While expecting a baby, expectant mothers and fathers are trying to foresee a lot: choose a stroller and a crib for the baby, beautiful clothes and diapers. Along with these pleasant chores is the acquisition of a first-aid kit for a newborn.
Of course, you can follow the path of least resistance and buy a ready-made standard set "Mother and Child" at the pharmacy, but experienced mothers say that there is little really useful in it. Most parents try to assemble a first aid kit on their own. This is where questions arise regarding the list of the most necessary drugs and devices for the baby for different occasions. The well-known pediatrician of the highest category and TV presenter Yevgeny Komarovsky very often has to answer such questions.
And now Komarovsky will tell us all about the children's first aid kit.
Basic principles
Collect drugs in the first-aid kit for a newborn should be in certain groups. Let one contain only antipyretics, and the other - antiseptics. After all, if medicines are needed urgently, digging in a purse with boxes and bottles, looking for the right remedy, is at least stupid, and at the most dangerous for the life and health of the baby, because precious time will be spent looking for a medicine.
Dr. Komarovsky emphasizes that a mess in a first aid kit can be expensive.
What and why might you need it?
Evgeny Komarovsky recommends several main groups of various medicines and products in a children's first aid kit.
Hygiene supplies
- Sterile cotton wool (1 pack). It will be required literally from the first days of a baby's life for daily morning procedures. It will be possible to roll small flagella from cotton wool, with which the newborn's nose and ears are cleaned, pieces of sterile cotton are used to wash the baby's face.
- Wet wipes (2 packs). They are needed both by the mother to wipe her hands before manipulating the child, and by the child, because they quickly and conveniently wipe the bottom when changing a diaper. Napkins should be special, for children, free of alcohol and perfume.
- Manicure scissors (1 pc). They will be needed to trim the baby's nails. In newborns, fingernails and toenails grow at an incredible rate, so you will have to trim them several times a week. It is quite difficult to do this in practice, any mother will prove it. Therefore, take special scissors for children with blunt ends so as not to injure the child.
- Vaseline or massage oil (1 piece). It is useful not only for massage procedures, but also as an emollient. It is convenient for them to soak the "crusts" on the head of newborns, as well as lubricate the tip of the enema before use.
- Baby cream (1 pc). It effectively softens baby's delicate skin, which is subject to any external influence. Often, baby cream is used when carrying out massage procedures and gymnastics, which, perhaps, you will start doing the little one in the very first month of his life.
- Diaper cream (2 pcs). There are a huge number of such cosmetics for diaper rash and irritation that often occurs under diapers. Not a single baby is immune from this trouble, even if great importance is attached to hygiene in the family. Komarovsky advises using "Bepanten" or the means of the German line of creams "Bubchen".
- Powder (1 pc). This is also an indispensable thing for mothers and children for everyday use. Use a non-scented powder.
Umbilical Wound Treatment Accessories
- Zelenka (1 piece). It dries the wound perfectly. Komarovsky recommends this particular antiseptic, although he allows the replacement of brilliant green with a two percent aqueous solution of potassium permanganate.
- Cotton buds (1 pack). They should not clean the child's ears and nose, as inexperienced mothers mistakenly do, they are great at applying brilliant green to the umbilical wound and wipe off its excess.
- Hydrogen peroxide (1 pc). It is used for pretreatment of the umbilical wound before applying brilliant green. It is desirable that the concentration of peroxide is no more than 3%.
Bathing accessories
- Water thermometer (1 pc). A very important thing, since a newborn should be bathed in water of a certain temperature - 37 degrees. A water thermometer can be chosen as a funny toy, and when the baby grows up, he can play with it during water procedures.
- Herbal medicine. If you are going to arrange herbal baths with broths, infusions for your baby, collect all the necessary fees in advance. For these purposes, it will be useful to buy one pack of ready-made collections of chamomile, motherwort, sage, lemon balm, string, calendula at the pharmacy.
Remedies for infant colic
Small heating pad. It is desirable that it be safe. Now there are special heating pads with which it is impossible to burn a child, their design completely excludes opening and spilling of boiling water. Do not put an electric heating pad on the crumbs' tummy.
Gas outlet tube. A device that facilitates the passage of air bubbles from the intestines. Usually, Russian mothers do not really like this method of dealing with children's colic, however, such a tube will be indispensable if all other methods do not help.
Traditional medicine. These are dill seeds for making dill water or ready-made dill water that you can buy at the pharmacy. Please note that the shelf life of the finished product in the refrigerator should not exceed 30 days. If the first-aid kit is completed in advance, it is better to take seeds or a ready-made pharmacy "Plantex".
Medications. All colic remedies for children are based on simethicone. The price depends on its concentration and brand. The most popular products are "Bobotik", "Espumisan L".
Remedies for problems with stool and digestion
- For constipation. A rubber bulb with a soft tip for an enema procedure, a preparation in the form of a Duphalac syrup, glycerin suppositories for children.
- For diarrhea. Preparations "Linex" and "Smecta".
- With vomiting. This condition is very dangerous for babies. Regidron will help restore the water-salt balance in the baby's body.
Emergency aids
- For fever and fever. These should be drugs that contain paracetamol. You can give medicines for high fever to a child who is already three months old. Release form - drops, syrup or rectal suppositories. You can buy drugs such as Children's Paracetamol or Ibuprofen.
- With a cold. If the baby has a runny nose, he will need an aspirator that will help free the nasal passages from mucus, because babies cannot blow their nose on their own. Today in pharmacies you can buy a regular aspirator or an electronic one. A matter of taste and income.
- Saline as part of a group of emergency drugs, it is most often needed to rinse the nose before instilling drugs for the common cold. Among the medicines in the first-aid kit there may be Nazivin Sensitiv and Nazol-Baby. These drops can only be used with the permission of the pediatrician!
- For eye inflammation. Conjunctivitis in infants is quite common. In some cases, it is enough to make lotions from freshly brewed tea, but it is better if your medicine cabinet contains special drops of "Sulfacyl sodium".
- With an allergic reaction. If there is an appropriate reaction to new food, complementary foods, or the child is bitten by insects, you can use "Fenistil". Up to a year - drops, and after a year - gel.
- From the pain. As an anesthetic for teething, you can use "Kalgel", "Dentol" and drops "Babident".
- For different occasions. Be sure to include a thermometer in the children's first aid kit, preferably an electronic one. Now you can buy a thermometer, which is made in the form of a pacifier, with such a temperature measurement will not cause any discomfort in the baby.
Doctor Komarovsky's advice
Komarovsky strongly does not recommend completing a children's first-aid kit for a newborn with antibiotics, antiviral agents and other serious medications. For different diseases that can happen to a child, different drugs will be required, because, alas, there is no universal pill.
Now let's listen to the full issue of Dr. Komarovsky about newborns.
Evgeny Komarovsky advises mothers to look into the home medicine cabinet more often so as not to miss the expiration date of certain drugs. This is especially important if medicines are intended for small children.
