Home remedies · Children & infants
No home remedy here replaces treatment, and none is talked down. What has done good for generations does good — even if no one ever measured it. Where something is well studied, it says so. Where it is only experience, it says that too.
Lay the baby in just a nappy on the bare chest, covered, for as long as both enjoy it.
Skin contact stabilises the baby’s temperature, breathing and pulse and lowers stress hormones in both. It is one of the best-studied things in the newborn period.
It does not replace assessment when a baby feeds poorly, breathes oddly or turns yellow.
Do not fall asleep while the baby lies on your chest, especially not on a sofa or armchair — that is where most accidents happen.
At once: any fever in an infant under three months, a child who is apathetic or has stopped drinking, skin bleeding that does not fade under pressure, breathlessness or drawn-in ribs. A first seizure is always looked at. Refusing to drink for hours counts for more than the temperature.