Health Care for Children

Earwax
 
 Rule #1: No cotton swabs in the ear. So how do you deal with earwax? “We usually recommend that parents not mess with the wax at all,” says David Stevens, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York City. “It won’t bother the child, it doesn’t cause ear infections, and it won’t affect his hearing.” Earwax is a completely normal substance that helps keep germs and foreign bodies out of the inner ear. The wax eventually falls out, whether you see it or not.

Quick Tips: Wipe his ears daily with a warm washcloth. Never insert anything into the ear canal — it can damage the eardrum.

Stuffed Nose
 
Infants can’t blow their nose, and they find it hard to breathe through their mouth in the first few months. To complicate matters further, newborns get congested easily. Enter the bulb syringe, that awkward-looking plastic device you got at the hospital. It’s for suctioning mucus from your baby’s nose. “But before you reach for the bulb syringe, ask yourself, ‘Is it bugging me, or is it bugging her,’” says Laura Jana, MD, coauthor of Heading Home with Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality. Infants are naturally noisy breathers, but you can tell that it’s bothering your baby when she’s having trouble sleeping or eating.

Quick Tips: Hold the bulb in the palm of your hand with the syringe between your middle finger and forefinger. Use your thumb to expel all the air; then, with your thumb still pressing down, insert the syringe about a quarter inch to a half inch into the nose.

Slowly release your thumb to withdraw mucus. Then squirt the mucus onto a tissue and allow your baby to catch her breath before trying the other side. Limit suctioning to two or three times per day. Anything more can cause the nasal membranes to swell, increasing congestion. Ask your pediatrician about prescribing saline drops to loosen the mucus before suctioning. You might find they’re all you need.

Cord Stump
 
“For years, the standard was to treat the umbilical cord with alcohol,” says Debbie Thompson, a pediatric nurse-practitioner with Children’s Medical Center, Dallas. Then a study in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing found that alcohol offers no benefit and that cords left alone fall off around two to three days sooner than those that are treated.

Quick Tips: Keep the cord stump clean and dry, but don’t panic if it accidentally gets wet. Just dab it gently with a clean cloth. Fold the diaper down to prevent friction and increase airflow, and call your pediatrician if the cord develops an odor, becomes mushy, or is still on at three weeks.