Product Spotlight: Health and Safety

cato99 · April 2019

Happy Monday! Today I'm asking for contributions to discuss generally on the topic of Health and Safety, which admittedly is a pretty broad topic! How do we keep our babies healthy? How do we keep our babies safe? That's like, all of parenthood!

I think in a most immediate sense, let's think about stocking our first aid kits and medicine cabinets: what kind of thermometer do you have for babies? Do you use Infant Tylenol or Advil? If so, when? For a fever, or discomfort, or teething? If the baby is congested, do you use one of those manual bulb snot-extractors or do you swear by the Nose Frida? (And... on the other end... have you tried the Windi?) And speaking of gassy babies, do you use any products for that, like gripe water? How about keeping those sharp little talon nails safe from scratching their face? Do you clip, file, bite, or use one of those motorized kits?

And then there are outlier items that most people may not stock but some people love, and may even be controversial: do you have an owlet monitor? Humidifier/air purifier? Crib-rail covers for baby to chew on?

The big safety topic down the road is baby-proofing, which we will likely discuss once our babies are out and mobile, but if anyone has pressing advice or product recs to share with FTMs to keep in mind for the future, don't hesitate to speak up!

Prior and Upcoming Product Spotlights

aukeev · April 2019

FTM here, so I'm posting what our baby first aid kit includes, but excited to see what experienced moms have added:

First Aid Kit/Kids Medicine Cabinet
- Exergen temporal thermometer
- Nosefrida
- FridaBaby Windi
- FridaBaby Safety Nail Clippers
- Maty's All-Natural Ointment (petroleum-free)
- Maty's All-Natural Chest Rub
- Arnica Montana (homeopathic pain reliever)
- Boiron Coldcalm
- Garlic Mullein Ear Oil (my mom was an audiologist but preferred natural remedies at home - this is always what she treated our ear infections with)
- Epsom salts (natural unscented)
- Ice pack
- Calendula salve
- Coconut oil
- Gripe Water

Eta: Nursery Safety Items
- Audio monitor
- Cool mist humidifier
- Sound machine
- Extra-tall safety gate (to keep our cat out of the nursery/from sleeping in the crib, more than anything)

mrosek91 · April 2019

We keep infant Tylenol on hand, we try and only use it when they have a fever, but we will use it at night occasionally if they are obviously teething and it is keeping them (and us) up.

I've tried the snot extractor, but the boys hated it, and then they were just stuffed up again in a few minutes, so I never really bothered. When they have colds we just keep wiping with tissues (which they also hate). When they are congested we turn on their humidifier, at night, and if they are still not mobile we would prop the pack 'n' play up by putting a pillow under the "mattress" where we place their heads. Once they start moving at night we stop doing that, because their head doesn't stay there.

We do use cloth crip rail covers so they won't crew or bang their head on the top of the rail, but we don't install them until they are old enough to sleep with pillows and blankets, and we use velcro ones, so there aren't long strings.

sourlemon · April 2019

Biggest thing right now that some people dont consider until babies are older: furniture straps! While you are setting up the nursery, strap down any funiture that you can. Neither of my kids are climbers but we still strap everything down. With the other 2 kids, I didnt think of it until later on (when they were mobile or when we moved them to a toddler bed), but with this one, we strapped down as we went. *TW* my little brother climbed his dresser when he was 3 and was almost crushed to death. He cried every night so my parents didnt think anything of him crying that night, but I heard the crash and told my parents. They went in to check on him after he didnt calm down for a few more minutes and the fully loaded 5 drawer dresser was on top of him. All that was sticking out was his head and he had 2 broken ribs. *End TW* Strap that stuff down!

Medicines: babies cant have most stuff until they are a bit older. your doctor will give you a paper with dosages by weight. We keep tylenol on hand until they are allowed to have motrin, then keep both.

We keep gas drops, gripe water, and used to keep the recalled teething tabs on hand at all times. We dont use orajel for teething (read about it). If they get bad congestion, baby vicks on feet covered with socks works pretty well.

Baby nails are thin and pliable for a while...I just rip them off like a bad mom. We use the snot sucker bulbs instead of the tube sucker thing.

Every bedroom in our house, including the nursery, has a cool mist humidifier that runs at night. Cleaning it is essential.

We've never used an owlet type of thing before, but will for this kid knowing that my heart condition, which the baby has a 50% chance to have, is one of the leading (suspected) causes of SIDS.

I made a crib top rail cover for DD1 when she started chewing it, but she quit chewing as soon as I put it on. DD2 never chewed her crib. DD1 also had the mesh rail covers (think mesh bumpers) on her crib after about 7 months. She got her arm stuck one night before we put them on and almost broke her arm flailing around. She was black and blue for a few weeks and the doctor recommended the mesh bumpers so it didnt happen again. It was probably a fluke. We never needed to use them with DD2...she hardly moved around in her sleep and never once got a limb between rails.

BigBadWolf12 · April 2019

@oklahomak a friend of mine put a screen door (like a nice wooden cottage style one, not an ugly metal outdoor one) on their nursery doorway so their cats wouldn't get in. depending on how agile your cats are, and how tall the gate is....

We use the nose frida. Thankfully haven't dealt with many fevers so we just have a random thermometer that we hold under his armpit. I asked at our health centre what stiff we should have on hand before baby comes last time and they liked at me like I was crazy and was like "you just get stuff when you need it" lol so we have his allergy meds that he's prescribed, but other than that basically just infant Tylenol... 😬

Also only ever used nail clippers on him. I got baby nail scissors and they were way more scary to me personally than nail clippers. I also just had a super chill baby who would let me cut his balls no problem and jest watched like, what are you doing? Until he was like a year old. Then we started putting on a music video for him to watch and he's pretty calm for it lol

aukeev · April 2019

@BigBadWolf12 I have seen some of those on Pinterest! Thankfully our cat is incredibly lazy (and fat) and is easily deterred.

Nail scissors terrify me, too!

BigBadWolf12 · April 2019

Haha now I'm picturing Garfield 😂

aukeev · April 2019

@BigBadWolf12 It's not far off haha.

MollyH1987 · April 2019

To add to gripe water, we also used the Gerber Soothe probiotic drops. DD didn't have colic but she had reflux/gas issues and these drops seemed to help her.

grangerhp37 · April 2019

@oklahomak Thank you for the comprehensive first aid list! Have you already purchased these things?! I feel so behind but could use a few ways to start nesting!

Twinkiedoll · April 2019

We have the Exergen thermometer for initial fever screening, and use the Vicks rectal thermometer to get an accurate read.

Our pediatrician said Tylenol is better during the day (less immune suppressing effects than Advil), and Advil is better at night (lasts longer than Tylenol). We are at the toddler stage so we tend to let low-grade fevers (anything below 103) run on their own since it's the body's natural immune response to illness. But I think for newborns, you are supposed to take the newborns in to see the doctor if they get above 100.4? I'll have to refresh my memory before Bean #2 comes.

I used Vicks baby vapor rub and a cold mist humidifier when DD had colds. DD hated the Nosefrida so that's just collecting dust. I have the Safetyfirst baby nail clippers but when DD was a newborn, I just used a small emery board to file them down because I was too scared to clip her nails. Now, DD hates having her nails trimmed so they get kind of long. Oops.

I have no experience with gripe water, probiotics, etc. but know other moms who swear by them. I'm generally a skeptic about homeopathic remedies.

We have a baby gate at the top of our stairs. We have a metal railing at the top of the stairs so it was hard to install a gate that was secure enough. DH ended up getting a piece of wood to brace against the railing and using a million cable ties to secure the gate. It has worked really well so far.

We have a second baby gate separating the living room from the front door/stairs. She hasn't figured out she can walk around through the kitchen to get to the stairs/front door yet, but we'll probably have to install another gate at the bottom of the stairs when she figures that out.

As for sleep safety, DD slept in the PnP with nothing in it. Just the waterproof fitted sheet over the PnP mattress. She slept in the bassinet part until she outgrew it and then slept in the bottom part. We actually bought a thicker PnP mattress, but didn't use that until DD was older. We had an audio baby monitor since PnP was in our room. We also had a Snuza, which was for our peace of mind. Once DD started sleeping in her own room at 1 years old, we got a video baby monitor.

aukeev · April 2019

@dogmomma096 I have some of them, but a few items are on our registry. My goal is to have everything put together/in place around the time I pack a hospital bag.

agpandme · April 2019

Thank you all for your wisdom!

aecm · April 2019

So, as a pharmacist I hate the forehead thermometers...they’re inaccurate and unreliable. As a mom, I hate rectal and realize that oral is basically impossible for little ones. My compromise has been an ear thermometer (ours is a Braun and I like it), and if for some reason I’m questioning it I’ll stick an oral thermometer under her armpit.

Nails - we use the Safety1st nail trimmers. DD received some of those newborn mittens, but she wasn’t a big scratcher...and honestly I won’t want to use them on summer babies 😬.

I definitely always have infant Tylenol on hand for colds and fevers. We tend to switch to infant ibuprofen for teething pain since it’s better for inflammation.

My kid was insanely healthy her first year - only one cold. That changed for year two, and we had some nasty coughs. It’s hard when you can’t give them anything, so we invested in a cool air humidifier. I’m not convinced it helps a lot, but at least we feel like we’re doing something, lol.

We have a Nose Frida. DD doesn’t love it. If we do use it, it’s usually just first thing in the morning when she’s most
congested and right before bed to try and “empty her out” before she goes to sleep. Also - like most toddlers, my kid thinks I’m trying to kill her if I wipe her nose with a regular old tissue. She’s more receptive to the moist (and insanely overpriced) Boogie Wipes.

DD was never gassy so no recommendations on that front...we never used an Owlet or similar device...our crib (from PB Kids) had a plastic cover over the wood rail and my kid left it alone, so I never invested in chewing-prevention measures.

Beauxbaton · April 2019

I haven't read the other comments so sorry if this has already been mentioned. But secure your furniture to the wall before your kids is able to climb. That milestone comes up so quick and you don't want them to start climbing dressers and bookshelves and potentially get hurt. So secure dressers, bookshelves, tvs, and anything else heavy that could potentially fall on them if they try to climb it.

Twinkiedoll · April 2019

@aecm Every once in a while, CVS will have their generic branded boogie wipes in stock. Soooooo much cheaper, but it's usually sold out in most of the ones near me so I stock up when I see them.

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