Newborn and spouse with a cold?

[MEPride]

My baby girl was born September 8. We came home September 11 and one September 13 my DH says he thinks he is coming down with something. On the 14th his sore throat got a bit worse so my LO and I vacated the house and have been staying with my parents, who thankfully only live 15 minutes away.

Now my DH is feeling better. He is still a bit phlegmy and clears his throat a lot. When he has come over to visit he has been pretty good about wearing gloves, covering his mouth or wearing a mask, and using hand sanitizer before touching our LO. It may seem overkill but with a 10 day old newborn I did NOT want to take any chances.

My question is when do you all think I should return home? He feels okay but I'm worried he is still contagious. He has cleaned the house, sheets, etc, to hopefully reduce chances of illness for myself or our baby girl. We are staying at my folks again tonight. Should we stay an additional night? It'll have been 6 days since onset of symptoms tomorrow.

 

[Zephram]

Personally I wouldn't have left in the first place. Kids get sick, that's just life. My first caught a cold off me at 3 weeks old and my second caught a cold off his older brother at less than 7 days. They then cold-shared the entire winter he was a newborn. You really can't avoid it, people can pass on colds even when they're not showing symptoms.

I would go home and get your OH helping again. Basic hygiene - hand washing, etc - is good enough at helping stop the spread of colds.

 

[Berri]

I probably wouldn't have left either and I wouldn't be too worried about going home. There are germs everywhere. If you are breastfeeding your exposure to your husbands germs will already have started your body producing antibodies and passing these to bubs helping boost immunity.

The mother synthesizes antibodies when she ingests, inhales or otherwise comes in contact with a disease-causing agent. Each antibody she makes is specific to that agent; that is, it binds to a single protein, or antigen, on the agent and will not waste time attacking irrelevant substances. Because the mother makes antibodies only to pathogens in her environment, the baby receives the protection it most needs-against the infectious agents it is most likely to encounter in the first weeks of life."

 

[MindUtopia]

I wouldn't have left either (well, never mind I would have had nowhere to go). Colds are normal and it's healthy for babies to get them, even early on. It builds up their immune system. The difference would be though if he had the flu (it's not flu season though in the northern hemisphere) or some other serious infectious condition (like meningitis, etc.). It's impossible to really know what he had, but the common cold is infectious until all symptoms have completely disappeared, which is roughly about one to two weeks on average. I personally wouldn't bother staying away that long.

 

[MEPride]

Ok thanks ladies. I'm a FTM and trying to figure out this whole parenting thing is hard enough without a sick newborn. I'll plan on going home today as DH is feeling better regardless. I appreciate the input!

 

[sil]

I agree with everyone else. When DD was 3 days old DH caught a cold. At 7 days old, DS1 had a fever and at 10 days old DS2 and myself had fevers. DD ended up catching a mild version of the cold and got over it pretty quickly(due to me breastfeeding I believe it wasn't that bad - she got my antibodies from my milk).

As long as your baby doesn't get a fever over 100.4 in those first few weeks, she will be just fine. A cold will do her no harm (and even if she does catch a fever that high she will still likely be fine - she will just need to be checked out)

 

[xdxxtx]

If you're breastfeeding, your body will make the antibodies specific to whatever virus/bacteria it is for your baby. This helps them fight it faster. If not, your baby's body will still fight it just fine. It's okay. Most of us are just very careful with our first-borns.

Probably a not-so-quick story. My fifth baby was accidentally born on our couch. My OH delivered her, and no hands were washed, nothing was cleaned in preparation at all... She wasn't supposed to be born at home, so nothing was ready for a home birth... And the couch is probably the dirtiest place in my entire house since we sit in all these public places - dr's offices, theme parks, park benches, etc and then come home and sit on the couch. We laid a towel on top, but still... Immediately after birth, my kids were all giving her kisses and touching her and hugging her and just all over her. I mean, their dirty little kid hands. Like I said, it was so sudden and such a shock that nobody washed their hands or anything... Anyway, she's almost 8 weeks old now and so very healthy. It's all good. Don't worry so much. They're made to handle germs, get sick, and lick dirt off the floor. Just some wisdom from a parent of many.

 

[TTC First]

I was going to say the same thing xdxxtx. I seem to remember hearing about breastmilk helping the baby stay healthy.