What You Need to Do When Your Baby Gets Sick

Dealing with a sick child is no fun. Firstly, you do not want your child to suffer and feel uncomfortable and secondly, it is hard to tell what is going on because babies cannot verbally communicate how or why they feel sick.

Taking matters into your own hands, you need to determine why your baby is sick in the first place. This can be difficult because as mentioned, you need to do some investigative work to see why they feel bad. Here is what you need to do when your baby gets sick.

Take Their Temperature

One of the surefire ways to determine if or how sick your baby is, is to take their temperature. There are plenty of baby thermometers out there, and the contactless variants at Hubble could be a good solution for a stubborn child. Aside from those, there are more traditional oral ones, ear ones, and rectal thermometers. Take their temperature so you can get a good idea if they have a fever or not. Fevers between 100 and 104 Degrees Fahrenheit are usually of little concern as this is normal, but above 104 could be serious and that is when you should see a pediatrician.

Soothe Their Stomach

Oftentimes a baby can feel sick because of their stomach. This issue is common and luckily it is quite easy to resolve. Simple solutions include small amounts of baby-safe yogurt, plenty of fluids, and a warm (not hot) and clothed heating bottle/pad. Soothing a baby’s stomach can drastically reduce their symptoms and make them feel better quickly.

Inspect Their Body

Sometimes the signs of sickness can be present on your baby physically. One of the first places you should check is their ear canal to see if there is anything in there that could be causing irritation, check the eyes for any signs of conjunctivitis, and inspect their bum to see if a rash may have become infected. Inspecting your baby can reveal any possible clue as to what is making them sick.

Look for Body Language

Just like inspecting any signs of sickness, the baby’s body language will give you good clues as to what may be causing them to feel ill. Ear infections may be the culprit if your baby is consistently reaching for their ear and trembling or fussy body language could be signs that they are dealing with a bacterial or viral infection. Pay close attention to how they act, they cannot use their words so they will try to convey these problems through movement.

Listen to Their Cough

Babies cough a lot because they have less control over their airway than older children or adults do. Not every cough is a sign of sickness, but the sound of the cough could give you clues to what is going on. Listen to how the cough sounds and if it is a wheezing sound or you can hear rattling mucus in their throat, they likely have a cold. If it is combined with a runny nose this is a good way to spot sickness as well. 

Using these helpful hints, you can help your child when they are sick, or determine what kind of illness they may be dealing with and give them the relief they need to feel better again.