WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR WHEN CARING FOR A PREMATURE BABY AT HOME

Typically, premature babies will be cared for in incubators at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). After meeting the necessary factors in ensuring health, the child will be discharged from the hospital and return home. At this time, parents need to equip themselves with the right knowledge to take care of premature babies safely at home. Specifically:

► Prioritize breastfeeding
Premature babies need more care to keep up with the development of full-term babies. In addition to intravenous nutrition in the early days, babies need to be fed through the gastrointestinal tract with breast milk early. Some premature babies may have difficulty coordinating sucking, swallowing, and breathing when feeding, so you may temporarily feed your baby with a nasal cannula or NG tube (a tube that passes through the nose to the stomach).
In addition to breast milk, mothers can supplement nutrition in the form of: breast milk fortified preparations, vitamin supplements or high-energy formula milks for premature babies.

► Give your baby enough sleep
One of the considerations in taking proper care of premature babies is to pay attention to their sleep time. Babies will grow during sleep, so they need to sleep well and quietly for many hours a day (16 – 20 hours/day), after each feeding. However, if your baby sleeps more than 4 hours/nap, you should actively wake your baby up to breastfeed him/her. It is recommended that babies sleep on their backs to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). At the same time, babies should also sleep separately in the crib, not with adults because parents can oversleep and endanger the baby.

► Regularly monitor the baby's breathing rate and body temperature
Preterm infants are often unable to adapt to the outside environment, so they are more susceptible to illness than full-term infants. Therefore, parents must always actively monitor signs in babies, such as breathing rate, skin color, perception, body temperature, etc. If the baby shows unusual signs, parents need to take the baby to the hospital as soon as possible.

► Protect your baby from infection
Limit taking your baby to public places, especially areas with a lot of smokers. Especially everyone needs to wash their hands before touching the baby.

► Vaccinate your baby
Premature babies are in poorer health, and have a higher risk of infectious diseases. Therefore, vaccinating premature babies is very important to minimize the risk of children getting the disease to the lowest level. According to Pediatric-Neonatal experts, the vaccines that need to be vaccinated for premature babies are: Hepatitis B, Tuberculosis Vaccination (BCG), Rotavirus... As for the flu vaccine, it is recommended to vaccinate babies when they are 6 months old (based on birth age) or can be vaccinated early before the flu season because premature babies are at higher risk of influenza than full-term babies.

► Regular skin-to-skin contact with babies
Skin-to-skin (also known as the kangaroo method) is a method of caring for infants that parents are encouraged to apply before discharge from the hospital; midwives will guide you to do it properly. At home, the parents only wear diapers for the baby, then place the baby on the chest and turn the baby's head to the side so that the baby's ears are pressed to your heart. Research shows that the kangaroo method can strengthen the bond between parents and babies, promote breastfeeding, and improve the health of premature babies.

If you have any questions, please contact Hotline (028) 3910 9999 or send message to Fanpage https://m.me/aih.com.vn for advice.

Department of Pediatrics – Neonatology, American International Hospital (AIH) provides a full range of pediatric medical examination and treatment services, including: General health check; vaccination; monitoring the physical and mental development of children; nutrition counseling; and diagnostic and treatment services.

The Pediatric outpatient ward at AIH is divided into two separate areas: one for healthy children and one for sick children, with the purpose of channeling patients to avoid cross-infection. When children come to the hospital with suspected symptoms, they will be taken to a separate examination area, so that the disease can be triaged and isolated from the beginning.