Andrew has all three children outside so I'm back (with a simple one).

So it's pretty easy to acquire the knowledge it takes for basic baby care (perhaps overwhelming, and a bit of a challenge to master in some cases, but the information is all quite readily available): diapering, feeding, clothing the baby. Over my tenure as a mother, I've learned there are some baby care tricks that seem to get looked over yet they are tremendously helpful. So, I have assembled a list along with some help from my lovely and talented sister-in-law of the little things that make parenting easier. Please do add your own in the comments!

(Disclaimer: every individual's medical situation is unique. Use your instincts and consult with your baby's doctor as is prudent. These are measures that I have become comfortable with over five years of open dialogue with our doctors)

• Lotramin AF (generic: clotrimazole) is an EXCELLENT treatment for stubborn diaper rash, it's just as strong as prescription alternatives but much more cost effective and OTC (if you have super-good Rx coverage, it may not be cheaper but still more convenient). Diaper rash, athlete's foot, and feminine-area yeast infections are all the same type of fungus. When the wash/dry/diaper paste treatment plan doesn't cut it to heal a bad diaper rash add a layer of Lotramin on the skin before gooping up with paste to clear it up! Really, this should be something we tell parents at the hospital - diaper rash can go from zero to horrifying in such a short time, all parents should know how to treat without waiting on a doctor appointment. Sometimes diaper rash is caused by staph, not yeast, if the rash does not improve with Lotramin check with your Dr to be sure it isn't staph. (Our doctors' guideline is if 4-5 days of Lotramin doesn't show marked improvement then come in, it take take a week to fully heal. Check with your doctors' office for their own guideline)
• For a baby with a cough, run a little Vick's Vapo Rub (not the baby version) on the bottom of his feet and put on a pair of cotton socks. Yes, this sounds totally bizarre but many people swear by it (Evelyn's doctor is the one who passed this trick on to us). Don't put regular Vick's on your baby's chest, they make a baby version that is safe for that.
• Hopefully you will never encounter this - but chances are slim you will escape parenthood without a baby with a bad fever. Most babies are safe to have Motrin at two months of age and it tends to be more effective than Tylenol but Motrin can only be given every 6 hours and sometimes a stubborn fever can break through at the 4 or 5 hour mark leaving you with a sick baby and not too many options. This is the time to add a second medication into the mix. You can alternate Tylenol and Motrin (generics are just as good - I use the brand names for ease) and while Tylenol on its own may not touch your child's fever, it can do great things to prevent a fever breakthrough! We do NOT give both medications all at the same time! You need to be careful with the timing - the key is at least 2 hours between Motrin and Tylenol and at least 6 hours between Motrin doses. Keep count of the maximum daily doses of each (since you're probably not sleeping, keep a post-it and pen next to your bottles of meds and jot down when you give each). Of course keep in mind the disclaimer: when in doubt, call your doctor. Our medicating equation goes like this: Dose of Motrin +2 hours = dose of Tylenol +4 hours = dose of Motrin
• While we're talking about meds - it's important to give your child the right dose and the charts on the bottles are overly simplified. When you're giving medicine, pull up the chart for that medication and do the math for your child's weight. Using a syringe marked with milliliters will ensure the greatest accuracy. Don't buy into the need for expensive "infant" formulation - it's more concentrated (sometimes) and much more expensive per dose. Just do the math by your baby's most recent official weight - skip the bathroom scale measurements here, accuracy is at a premium. If your child's fever seems stubborn and won't respond to the medication there's a good chance you simply haven't given enough. 
• Ibuprofen (Motrin/Advil) is 4.5 mg per pound every 6 hours
• Example for a 20 pound child: 4.5 x 20 = 90 mg. My children's liquid is 100mg/5mL (or 20mg per 1mL)so the most accurate dose is 4.5mL  (CHECK THE CONCENTRATION ON YOUR BOTTLE don't go by mine. They are sometimes different)
• Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is  7 mg per pound every 4 hours
• Example for a 20 pound child: 7 x 20 = 140 mg. My children's liquid has 160mg/5mL (or 32mg per 1mL) so the most accurate dose is 4 1/8mL - you can safely round that down to 4. I haven't come across a syringe that shows 1/8 mL measurements. 
• Newborn fingernails are sharp like razors and are virtually impossible to clip close enough to be safe but not overly so. They do, however, very conveniently tear straight across. Instead of trying to clip them you can rip them off easily (some doctors recommend biting them if you can't get a good enough grip on an edge to tear them off). If tearing doesn't work, take a small nail file to them to file them down
• Traditional baby powder is made with talc which we now know contains lead and should be kept far away from babies' lungs (and adult lungs for that matter). There are good non-talc options on the market but the cheapest isn't in the baby section at all. Cornstarch is smooth as silk, super cheap, and even safe for use with cloth diapering! You can buy a salt shaker to keep it in for easy application. 
• There are a lot of products on the market that are geared specifically towards anxious new parents (and the price is marked up accordingly). It's important to keep in mind that just because a product exists, doesn't mean that you need it or that it's the best option for it's purpose! Dreft laundry detergent is one such product. The dye and fragrance free version of Tide or All detergent are both cheaper and preferred options as dreft still contains chemicals that can be irritating to a newborns skin (along with hormone influencing phthalates, but that is a blog post in itself) there are also a lot of good natural detergents on the market now, just be sure to stick with fragrance free until you know how sensitive your baby's skin is.
• You can check on the healthy rating for your detergent and all other baby products on the Environmental Working Group's website here  Of course we can't be hyper-vigilant about every potential toxin we encounter. We'd live in plastic glass bubbles! So figure out what matters most to you and let the rest slide. 
• Babies' skin is fragile and usually very sensitive. It's not made to withstand the rigors of frequent bathing. Bathing the baby only a couple of times a week is good for his/her skin and hair. Especially in the winter, bathing any more frequently than every other day can really wreak havoc on the natural balance of their skin. A warm, damp cloth is great to spot clean, just be sure you get any folds or crevices completely dry.
• In fact vernix, the waxy white stuff that most babies are born with on their skin, is antimicrobial and very moisturizing, delaying the first bath until after you're home from the hospital can help protect them from all of the scary germs that live in hospitals. Just rub the vernix in and gently wipe off any other residue with a water-dampened soft cloth
• We are all pretty familiar with the ubiquitous bulb syringe that are made to suction babies' noses - what is lesser known is that these "booger suckers" are so strong that they can tear the lining of a baby's nasal passages. There are a few models that safe guard against this - the apparatus are made so that they cannot go past the opening of the nostril. Most are totally ineffective and worthless, aside from the fact that they keep me from giving my baby a bloody nose, of course. There is one though that is absolutely fabulous and totally worth getting past the mental hurdle to use it. 

• The Nosefrida and while it takes a little getting used to the idea that you are using your own mouth-created suction to clear nasal congestion - once you try it you will see how spectacularly effective it is! To quell your fears, I have used mine a few dozen times now and never once has the mucus even touched the filter let alone made it into the straw part. For sticky boogers, spray or drop a little saline in and then gently suction it out. When you're done you can toss the tube in the dishwasher. Simply, safe, AND effective
• Poop happens, especially when your baby is very young, especially when your baby is exclusively breastfed, and that poop can often exceed the confines of a diaper. Cloth diapers do help to contain explosive poop significantly better than disposables but they aren't for everyone. Keeping baby in a shirt or outfit that has crotch snaps will help to contain a blowout to a single person - onesies are for more than just keeping a shirt tucked! When it's cool enough, putting a onesie on under a outfit can save you the heartache of having to change a baby out of a cute outfit ten minutes after getting him/her dressed. If you ever When you find yourself faced with poop up your baby's back make use of those clever cross-over neck lines and take the onesie DOWN instead of up. There's no reason to share the "love" with baby's hair. 
• A related poop-stain trick: breastmilk-poop stains sun out exceptionally well! A cloth diapering fact that *ALL* parents can use! A little bit of magic happens when sunshine and poop-stains meet - the most vigorous laundering can't do what a few hours in sunlight can. Seriously, all those baby outfits I threw away are weeping in the landfill. Just wash them and then hang them up to dry in the sun! 

That's all I have for now, but surely the list is no where near complete. So, what little tip/trick can you add to my list?