Newborn Being Kept in Hospital for "Infection" Additional 7 Days

very frequently the mother may be carrying an infection (commonly known as group b strep). If they have a positive culture from the mom and possibly now from the baby, they will treat for 7-10 days. Untreated this infection is very dangerous to the infant and can cause traumatic life long injury. Pediatricians do not take this lightly. Sometimes if the mother has a positive culture before delivery, they can treat her with antibiotics instead. this doesn't sound like the case. Hope this helps

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M.,
My 9 year old daughter was born via forcepts after an Extremely long hard labor as well... the same thing happend she need to be in the NICU for 7 days of antibiotics.. and the reason was a "general infection". of course i was worried, but just as the nurse's told me it is better to be safe then sorry. If she had been taken off the antibiotics then if the general infection became serious her body was not ready to handle that type of infection. but if she (which did stay for 7 days) stayed on the antibiotics, her immune system was receiving a jump start and this could save her life. So just tell your sister to stay strong, and let the Dr's be the Dr.s ...

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My son was born 5 weeks early. I was in labor for a long time and did not realize my water had broken before I went to the hospital. He appeared healthy at first, but during the observation period, he had sleep apnea 3 times. At that time, they moved him to the NICU. They ran numerous tests and they all came back negative. He was in the NICU for 7 days on antibiotics because "something was wrong with him." The neonatal physican could not explain why they were giving him antiobiotics. The physican later said he may need to stay longer. After speaking with risk management, we agreed to let him finish the course of the antibiotics (7 days) and then take him home. My son is now a very ACTIVE 23 month old. I now have a 2 month old who was born healthy. The same neonatal physican was assigned to him, and my husband requested she not work with my son.

Your sister needs to ask exactly what they are treating the baby for and the type of antibiotic. If I could have re-done things, I would have gotten a second opinion.

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M., my first thought is this...was there any damage done with the forceps? I am in no means discrediting the Dr. but is it possible that the antibiotics are a cover up for damage done by forceps & they need time to see if the baby is ok? First of all is the pediatrician the one who delivered the baby?? As for infection, blood work is the only thing that shows an infection & it should what kind & where the infection is. Not just as general infection ( mu opinion) I would definitely want to see lab work results and want proof of infection & what type infection, if they cannot provide that, then yes as the other mom said, get a second opinion! It is not "ok" not to know exactly whats going on with that new baby.
Let us know the outcome, please!

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I would definately get a second opinion. Does the hospital have a NICU? If so, our experience was our son was put in the NICU for no apparent reason and kept for 7 days racking up a HUGE bill with nothing in the end wrong with him. We feel as though they jumped the gun simply because a NICU was available.

I would certainly get a second opinion and possibly a third if you felt there was anything out of the ordinary or you are not getting the answers you think you deserve.

Document EVERYTHING just in case something happens in the end.

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Well...it depends. Did she have the baby at Woman's? They have sought to keep all my children, even when the pediatrician said that my children were fine and didn't need to be there. They insisted on a lumbar puncture. My ped won't see babies there anymore because the hospital gives parents such a hard time and keeps the babies as long as possible.

he should be able to explain why they think the baby has an infection and what it is.
S.

You're in a hospital full of doctors and a new baby. If you question anything get the second opinion. Keep asking questions.

A general infection? Of what? Lungs? Blood? Heart? The doctor should definitely be able to provide details. What counts/readings/results etc. indicate an infection? I'd want to know all the details and if no one's got them, I'd definitely be seeking another opinion in a hurry. Congrats on the sweet baby. Hope it turns out to be something minor.

you need to find out the name of the infection before you can really do anything. ask one of the nurses. congrats on the new baby.

I would hope that they are basing this off of blood work. I am surprised that the doctor is calling it "a general infection" and isn't saying what particular bacteria you are dealing with here. Although, I suppose, if blood counts were done and something seems a little off, they can't always determine where the infection is. Is this her actual pediatrician's recommendation or the pedi on call at the hospital? I would definitely question, question, question. If it is her pedi, ask the pedi on call, if you are afraid you'll offend her pedi. Don't always just sit back and do what the doctor says is best. I was in a similar situation but not exactly. When my daughter was 8 days of age, she had a double ear infection. Sounds like no big deal but I quickly found out that it is a VERY big deal in a newborn. Any infection can spread very quickly and spread to the brain, etc. Her's spread from her ears to urinary tract in a days time. They kept expecting the antibiotics to kick it but then it wasn't in a timely manner; we would have to do more testing and that's how they found it was spreading. We are just SO lucky it wasn't the brain. She was on heavy doses of IV antibiotics for 6 days and had all kinds of tests (catheterized, spinal tap, they punctured the ear drums to release the fluid and tested it). She was sleeping way too much and not eating well (not gaining weight). You said he was eating well; that's good! I would just make sure they are not assuming it's an infection. Now, in the doctor's defense, you don't want to mess around with the health of a newborn baby because they have no immune system to protect them. They have the mother's antibodies but they don't always protect the baby! ...I speak from experience. My daughter had low IgG levels. Lastly, I am not at all thrilled with the idea of having a newborn baby on mega doses of antibiotics. Many people believe it causes problems for the children later in life (ex: allergies, etc.). My daughter is almost 2 now and she is great. Although, she was constantly sick her first year of life. It has improved a lot but she still picks things up easily. Developmentally, all on time. As for allergies, I'm not sure yet. I would definitely talk to the pediatrician about putting the baby on probiotics immediately. My kids are still on Baby's Jarro-Dophilus. You can buy it at HEB for $12; just ask the pharmacist, if you can't find it. It's a powder and you mix it in formula or apply a small amount to the mother's nipple, if breastfeeding. It will get their good bacteria count back up after being wiped clean from IV antibiotics. Talk to the pedi first though. Ask a lot of questions and don't stop until you get some concrete answers! Enjoy that baby and congratulations on becoming a new aunt!

Definitely!!! General infections do not exist! The initial 48 hours of antibiotics is fairly standard if the baby is showing signs of distress or infection, but it should have been able to be narrowed down after that. Ask for another opinion!! Even a senior resident in pediatrics should be able to help you. It was a senior resident that found a life threatening problem with our son when 2 pediatricians were unable to.

My best advice is to follow your gut and ask as many questions as you can. People who are confident in their abilities and what they are doing won't mind explaining their actions to you. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, right?!

I would keep the baby in and follow the Dr.'s orders. My cousin had a baby that developed an infection in the hospital that went undected and the baby died when it was only 6 days old. Baby's are so little that even the most minor thing can cause big problems. For my cousin, the baby died of ecoli. For your sisters baby, it sounds like the baby has an elevated white blood cell count, indicating an infection. What ever it is, it is really good that the Dr. wants to keep the baby around the hospital so they can monitor the baby and treat it properly.

I had my son vaginally and no meds he came real quick so I wasted no time. Unfortately I had a type of bacteria that every woman forms but I had more than usual (Since I had him so fast they weren't able to give me antibiotics to lessen the bateria before birth, I had no labor... ) as he came out of me he picked up the bacteria and he ended up staying at the hospital for 7 long whole days, they treated him for " A General Infection".. Well I wasn't to happy about the doctor telling me that, The real name for what he had was GBS "Groug B Strep" A lot of woman have this, this is very common while woman are having a baby. I read so much about it, It broke my heart to have to leave my son in the hospital but I had to really think about it and it just made him stronger that was the best thing for BaBY.
As for me I was fine, You know tired and all but I was healthy.
I wish your sister and baby best of luck but ask the NICU nurse, they are usually much easier to talk to and they usually answer your questions better than the dr.
The dr. are just always so busy. The nurses are the ones to actually stay and spend time with baby. Its heart breaking to go home and your baby doesn't come w/ you! So tell your sister to be strong!! Congrats to you too Auntie!

Our 2nd son was kept in the hospital at Methodist Willowbrook for an infection. He was in the NICU for 5 days and we brought him home on Christmas day. The whole experience was very traumatic for my husband and I and I feel like it made things much harder on my 2 year old. He was here at our home with his grandparents but it was still hard on him because his dad and I were constantly going back and forth to the hospital.

They were never able to specifically say what caused his infection and I got the feeling from some of the NICU nurses felt like the NICU Dr. on duty was being overly cautious when he recommended additional antibiotics after the first 2 days. He did seem very thourough and meticulous which we appreciated but also made us wonder if he was being a little too cautious. Still, we decided that we would much rather go the cautious route. We had noticed that our son's breathing was erratic that first night after he was born before he was taken to NICU. We were told that the erratic breathing was due to his little body fighting off the infection. We would have never forgiven ourselves if we had brought him home and if he had further problems. His blood work also showed a slight infection and it really is extremely dangerous when they are that young.

Now he is 7 months old and very healthy and happy. He is right on track or ahead on all his development. I would just encourage your sister to spend as much time as possible with the baby at the NICU. If she doesn't have other children to care for that is where I know she will want to be anyway. Get to know the nurses-ours were awesome and let her instincts be her guide.

I still get emotional thinking about the whole experience. Please do whatever you can to support her in whatever decision she and her husband make. I had some hurtful comments from my m-i-l that basically blamed me for not realizing something was wrong before I delivered and that was very difficult at the time. Remember that she is going through a horrible experience on top of crazy hormones.

I will keep her and the whole family in my prayers. Please let us know how everything turns out.

As a NICU nurse I would advise you to ask lots of questions, but also trust the medical team. (Nurses, Drs, etc) My assumption is that they did a CBC and Culture. The CBC can show signs of infection/inflammation. The culture takes 48 hours to be complete and until then they can't tell you what the bacteria is (even if it shows positive earlier.) Infections can be DEADLY for babies. They might look ok, but once they "get tired" of fighting the infection they can go down the drain very quickly. That is why we are overly cautious. In my oppinion (and I have two children also) I would rather play it safe than be sorry. This can be life and death.

Your sister needs to know absolutely everything possible about the infection the baby has. Typically the doctors and nurses in the NICUs are kind hearted and willing to take the time to answer questions no matter how many times they are asked. The doctors and nurses realize how traumatic it can be to the parents and families of the newborns to see their precious infants in that kind of surrounding.

My middle son was in the NICU for the first 26 days of his life, and thanks to a miracle from God he is healthy now. I know how terribly frightening it can be, so tell your sister to trust her gut feelings. If she doesn't feel as if she is getting answers, or if she thinks a second opinion from another doctor is warranted then she should ask for it. I don't know what you or your sister's faith is but I do know that prayer works.

God Bless your infant niece. I pray that God will touch her with His healing hand, and that He gives her doctors and nurses the knowledge and skill they need to make her well. I also pray that God will surround your sister and your family with love and the support that you need.