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Newborn babies keep their parents on their toes! There is always something to keep mom or dad in a state of worry. Common
health concerns in newborn babies include skin conditions, eye problems, infections, fever, behaviour changes, spitting up
and vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation.
Your newborn baby may not have the clear, radiant skin that you have seen in television commercials. She may in fact have
any number of common skin conditions or birthmarks, which can take you a bit off guard at first. Some birthmarks disappear
after a few years, and others remain throughout the child’s lifetime.
Newborn babies have weak immune systems. This is one reason why breastfeeding is so important for your baby: it provides her
with antibodies to help fight infection. As a result of breastfeeding, your baby will have fewer infections than babies who
are bottle-fed. When a newborn baby does develop an infection, it can become a great cause for concern. This is because newborn
babies can get sick very fast. Luckily, they also respond very quickly to treatment, if the infection is caught in time. If
a doctor suspects that your newborn baby has an infection, he will begin antibiotic treatment right away.
In newborn babies and young infants three months of age or under, fever may be the first and only sign of a serious infection.
Another sign of illness in babies is a change in behaviour. If your newborn baby is ill, she may cry more or have a change
in activity level.
Many newborn babies and young infants are prone to spitting up some of their breast milk or formula during or shortly after
a feeding. Spit-up effortlessly rolls out of the baby’s mouth, sometimes with a burp. Vomiting is more forceful than spitting
up, and it involves more than just a couple of tablespoons of stomach contents. Vomiting can be a sign of an infection in
the stomach, a reaction to something the baby ate, or another gastrointestinal problem.
Diarrhea is when a newborn baby passes very runny, liquidy stools, sometimes at an increased frequency or more volume than
normal. Diarrhea is sometimes associated with vomiting, and it is often caused by a bacterial or viral infection. Constipation
is when the baby’s bowel movements are hard and cause pain or bleeding. If your baby is constipated, she may groan or strain
when trying to pass stool.
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