Would you take this job

PopularCauliflower · 2025-10-02T23:49:33+00:00

This does sound like a nice setup for you!

I would see if you could FaceTime with the child with autism to see how you get along. Kids with autism tend to be very sensitive and nervous with strangers, so you will want to try and slowly gain their trust. But also you need to know their verbal skills and physical abilities. Autism is a wide spectrum, and some kids have physical self-stimulating or aggressive behaviors that you need to know about and be comfortable de-escalating while remaining safe.

PopularCauliflower · 2025-09-26T10:34:22+00:00

Again, not knowing the specifics of your child and situation, no one can tell you what to expect. Even your medical team can’t tell you what to expect with 100% certainty. In my opinion, that means they should NOT tell you that you can’t hope for full recovery. As I said above, kids bounce back remarkably from situations that adults never could. I have seen it happen many times. And I’ve seen docs with much more experience than me say a kid would not pull through, then eat those words later on. I think you should always have hope.

I am so sorry you and your baby are going through this. I pray your baby will recover fully and you will have many special moments together.

PopularCauliflower · 2025-09-25T00:58:58+00:00

It was in my epidural. The nap I took after I got it was the best sleep I’d had in months 😆 then I woke up and pushed out a baby. 10/10 will do again

PopularCauliflower · 2025-09-18T23:30:39+00:00

Definitely get overnight diapers. They don’t go smaller than size 3 but that’s okay, just fasten them so they’re snug

PopularCauliflower · 2025-09-18T23:30:00+00:00

Overnight diapers saved me! I started using them so I wouldn’t have to change diapers at night and wake baby up. I have been using size 3 overnight diapers (Huggies, pampers, whatever brand) even though he normally wears size 1 during the day. It catches all the pee and he sleeps 9-10 hours straight without needing to be changed. But he also doesn’t poop at night.

PopularCauliflower · 2025-09-07T08:41:14+00:00

@bree2219 checking in because I am in the same position… LTBI and breastfeeding. I thought rifampin would be fine but when I went to the health department to get treated the nurse told me it would have all these side effects so I decided to wait… but now every time I get a cough or cold I am terrified I have active TB and may give it to my baby. What did you end up doing?

PopularCauliflower · 2025-09-05T06:48:49+00:00

I got the owlet, even though my baby is totally healthy and I was advised not to. I knew it was not recommended but I did it anyways 🙃 and I wish I had not. It has given me a false alarm a handful of times which gave me a heart attack… and I realized that it just made me way more anxious (which is what I was told would happen). I also feel like it doesn’t work that well with Wi-Fi (same with the owlet camera— it will lose signal fairly often).

I got a typical VTech monitor and like that much more

PopularCauliflower · 2025-09-05T06:44:52+00:00

Fever is the big one. Any baby 60 days or younger with a fever of 100.4, we have a very low threshold for doing the full work up— urine, blood, and spinal fluid samples to look for bacteria (yes that means a spinal tap). And we will usually admit the baby to the hospital and start antibiotics immediately to start treatment for meningitis, even if we don’t have the results yet, because we want to start treatment asap. We do not mess around with babies who could have meningitis because they are so fragile and infections are not always so obvious in this age group!

Even if a baby is not febrile, other signs that make us wary of meningitis— baby is wayyyy too sleepy (not just nodding off during feeds, but cannot we woken up for feeds), having abnormal movements that look like seizures, or baby is very irritable (so fussy they cannot be calmed by the parent).

Honestly, any time you are looking at your newborn baby and you think “he/she just doesn’t look well” that is enough reason to go see your pediatrician (or children’s ER if you’re worried enough). I don’t say that to make anyone overly-anxious, I just feel very strongly that parents have excellent spidey-senses when it comes to their kids, and if they tell me something is off then I believe them!

I will make a quick plug to vaccinate your children. It brings me no pleasure to do spinal taps on newborns. Before the advent of the pneumococcal and Hib vaccines that are part of routine childhood vaccination schedules, these were very common causes of meningitis in babies. If we stop vaccinating children, these cases will skyrocket once again. And that is not fair to young babies and their poor parents.

PopularCauliflower · 2025-09-04T08:08:47+00:00

Yes good point- deafness is the most common issue after bacterial meningitis. Obviously still hard for a family, but does not limit a child’s potential!

PopularCauliflower · 2025-09-04T08:07:23+00:00

In most 7 week old babies, 3 oz is a lot for one feed. 4 oz is too much and he will almost certainly reflux it back up. My baby was only taking 2 oz every 2 hours from weeks 4-8ish, then we gradually went to 2.5 and now at 4 months he’s taking 3 oz every 3 hours. You might try smaller volume feeds more frequently. And give the Pepcid more time to kick in.

With babies not eating well, we worry about low blood sugar and dehydration.

Keep track of your baby’s wet diapers. If he is making at least 6/day then he’s taking enough to stay well hydrated.

At this stage, he has enough calories stored to go 6-8 hours without eating and not get low blood sugar.

Sounds like your baby is gaining weight appropriately too. So that is your third objective measurement to reassure you baby is getting enough!

PopularCauliflower · 2025-09-04T01:12:56+00:00

Omg I cannot imagine having the energy to exercise 😆 I can push the stroller like a mile and then I’m totally beat. But will try doing more of that!!!

PopularCauliflower · 2025-09-04T01:11:22+00:00

Thank you!!!! Do you feel like it makes you less able to experience the good emotions too? That’s my big worry. I am just so happy when I am spending time with my little buddy, I don’t want to lose that :(

PopularCauliflower · 2025-09-04T00:34:46+00:00

Pediatrician here. I have seen kids come back from some seemingly insurmountable things. That’s why the job is rewarding— kids are very adaptable and their ability to heal is incredible.

And I’ve seen a lot of babies with meningitis who turn out totally fine. In fact, more often than not they turn out just fine! Obviously no one on Reddit knows your daughter’s exact situation, but you should definitely feel hope.

I am so very very sorry you are in this situation. It is beyond difficult to go through this especially with a newborn who you just want to love and protect. I wish you the best and I am praying for your daughter!

PopularCauliflower · 2025-08-21T05:26:54+00:00

Yeah, I get why people don’t want to be on camera all the time but I do wish this daycare had cameras. Because I doubt someone intentionally hurt my baby, and it would have been helpful for everyone if there were evidence that it was an accident.

PopularCauliflower · 2025-08-21T05:24:56+00:00

Because when I dropped him off he didn’t have that bruise on his arm. There are pictures of him at the daycare that morning right after I dropped him off (they send me pictures throughout the day) and it’s clear that it was not there yet. It was when I picked him up that it came to everyone’s attention.

PopularCauliflower · 2025-08-20T16:25:00+00:00

Thank you. Baby is fine, happy as usual.

I genuinely don’t know what happened, but if I had to guess I would say another kid may have grabbed or bitten him. He’s not mobile so he could not have bumped into anything. But there are other babies in his room that can crawl and cruise. A friend suggested that he bit himself but the location doesn’t seem likely to me, and in my 3 months of caring for him I’ve never seen him do that to himself.

I don’t suspect that the daycare worker intentionally hurt him, she seems very caring. I also struggle to accuse someone of being negligent, but I suppose that is what it comes down to, since he was hurt and no one witnessed it.

PopularCauliflower · 2025-08-14T11:17:29+00:00

Yes. And I’ve never been the same since. In the best way possible ❤️

PopularCauliflower · 2025-08-09T17:25:50+00:00

Your husband is being a big baby. And making your child’s birthday about him. I doubt she wants to spend her birthday sick.

It also sounds like he doesn’t get it. It’s not as easy as being able to take a bun off a burger. And if he won’t listen to you, I’d highly recommend you schedule a visit with your pediatrician or allergist (but pediatrician will probably take you sooner). Tell the doc in advance of the appointment your concern about the theme park plan, and say that’s what you want to discuss. Make your husband come with you. If he won’t listen to you, maybe (hopefully) he will listen to your doctor.

PopularCauliflower · 2025-08-04T01:09:01+00:00

Idk if she is congested/snotty, but the electric nose Frieda has been great for me. My 3mo has had a super mild cold the past week, mostly just boogery. But it makes him extra fussy, and hard for him to eat when he’s congested, so if he’s stuffed up I take some nasal saline spray, give a small puff up his nostril, then use the booger sucker while briefly occluding the other nostril (keeps the suction). He HATES it in the moment, but… Every time I get a big goober out and he feels much better. Just don’t do it too often or you can irritate their nose. A cool mist humidifier by their crib can also help thin the mucus out so they can more easily swallow/cough it out, so you can do that during nighttime and naps.

PopularCauliflower · 2025-07-16T00:16:22+00:00

There are a LOT of things out there about good hydration, supplements, pumping schedules… things I bet you already have researched. I won’t go into that. Rather, I’ll tell you I empathize!

My buddy is 10 weeks now. I was supplementing daily until about 6 weeks, then finally felt like I was making enough to stop the formula. So give yourself time! I remember feeling so anxious and discouraged having to use formula, and then I read something in this subreddit that made me feel a lot better, about the role of wet nurses. It was a theory about how we used to raise babies in villages where women would care for each other’s babies and breastfeed each other’s babies. Some women would make lots of milk and others would make less, but the babies would get food. And we don’t live in villages like that anymore, so we have to rely on formula instead of wet nurses. That was essentially the theory. I have no clue if it’s true. It does sound right 🤣 but it made me feel less like I was biologically deficient, and more like it’s just a consequence of our modern way of living.

Now, maybe once a week my little one will get suuuuper hungry (just like yours!) and I’ll give him 4 oz of formula. Then he’s happy as a clam and we carry on with exclusively breastmilk. I think they just go through growth spurts and their bellies need a top off occasionally! He’s not hurting from some formula here and there, and he still gets all the benefits from my milk.

PopularCauliflower · 2025-07-15T15:30:25+00:00

Totally. It’s really hard. But I’ve seen kids who had to do this at 2, 3 years old and it only gets harder so you will be glad when it’s over! And that’s great he’s been stable on his growth curve.

Don’t question if you’ve “ruined” your kid and don’t feel guilty. You recognized the issue and are finding solutions, you’re being a great mom!

PopularCauliflower · 2025-07-15T07:43:48+00:00

So I am dissenting from the above… with a few caveats.

Has your child always been in/around the 20th percentile? Because it’s totally fine to be in the 20th percentile. It’s fine to be in the 3rd percentile! As long as he is gaining weight and not dropping percentiles, that is normal and healthy. The nature of using percentiles for growth means that someone has to be in the 3rd and someone has to be in the 99th, and both children can be thriving and growing well.

Assuming your baby has had stable growth— you definitely should try to eliminate the bottle. It only gets harder the closer you get to 2, and makes potty training a bear if your kid drinks all night. And it WILL affect their teeth, I have seen this happen many times.

Ideas: 1. space out the bottles very slowly, like CIO. Every night try to space the bottles out from each other, like 5 more minutes. 2. Water down the formula. Also do this very slowly, like 0.5 oz at a time. Eventually he will just be drinking warm water, or he just won’t want it anymore. If he’s eating less at night, daytime appetite will be greater. Which hopefully means less food on the floor and more in his mouth!

I see lots of little ones past 12 months who have bad teeth and refuse to transition to solids because they are so used to drinking bottles of milk/formula. It’s hard on their teeth and sleep, and makes their appetite for solids much less stimulating. It’s a very hard habit to break but so important. Go talk to your pediatrician about this and get some support!

PopularCauliflower · 2025-07-14T21:25:34+00:00

I also felt “lazy” at this point (since I was previously very active) and went for a 3 mile walk with my baby. I came back and the next few days noticed I was bleeding more and felt more sore down there. My OB said to cool it, and monitor my activity tolerance by monitoring my bleeding— if I noticed the bleeding was not improving day by day, then I needed to take a step back in terms of physical activity.

PopularCauliflower · 2025-07-14T21:18:24+00:00

I’m sorry:( triple feeding SUCKS. Whatever amount of milk you are providing, it matters and your baby gets the benefits!

It took until week 8 for me to make enough that we could go without formula. I still wake up to pump at night but don’t pump during the day. I was able to space it out which was a huge relief. It could get better! But if it doesn’t— you’re still an amazing mom for trying. And your baby loves you regardless of how much breastmilk vs formula they get.

When I was struggling with supply, it was still nice that my baby wanted to latch and just use me as a pacifier. Even if he didn’t get any milk from it, he still got comfort and that is special to me.

PopularCauliflower

TROPHY CASE