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Pregnant after a Loss
KCKSarah
member
Taking baby to nursing home (need your opinion)
KCKSarah
member
Some of you know that my grandparents have recently moved into a nursing home. Grandpa is in rehab and Grandma will likely be there permanently. I assumed at some point after giving birth I would take the baby up there for them to see (Its hard to get them out, especially into my house with lots of steps).
My uncle who is a surgeon freaked when I said that. He said I shouldn't take the baby anywhere near that place for at least six months. He said they are germ and bacteria filled. He doesn't even want me going up there and carrying bacteria home. Honestly, this never occurred to me. I will definitely ask my midwife and later my pediatrician about it, but what do you guys think?
Will you be super selective where you take the baby for the first few weeks/months?
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Re: Taking baby to nursing home (need your opinion)
I am with your Uncle. I used to be a CNA in a nursing home and they are super duper germ infested!!!!
I would surely wait!
~shivers~
I have absolutely no medical background, so I would go by what your pediatrician says.
Now for what I did...we took DD to see her great-grandparents in a nursing home at 4 months. They were out of town, so it was really the only time she was ever going to get to see them.
i agree with this also. From what I remember in Peds, if you are breastfeeding, you provide the baby with your immunoglobulins and support its immune system. I just don't know if a nursing home is a great place for a newborn or anyone with immune system compromise. Your pediatrician should be able to give you the answer though.
I'm a CNA in a nursing home, and I have to agree nursing homes are icky places. I worked two days on a quarantined unit (because of the flu). I brought it home to my poor DH. Thank God I'm not sick! But can you imagine what that will do to a baby? Not to mention other things like scabies. We can't keep people with that locked away, they touch things that you could potentially touch. And because of HIPAA we can't tell you what is going on with anyone living there. Sorry, but if I were you I would think twice about taking baby into a place like that.
I would ask your ped. Im a nurse (but not in a nursing home, in a hospital), and would feel really uneasy bringing a newborn to a nursing home...
But i would be fine with dinner at a resturant. Just make sure everyone washes their hands before touching baby.
***butting in from PAL***
My grandma was in a nursing/rehab center until she passed away in early Feb. We waited until early January to take DD to see her. (DD was 5 months on Jan 2 and we left on Jan 9 or something like that.) We waited mostly because of my work schedule, but also I wanted at least 2 rounds of vxs on board before taking her in there.
I did not ask my pediatrician, but being a doctor (albeit a veterinarian) and also a germ-a-phobe in places like that, I was very cautious. My grandma desperately wanted to touch/hold DD, but she didn't have the strength to sit up. I put a receiving blanket down on the nursing home bed between my grandma and baby. So, no part of baby was actually touching my grandma, but she got to feel like she was holding her. I brought the receiving blanket home in a grocery bag, and washed it in hot water with bleach (normally don't wash baby things in bleach, but this was an exception) before putting it back in the closet.
The nursing home was disgusting...I hope that your grandparents are in a better place than where my grandma was before she passed. I know it was important to her to meet our DD, and I truly believe that after she met her, she felt better about passing... :-(
Thanks ladies for all your advice. All your concerns make a lot of sense. I've worked with the aging in the nonprofit setting for a long time, not in a nursing home but on the periphery. This is all stuff I know but didn't really connect with the baby. I will definitely talk to my pediatrician about it.
This, however, is going to go over like a lead brick with my grandma. She HATES the nursing home (she has Parkinson's and is really struggling with the emotions of it all). Grandpa was primary caretaker but he is rehabilitating after a stroke and will likely never be able to take care of her in her home again. Guilt among us kids/grandkids abounds. And she is really looking forward to this baby. (Sigh).
How mobile is your grandma? Could you have your mom or another family member "spring" her from the nursing home for a lunch date? Then she can meet LO in a more controlled setting.