The truth is, it’s actually easier to take them out when they’re little (1-6 months) than when they get bigger and more mobile. Little teeny babies stay put. You just stick 'em in the carrier and haul 'em wherever, plop ‘em down, and there they sit. Once they get old enough to roll around and start hating the immobility of the carrier, going out gets a whole lot more difficult. I say, get out as much as you can while they’re small and portable, because once they attain mobility, you ain’t goin’ nowhere for a while.
I’ve stopped at the grocery store on the way home from the hospital, with a 1-day-old baby. We needed food, and it was easier to shop before my older kid came home. Most people seem afraid to touch tiny little babies, anyway… they just coo from a distance.
Immune systems of newborns aren’t nearly as strong as those of older babies and toddlers. You’re born with the antibodies that your mother has- against only germs that she has built immunity to. Whatever immune system a newborn does have isn’t very strong and much more susceptible. It’s not very practical, but it is best for a baby to stay home for the first month or two.
My daughter was 4 weeks premature and weighed 4lbs 12 oz. Not for nothing, but most preemies don’t let you know ahead of time they are going to be born. None of the clothes we had for her fit, none of the nose thingies were small enough, none of the diapers were small enough. We had to go out.
My daughter left the hospital in a dolls dress. It was the smallest outfit my friend could find. She didn’t tell me until months later that it was a dolls dress. She didn’t fit in the outfit I bought for her to come home in until she was 6 months old.
I was often asked if she was a doll. I shudder now at her pictures, I didn’t really understand exactly how small she was, after all, she was my first and I hadn’t had much experience with babies prior. Heck, to me, she was baby-sized.
Our doctor said 6 weeks. That was of course tough to follow, but we made it at least 3 or 4 without any serious contact. Of course, if you’re nursing I’d expect you could take the baby out almost anytime without any major issues (but I’d still avoid sick people if possible).
I remember seeing a video of a woman taking her triplets to the zoo at about 2 weeks and thought that was a tad early to be around the sources of almost all of our diseases, but to each his own I guess.
I was recently at Chuck E. Cheese for a friend’s kid’s birthday party. I ran into a new mother changing her baby in the bathroom…and the wee one was a whopping 5 days old.
It gave me the willys to think of the baby being exposed to the germ infestation that we know and love as Chuck E. Cheese; but, reading this thread makes me rethink all of those old wives tales. I guess it’s probably not a disaster to take your newborn out.
No, that gives me the willies too. Eugh.
Has there really been, though? My parents got the okay from my pediatrician to take me camping at six weeks, and I’d been out and about with them for weeks by that point. I remember going shopping when my baby brother was a week or so old, and it was normal in my friends’ families for their parents to take their little siblings out that young too.
Though I’m a bit younger than you, my mom’s more than likely a bit older than yours (older siblings are quite a bit older) and probably got different advice, as did all her friends. This and the lack of babies I tended to see growing up in general probably has an influence on how odd I find it to see babies smaller than two or three months out and about with their parents.
Word.
RuffLlama met our horses at two weeks, and first paid a visit to our local Starbucks at the same age. As long as he was in the car seat and no one came too close (which wasn’t a problem, people were very respectful), he was fine. That and breastfeeding really helps boost the immune system, although I don’t know if it’s that or just luck that he didn’t get sick until he was something like 8-10 months old.
Now that he’s a toddler, he’s sick every few weeks. The pediatrician warned us that at his age, kids average 10 colds a year. The runny nose he woke up with looks like the start of #5. Since August. Suuuuuper.
If you have much older siblings, no doubt. My mom’s only 51.
The day after Number Three kid was born, we took him home with us. I felt pretty good, so I decided to come home by tram. He was probably about 18 hours old at that point. First two weren’t out and about in the world quite so quickly as that, but definitely within a few days of birth. It honestly wouldn’t have occurred to me to do any different - my prior experience of tiny babies was almost all church-based friends with kids, and it’s been a rare set of new parents who skipped more than one week before bringing the little taka in to show off.
He’s now three months and hasn’t acheived his first cold or illness yet - his older sibs didn’t get any colds or anything for multiple months either. We are, in general, a fairly hardy non-sick-getting family, but I’m still pretty skeptical about how much of a risk of illness there is in going out in public with a tiny one. It’s not like you hand them off to every person you see - they tend to stay in their prams/slings/carseats or whatever and people just look at them (and go Awww). In fact, IME they get handled by non-family-members much more when they’re at home and people come to visit.
Also, if I had to stay in the house for TWO FREAKING MONTHS with a baby, I would go absolutely batshit insane. Two months with a baby AND a two-year-old AND a four-year-old? Let’s not even go there. Two DAYS is pretty much my absolute limit before I start climbing the walls.
The youngest guest at my wedding in April will be my cousin’s 10 week old daughter, assuming the young lady decides to arrive on schedule. My cousin and her daughter will be driving from eastern New Jersey to western Pennsylvania, a 10 or 12 hour drive. Now, they’re not doing this alone, of course. The young lady’s father is coming, and he and my cousin are bringing her parents with them. No one in my famly considers this strange, unusual, or in any way potentially dangerous. Then again, we’re also all British, so perhaps that makes a difference.
Do you have a cite for that? Not being confrontational, just have never heard that from any medical professional.
I took them out right away, wasn’t a big deal. The kids are obnoxiously healthy in general.
I think some moms didn’t want to leave the house for month because they didn’t look very good. I don’t get it, but I’ve heard that my cousin’s wife wouldn’t come out with the baby until she’d lost some weight… :rolleyes:
My babies came out with me right away. No problems at all.
The only time I had a desire to stay home was when I stopped breastfeeding. Well, about 2 days later actually, when my period returned and evidently, wanted to make up for lost time. THAT was when I wanted to crawl into a primitive hut and not face society.
Heck, if it was that hazardous to keep babies away from possible infections, they wouldn’t be allowed to be born in hospitals.
I dread my daughter ever going to day care. The reports I hear about how sick they get the first month or so scares the crap out of me.
I never heard any advice suggesting that babies shouldn’t go out. Just as well, really, because my ex-wife (and the mother of my kids) would have gone stark raving bonkers if she’d been forced to stay in the house for two months. I had to work, and after a few weeks leave she was on her own from 7am till 7pm. Of course she took the baby out with her.
J first left the hospital at 9 hours old. She was carried around on my chest in a sling from probably 2 days or so.
Nick was born on a Sunday, and I took him grocery shopping on Monday (with my mother, not alone). Took him on a camping trip (in a trailer, not a tent) when he was 11 days old; then on another when he was 3 weeks old. The first camping trip was just a weekend; the second was a whole week. I took him to a casino (on our way home from the second camping trip) when he was a month old… In fact, between 3 weeks old and 6 weeks old, we took him lots and lots of places. My husband has been overseas when Nick was born; and came to see us when Nick was 3 weeks old. He (my husband) stayed state-side for 3 weeks and we did a lot of travelling around during those three weeks. Nick and I were staying with my folks in California and Kevin had never been there before (or met any of my people), so we zipped all around Northern California during that time – including the camping trip. I don’t remember ever worrying about any of this… I just took him with me where I was going.
My daughter (born 10 months later) was a preemie. She didn’t even leave the hospital for 7 weeks. But from the time I brought her home, she went pretty much everywhere I did. In fact, I took her on a plane less than a week after she got out of the hospital. She had been born while we were on vacation in Wisconsin, so it was either a plane trip or a 2 day drive (we lived in Virginia) to get her home and the doctor prefered the plane.
This pediatrician answers the question of how long you should keep a newborn at home. He suggests one month before exposure to others unless absolutely necessary, ie siblings and relatives in small numbers.
It’s a good few years ago but I remember that number one son stayed in for some weeks but he was a month early and spent his first couple of weeks in the Special Care Unit but this just wasn’t practical for Miss Marcus two and a half years later. It was summer and - as an active toddler - Master Marcus did not want to stay at home so we were out and about in days