quarantining your preemie? advice please

3citygirl · February 2012

My 29 weeker is now 3 months old (2 weeks adjusted) and has been home for a month. He's doing well. I've been paranoid about visitors/leaving the house. Yesterday our pediatrician said it's okay to take him out... just to be careful about handwashing/people touching him.

I know going to a restaurant with him covered/us being anal about purel and handwashing is no different than taking him to the doctor's appts. DH (he's a family doc) is totally comfortable with it. I want to be. I'd love to have our friends meet him (only hold him if they've had flu and whooping cough vaccine).

When did you start doing this stuff with your preemies? Thanks!!!!

May524 · February 2012

We still haven't taken our preemie out yet except to doctor appointments. We are waiting until April after flu/rsv season per pediatrician orders.

haziedaze · February 2012

I wrote this post for our preemie blog: https://preemiemomblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/protecting-your-preemie-when-out-in_21.html

Hope that helps!! Enjoy!

GatorNurse · March 2012

We've only taken our DD to my parents house & doctors appts. At my parents, we only let those who've had flu & Dtap vaccines hold her. We feel super apprehensive too, at least until flu/RSV season is over. Hopefully as she grows, we'll feel more comfortable.

iristony · March 2012

I maybe quarantined my son for a whopping 2 or 3 weeks after he got home. I was going stir crazy and slowly started taking him to Target or grocery store with me, and then we started visiting friends and even have friends with kids over. Luckily, my son came home off oxygen and monitors. I was pretty anal the first winter and before we visited friends or had people over I always asked if anyone was sick. I tried my hardest to keep him away from people that were sick, but then again I kept getting colds and he was always with me. This year I became much laid back and unless someone has a fever, I will take him over to peoples houses where the kids have runny noses and such. He did get a few colds his first winter but we survived. One way I have quarantined my son for almost 2 years now is by keeping hin out of daycare, our original plan. Instead I use a nanny 2 days, and my MIL stepped up to watch him 3 days.

JuliaJAG · March 2012

We will have to quarantine because we're doing selective/delayed vax. But, we never planned to put him in daycare or even public school anyway (we will homeschool), and DH and I are very low risk for being exposed to anything. DH does work outside the home, so he's going to essentially "scrub in" when he arrives home from work or anywhere else. We won't put him in the church nursery, and I will wear him in a baby carrier so people won't be tempted to touch him or even get too close.

gysberger04 · March 2012

We can't take our DD out to Target, grocery store, out to eat, etc. until April per doctor's orders. It has been awful to have her home since the end of November and not be able to take her anywhere except to my mom's house and the doctor's office (especially I have a sister who had a full-term baby in Dec. who has taken her son everywhere) but only 31 more days until April!

BritanyV · March 2012

Our doctor never said anything about keeping him home. We've been out and about since Mid-January. Most of it is stuff I have to do and I can't quite leave him at home by himself anyway. lol

SushiNoMore · March 2012

My son was a 26 weeker born on 1/25/11, so we were roughly in your same positio when he came home from the NICU on 4/6/11 (his due date was 4/30).

Our son didn't go anywhere other than doctor's appointments until the end of May. We had very limited visitors to our house, and we were super careful about only allowing people over if they (and everyone in their house) was healthy.

This year, we're still quarantining him, for the most part. We're being a little more lax, but he hasn't had a play date since RSV season started. We went out to dinner tonight for the first time since October. It was our choice to be this quarantined - our pediatrician isn't that strict about it. We think she's kind of an idiot, though, so we're doing it our way.

Listen to your mommy instincts and do what's best for your family. It's hard, but we wouldn't have it any other way. Good luck!

lexismom1008 · March 2012

My son was a 34 weeker. We came home from the NICU in July, so no worries about RSV or Flu. We kept him covered when we went out and didn't let anyone touch him, but we did go out to eat and to other non crowded places. Pretty much anywhere you would take a FT newborn.

quarantining your preemie? advice please

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