When to pass around a newborn

[Tattooed Hand]

Hi ladies,

I am a first time mom and my baby is a week old. I am feeling better after my relatively fast and east labor and we'd like to have some friends drop by soon. We have no family in the area so we'd like the company. I figured a friend or two every couple of days for short visit would be good for me.

she is a very good natured baby who nurses like a champ. We'll make everyone wash their hands, but when do they have enough breastmilk in them to provide a baseline of immunity (it's not like I'd let anyone sick into the apartment). Is a week and a half (this weekend) too soon? Should I wait until week 2 or 3?

[treegardner]

We only had family over for the first 6 weeks or so. Everyone held the baby during those first 6 weeks after washing their hands. My son was born in the summer though. I may have been less willing if it was in the middle of cold and flu season.

[BlueWolf]

DD is 5 months old and I still don't play pass the baby. She goes to whoever she's comfortable with, not whoever wants to see her.

[Abraisme]

I tend to wait uhmm, about 15 minutes.. Ha ha. I really don't think there's an age when it's better or worse to pass your baby around. Babies are tough and designed to be exposed to people and experiences from the beginning.

I'm also one that takes my new babies out of the house within a few days. I hate being cooped out and again, I'm not worried about germ exposure. My DD is 4mo now and I'll let anyone that asks hold her. So far she loves being held by anyone, so I think it's fine.

[funkymamajoy]

Originally Posted by Abraisme

I tend to wait uhmm, about 15 minutes.. Ha ha. I really don't think there's an age when it's better or worse to pass your baby around. Babies are tough and designed to be exposed to people and experiences from the beginning.

I'm also one that takes my new babies out of the house within a few days. I hate being cooped out and again, I'm not worried about germ exposure. My DD is 4mo now and I'll let anyone that asks hold her. So far she loves being held by anyone, so I think it's fine.

I noticed that it earlier with each baby too.

[MadiMamacita]

Originally Posted by Abraisme

I tend to wait uhmm, about 15 minutes.. Ha ha. I really don't think there's an age when it's better or worse to pass your baby around. Babies are tough and designed to be exposed to people and experiences from the beginning.

I'm also one that takes my new babies out of the house within a few days. I hate being cooped out and again, I'm not worried about germ exposure. My DD is 4mo now and I'll let anyone that asks hold her. So far she loves being held by anyone, so I think it's fine.

[slimkins]

I think we had our first set of friends come over three days after our baby was born. And that was only because we waited until I was ready to have guests
I also didn't make them wash their hands unless they felt that they were specifically dirty. I tend to agree with the whole germ exposure thing being a good thing. Unless you had a baby with some type of immune deficiency, of course.

[writteninkursive]

Germs toughen their immune systems. Bring it on! My baby loves to be held by a variety of people, and I love not being the ONLY one to hold him! Heck, I have three kids! I love the times when someone else is holding him and I can DO something!

If it's your first, you'll probably be more careful than you will after your third.

[lifeguard]

I was never fussy. We didn't have a lot of visitors at first as my pp healing was pretty brutal but I never worried about it as long as ds was happy.

[ShadowMoon]

DS was born 2 days before Christmas. He got passed around my family on Christmas day (he slept through it all, lol!). In that case I was completely comfortable with it. As long as you're ok with others handling your baby and doesn't get out of control, I don't see a problem with it.

[elmh23]

With dd (my first), we had people over within a day or two of us coming home, so she was 4-5 days old.

With ds, he was born on Monday and I had a friend over Thursday to help me out. I was in pretty bad shape and dh had to return to work. Then my friend arranged for one friend to come over each day for the next week. He was held by everyone we knew within about 2 weeks of his birth.

Neither of them got sick before 4 months old.