People touching/holding the baby

paislee30 · May 2010

Ok, so I've read a bunch on how people shouldn't touch the baby or hold the baby or anything for awhile. When is it ok to let people touch and/or hold her? How old should she be? Should we ask people to use hand sanitizer or anything first? Just wondering, I've never done this before.

Thanks!

canamama · May 2010

I think it's fine for people to hold and touch the baby. I wouldn't let a homeless person hold her but friends and family are okay don't you think?

lms_bride · May 2010

It is *totally* personal preference in my opinion. With our first son I was pretty anal about making people wash their hands or use hand sanitizer every time they came to our house and/or touched our son but I did let family hold him as a newborn and infant, it wasn't that big of a deal. I was like that for a couple months and then kind of loosened up on it over time. Personally I think there is nothing wrong with people holding or touching the baby, even newborn as long as they do wash their hands and they are not sick in ANY way. ie, if they have the sniffles or a little sore throat, they need to not be close to the baby and ideally aren't in the room. Also, I just like to be careful around little kids because they are usually covered in germs. But we really don't have a lot of other little kids in our lives other than our son (almost 2) so this is a non issue.

I have no doubt with our second baby due July 1 we will be more laid back about germs. It seems to go with the territory.

KRB8 · May 2010

I think it's fine for close friends and family who aren't sick.

mrsfrank · May 2010

DS was born in July, so it was basically free of colds and flu at that point. She (Pedi) said immediate family can hold baby, and it's fine to be out and about just make sure they wash or sanitize their hands first and not to pass him around. This time around DD is due in June, but there are still some bugs goin around. I won't be passing her around as much for a while

taylorsue00 · May 2010

i plan on having sanatizer around and asking most people to use it. exposing LO to germs is good too. but i will have sanitizer handy.

MeanMommyLady · May 2010

What have you been reading?

It is totally fine for people to hold and touch your baby as soon as YOU are comfortable with it. My MIL and DH's best friend both held DS the day after he was born (and he was born at 23:22 the night before) so less than 24 hours old. And honestly, DS was being held/passed around/poked and prodded by so many HMs (Hospital Corpsmen) at that point I can't imagine it mattered much.

I don't do hand sanitizer and I don't like it around my kiddos (too many chemicals and too much alcohol for my tastes). I would have just asked people to wash their hands (there were two sinks in my hospital room) and honestly, I never had to ask because it was the first thing everyone did when they walked in the room anyway.

We had several other visitors in the hospital who all washed their hands and held the baby and when I got home anyone who dropped by to see us was able to hold the baby, I just made sure my kitchen sink was cleaned out and ready for handwashing as well.

ETA: I only worried about it when DS was super tiny. I am a pretty frequent hand washer anyway, but didn't worry too much about (clean) people holding him without washing their hands immediately before by the time he was about 3 weeks old.

ariel06 · May 2010

For the first couple weeks with DS I had everyone wash or sanitaze thir hands. We tried to stay away from anyone who was sick too.

gringa78 · May 2010

I wash my hands regularly throughout the day, so I have to admit I'm offended when people ask me to use hand sanitizer before holding their baby...it's a little over-the-top. Bacteria and germs are everywhere...you can't avoid them no matter how hard you try. Bacteria are on people's clothes, and you don't make them change into scrubs to hold your baby, do you?

If the baby is a preemie, that's one thing...have people lather up because it can mean life or death for little ones with compromised immune systems, etc....but otherwise, it's just the parents' own nervousness driving the over-sanitation rather than something that will really protect the baby in the long run.

AllieJean · May 2010

Im ok with people holding LO right away but they will have to wash their hands first. And if anyone comes over and is sniffley and coughing I will not hesitate to ask them to leave. I know that this is harsh, but we are having our LO at home so he wont even have been exposed to hospital germs or anything yet.

HuneyofJeremy · May 2010

With DD, I made everyone either use hand sanitizer or wash their hands for the first 6 weeks before I let them touch her. I plan on doing the same with this one. Thankfully, most of my family did it without being asked, but if not, I kindly gave them the bottle of sanitizer.

jcthomas1281 · May 2010

I think its a personal preference. I *hope* my family and friends would have enough courtesy and common sense to wash their hands first (or use one of the many strategically placed hand sanitizers around the house). But I am more nervous about going out in public (store, church, etc) because people don't know any boundaries and older generations of people like to kiss and grab hands and stuff. I am being a tool and getting those little tags to hang from their car seats "please wash your hands before you touch mine."

Just my opinion, but I would rather have a few people feel offended by me asking for them to wash their dirty hands than deal with a couple of newborns with a cold or something.

paislee30 · May 2010

Thanks for the FB everyone!

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