Thursday, April 29, 2010

Suzi: Love & Loathing in Webtown

The internet has been one of my greatest resources both during my pregnancy and since Cooper was born.  You can find everything you need to know…facts, opinions, and medical reviews about every subject known to mankind.  Why did my ankles swell after my delivery when they weren’t swollen before?  How often should I feed him?  What do people think about pacifier usage?  Do gas drops really work?  The answers are all there.  That’s why I love the internet.
Yet this week Scott considered banning me from entering my happy web world.  You see, Cooper has chapped lips.  They grew worse for a few days, so I decided to search for something to put on them to help him out.  Wanna know the only cause you can find for chapped lips on a baby?  Dehydration and/or not feeding him enough.
Now I think I’ve stayed pretty calm about most things since we came home from the hospital.   There hasn’t been a lot of panic around this house, but somehow reading that I was possibly not feeding him enough freaked me out.  I, the one who is responsible for our child’s complete nutritional needs, may not be feeding him enough?  It seems I'm feeding him every 30 minutes AND I'm keeping copious notes of doing so!  So every few minutes I asked Scott about Cooper’s lips, and he always told me the same thing (in a very calm voice), “Suzi, I don’t think there’s a problem.”  Should I call the doctor?  Do we need to go to the emergency room?  How can I possibly feed him more than I am?
Apparently, when you’re a parent and you haven’t slept much, it’s easy to lose your mind.  After some time of this freaking out, I started to pull together what rational thought I had left and looked up the signs of infant dehydration.  Yeah, Cooper didn’t have any of those.  So I managed to make it a few days until our normally scheduled pediatric appointment this morning.
I brought a list of questions to ask the doctor, and of course, “chapped lips” was pretty high on the list.  The doctor’s response?  “His chapped lips are from nursing.  No treatment needed.  What else?”

And that, my friends, is why I love and loathe the internet.

1 comment:

Margie said...

There now, the pediatrician trumps the Internet. What a great post, Suzi. I knew all along you were a great mother. Can't wait to see those little lips and kiss those adorable cheeks!! Love you -- Margie