Heather Janse van Rensburg tells us about the first visit to the doctor with her 5 week old son and the advice he have given her regarding babies.

So yesterday we had our first doctor’s visit. I’m almost a R1000.00 poorer, but it was totally worth peace of mind. Babyice is only 5 weeks old today, but on Friday he started wheezing. I wasn’t too concerned on Friday, but it sounded like it got worse over the weekend and by Monday I was in a flat panic and wanting to take him to hospital at 5am because I didn’t want to wait for the doctor’s office to open. I barely slept and the one time I did manage to doze off I had a nightmare that we didn’t get to the doctor’s office in time and that he stopped breathing. After I woke up I couldn’t stop crying. I couldn’t shake the feeling the dream had left me with.  How his little body went limp in my arms. Fuck. It was traumatic.


After some Rescue Remedy and a cup of sweet tea Rudi managed to calm me down. I phoned the doctor’s office at 7:59 and they slotted us in for 9:00. Rudi and I quite like the doctor. He is very nice. Here are a few of the answers he gave me to my questions:

• We don’t use humidifiers in Cape Town. It’s humid enough here.
• Only professional physiotherapists should nebulise an infant.
• Formula is fortified and no multivitamin is required.
• We can have a fan on in the room with him in it, as long as it is not blowing on him.
• We can use the aircon in the car.
• He should be wearing at least a vest, even if it’s very hot.
• It is okay to swaddle him in the heat in a thin blanket if it helps him sleep.
• There is no hard and fast rule about whether babies should sleep on their tummies or backs.

He didn’t change the formula we have Babyice on, which is quite a relief because it is much more cost effective than the previous one. He is 100% happy with Babyice’s growth and everything we’ve told him. He doesn’t believe that he will be a colic baby, which is SUCH a relief! The biggest problem he saw was some thrush which he gave us some oral gel for. It’s already cleared up, so we’ll continue treating it for another 2 days as per his instructions


Babyice now weighs 4.38kg, is 55cm tall and his head circumference is 39cm. He even said we could consider this our 6 week check up and didn’t have to go again! The noise we were so concerned about is apparently just a flap in his throat which might have some milk on it. It is a lot worse than it sounds and no cause for concern. He referred us to an ENT specialist who can put a pipe down baby’s throat to be sure, but said it would only be for our peace of mind.


So next week he has to go get his first set of shots. EEK! I’m dreading it!!!!