18 Months, Sickness Free!

I cannot believe we made it! Our girly has officially lived for 18 months sickness free! Not a sniffle, rash, cough in sight! After hearing from the respirologist the scary statistic that about 50% of preemies with bronchopulmonary dysplasia end up rehospitalized in the first 12 months, I never would have believed that we were going to make it all the way to 18!

How did we do it? Many many gallons of Purell later (they really should be a post sponsor.. pretty please?), months and months of super strict isolation tactics, having the freedom for one of us to stay home with V and a solid dose of luck!

Here is a peek into the cold busting tricks we used (the things that OCD dreams are made of...):

• While in the NICU, we would watch staff like hawks, making sure they always disinfect their hands before touching the isolette or V. We also made sure that those who seemed sick wore masks. (Yes, unfortunately some of these practices did not seem to be obvious to certain staff...)
• Every time anyone entered our house, including ourselves, the very first stop was the sink for a thorough washing of the hands.
• Each bag and purse has multiple containers of Purell.
• No jewelry or watch wearing outside of the house (those things pick up lots of gross stuff!)
• No one was allowed in contact with V after they had been sick until 2 weeks of being symptom-free
• All groceries had their own shelf in the fridge or a place in the pantry that they hung out for 48 hours after having been bought (have you SEEN how people open mouth cough on everything at the grocery store?! Ugggghhhh)
• We visit public places first thing in the morning, including the Biodome where there is literally no one until 1 hour post opening!
• Early visits are also our approach to doctor visits and physio. Usually cleaning crew go by in the evenings after clinic hours so all the surfaces should theoretically be wiped clean.
• If a coworker is sick, I wear a mask to remind myself not to touch my face and to constantly wash my hands (this is easier because I work in a hospital).
• We tried to teach ourselves just generally not to touch our faces, since that is how many germs are spread!

Now I can hear some (probably non preemie parents - yes yes, the millions of non preemie parents who read this blog) people saying that V needs to be building up her immunity and that getting sick is important. Yes. I hear you. Except for the fact that her development is a little borderline and I'm pretty sure that a hospital stay would not be helpful in developing her teeny muscles. Plus, our pediatric respirologist shared with us that the longer she can go without getting sick the better, because the larger she gets, the more healthy lung tissue she has created and the less likely it is going to overwhelm her. And at a wee 18 lbs, she is not exactly a heavyweight unfortunately. Also, apparently getting a lung infection causes inflammation that could put V at higher risk for chronic lung problems in the future. She has tons of time to catch all the lovely childhood diseases and build her immune system. For now, we're concentrating on building her lungs!

The one issue with her having never been sick is that we have no idea how she will respond when she finally does. Which encourages us to continue is our cycle of crazy isolation... because obviously it has been working for us... We are starting to wonder though, when will it be safe to stop all this?

xo
C

Update on Weight

I was rereading some old posts (whats with the nostalgia?!)

It got me thinking about how long we have been struggling-obsessed-consumed by V's weight. Right from birth, at 910g. Actually, no, before that! We were following her projected weight via ultrasound weeks before she was even born.

I don't think this focusing on weight has done all that much good really. I mean, sure, it got use to enrich her milk, which seemed to have somewhat of an effect. But really, in the NICU, we would celebrate one days of 100g increase and then come crashing down the next when she gained only 10g. The truth probably was simply somewhere in between and she gained an average of 55g per day. And knowing versus not on a DAILY basis was more of a distraction than anything. In fact, our lactation consultant was telling us that they were soon going to stop weighing daily because they found that it discouraged moms from continuing breastfeeding... Its hard to march on with breastfeeding when you are obsessing about intake and there is no way but time at the breast to measure how much your baby is actually ingesting. *insert lots of arguments with Mr. D here about how effective my initial breastfeeding was* Legitimate concerns really, she was only 5th percentile and it really didn't look as though she was taking all that much in. In the end we stuck with it and I'm fairly certain there would not have been any weight difference either way.

Massaging Premature Babies Might Increase Weight Gain - What the Science Says

After our meeting with the pediatric physiatrist, her only recommendation to us, other than to enjoy our baby's company, was to integrate massages into our routine.

After looking around a little bit on the internet, I found this nice short and sweet video how to that I plan on trying out today. I think I'm going to stay away from the stroking around the mouth and nose area for the moment however, I suspect that all those nasogastric and orogastric tubes she had might make that area still uncomfortable to be massaged... just a thought. The other part that I think I will skip for now is the massaging of the back - sweet V. still does quite a bit of arching and her back muscles are quite overdeveloped, I do not want to over stimulate that area. Perhaps I'll try it when she is extra calm.

More searching found that there is some evidence that massage might be particularly beneficial to premature babies! I wish someone had told me about that when we were in the hospital. According to a Cochrane Review (Cochrane reviews basically look at the entire body of medical literature, every good study published on a subject and comes to an overall conclusion on how effective a treatment or a diagnositic tool is), it seems that there is some evidence to suggest that when comparing massage to light touch for premature babies, that massage may lead to a 5 more grams per day in weight gain, earlier hospital discharge and some improved neurodevelopmental testing. Amazing!! The best part really, is that although no study is perfect and perhaps the effects are somewhat overstated, they did not find any disadvantage to the massages. Read more about the details of the studies here.

My husband and I are now considering consulting an infant massage specialist.

Do you have any experience with infant massage? Do you think internet videos are sufficient or would a consultation with a specialist be preferable?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Xo
C