Other FAQs

• My daughter is 8 1/2 months old. She does not crawl. She has teeth and I want to give her finger foods but I have heard that the baby should be crawling before introducing these foods. NEW!
  
• When should I introduce water to my child? What age? How much? How often per day? NEW!
  
• Could you please advice how can I help to boost up my 4 months old's immune system?
• Does my 8 month-old need baby vitamins?
• Is it true that a baby should triple her birthweight within a year?
• What are the "Pros" and "Cons" of Immunization?
• If the baby has dry skin, minor cracking what is the best thing to use on "newborn" skin?

My daughter is 8 1/2 months old. She does not crawl. She has teeth and I want to give her finger foods but I have heard that the baby should be crawling before introducing these foods. Is there a relation? She is not interested or trying to crawl at all.

There is no relationship between when a child can crawl and when he/she can have finger foods (pieces of food). While it is true that many children start crawling at about 8 months old (and many pediatricians recommend starting finger foods at about this age), many children don't crawl until they are much older. They can still start finger foods, even if they are not crawling.
 

When should I introduce water to my child? What age? How much? How often per day?

For infants on breast feeds or formula, there is a great deal of water contained in the milk; this is enough to meet a child's fluid requirements even on hot days. So in the first year of life, extra water is optional, not necessary, and shouldn't be given in large amounts (that may decrease your child's appetite). In some communities, tap water contains fluoride, which is good for a child's teeth. In older children (over a year of age), beverages should include mostly milk and water and a little juice.
 

My baby boy is going to be 4 months old by the end of this week. Since he was born, he has been infected with the flu twice and the recent flu was really bad. He also has developed fever, congested cough and running nose. The sad part is I couldn't breast feed him so his immune system is very low. Could you please advice how can I help to boost up his immune system because I'm going start to him on solids. Your advice is very needed and appreciated. Thank you.

: In the first few years of life, a child gets many infections. Most of them are viral and are over in several days. One of the major factors that determine how often a child catches a virus is how much he is exposed to other peoples' germs.
Defects in the immune system are very rare. You can usually be sure that there is no severe one if a child does not have illnesses that are more severe and last longer than expected. Having two "flu" illnesses in 4 months may just be "back luck" and due to exposure to germs. Your pediatrician will suspect an immune system defect if there are multiple episodes of ear infections, sinus infections, skin infections, pneumonias.
 

I breastfeed my 8 month old baby and have been receiving differing opinions about giving baby vitamins. My husband is concerned that she needs vitamin supplements, but I say that breast milk and Earth's Best baby foods will give her all the vitamins she needs — she eats fruits and vegetables, along with all varieties of cereals.

In healthy children with no medical problems, a diet of formula, cereal (4 tablespoons - 2 times a day), fruits and vegetables should provide the proper amount of vitamins to your baby. It is important that children get enough cereal and baby cereal is iron fortified and will provide your baby with the iron he or she needs. If your baby does not take cereal well, please discuss this with your doctor as iron supplements may be needed. I do recommend checking with your pediatrician to see if your child needs fluoride supplements (not all water is fluoridated).
 

My daughter is 14 months old. She did not triple her birth weight by 12 months. She was 8 lbs 9 oz at birth. At 12 months she weighed 18 lbs 6 oz. My doctor told me to try Pedisure to help increase her intake. How many calories a day should she take in? Oh, she is 28 inches in length. She does not seem to want to eat foods she has to chew, with a few exceptions. She still wants to eat the 2nd stage baby foods. Seems everything we try, she won't eat. What do I do?

No rule is for every child. The rule about tripling your birthweight by one year of age is a helpful approximation. It works much less well for larger babies (over 8 pounds). If your child is growing steadily, I would disregard this "rule".

28 inches is a little small, but normal. Are you and the father small, medium, or tall people? Genetics does start to figure in the equation at this age.

Let your child eat whatever she wants. If it's second stage foods, so be it. If you try to get a child to eat when they are not hungry or when they don't like the food, you will usually not succeed (and you will have more trouble with future feedings). The Pediasure is a good way to increase calories, but I am not given enough information to know whether or not your child really needs it. If the weight gain is steady, I would think you don't need any supplement.

Avoid water and juice in a child who is gaining slowly, since they are filling but have no or few calories. Drinking too much (even milk) can ultimately decrease the number of calories ingested per day.
 

What are the "Pros" and "Cons" of Immunization"

Vaccines are one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine. More lives are saved, more suffering is prevented, and more severe illness avoided each year through vaccines than by almost any other means at our disposal.

A vaccine is a product given to your child that allows him or her to become immune to a specific virus or bacteria without the severe disease of the natural infection. By exposing your child to a dead or weakened virus or bacteria, or to a piece or product of the microbe, we expect to make him/her immune. If she is ever exposed to the "real thing", she will be protected. The great value of vaccines is that they substitute a tiny, tiny risk (of reactions to the vaccine) for the high risk of serious disease which can occur in natural infection. It is true that every vaccine may occasionally cause reactions; however, most reactions are very mild and will be over in a day or two. In rare, rare instances, unpredictable, harmful reactions may occur.

Many parents ask, "Why should I allow you to give any product that could possibly harm my child?" The answer is simple. You are taking a greater chance that harm will befall your child by not vaccinating. All vaccines that are recommended for your child meet this criterion: the expected good from the vaccine (protection from serious disease) is far ahead of any risk of harm from the vaccine. In other words, the chance of catching whooping cough or measles or another now-preventable illness, and of severe illness (hospitalization, pneumonia, seizures, brain injury or even death) is much greater that the miniscule risk of harm from the vaccine. Not only do pediatricians recommend the vaccines for your child; we vaccinate our own children.

Some of the diseases children are now immunized against are now very uncommon in our country. This is so because the vaccine program has been so effective. However, these infections still occur in other parts of the world and may be "imported" to our country by travelers or immigrants. If we stop vaccinating children here, these diseases could easily become commonplace again. (Other illnesses - pertussis, meningitis, hepatitis b - are still common enough in the US to present a real threat to your child right now.

Every few years a new claim of hidden harm to children from vaccines is publicized. Very often these claims result because vaccines are given at an age when other conditions also occur. If something terrible happens to child in the days after a vaccine, it is human nature to blame it on the vaccine. Yet, every time such a claim arises, studies have shown that the occurrence of that condition in question is the same in children who did not receive the vaccine recently as it is in children who just received the vaccine. In other words, the disease is not caused by the vaccine, it just sometimes happens by chance to fall after a vaccine is given. There are real risks to vaccines, which fortunately are very, very, very tiny. The benefits, however, are enormous.
 

If the baby has dry skin, minor cracking what is the best thing to use on "newborn" skin?

Nearly all neonates have dried, flaking, cracking skin. This usually lasts four to five weeks. Every lotion, cream, and oil has been tried to stop this process, but basically none of them are effective. It seems as if the skin of newborns just has to peel. Think of the flaking and cracking as shedding "fetal skin". There is no need to put anything on the skin. At the end of the first month of life, babies start getting soft, moist, beautiful skin.