Other children with newborn

buppydups10

anyone have any experience with other children (my case is my 8yr niece and 6yr nephew) and holding the baby? I know they'll visit in the hospital and don't want to be caught off guard if they ask to hold the baby. Should they wait until the baby is at least a month? Or should I stop the wheels in my head from turning? lol my SIL is very pushy and judgemental so I want to think about it now before I'm in a situation where I'm uncomfortable saying anything. I've seen smaller children holding newborns but that's siblings, I'm probably definitely overthinking lol

JuliaRL

the 8-year old should be okay, sitting down, and holding the baby on her own. the 6-year old, the best thing is for him to sit cross-legged in a big chair, with adult hands below or very nearby. The baby is mostly just lying in his lap, but he feels that he is holding it.

blankenbakerh

Our kids were not allowed to hold their siblings standing up. As PP said they need to be sitting down with an adult helping them. Also everyone including siblings needs to wash their hands before holding the baby or touching her/him! We kept the holding of our newborn limited in the first few weeks. I didn't want to make them sore. Thankfully our hospital doesn't allow visitors under 14 yrs unless they are siblings. We also ask most people not to visit until we have been home a week or two with the exception of immediate family only. With that said its not an issue we really run into as all of my family is out of state and some of his too.

gkrenzel

The rule for us holding newborns as siblings was that we had to be sitting down with pillow under arm supporting baby's head.
@blankenbakerh‌ That's a good point about baby getting sore, I hadn't even thought of that. We are already planning on limiting visitors for the first weeks but I was thinking more along the lines of letting me rest up enough to get the house in a presentable state!

a316b

Most hospitals don't allow child visitors unless they're siblings. We ran into this yesterday when we went to visit our new nephew. Kids stayed downstairs while hubby and I alternated upstairs.

Our SIL said kids can come to their house once they're home, as long as they've been healthy for past week. I don't think any of that is unreasonable?

Definitely sit kids down and hold baby on laps.

sunnyday016

I wouldn't have a problem with it as long as they were healthy and sitting down.