Babies Smell Like Warm Cheese.

I blame it on the breast milk (which is all over my scrubs due to a gavage feeding mishap described alter). I never had the chance to notice this scent during my stint in L&D because most of the babies were still guzzling down colostrum (the pre-milk if you will). After my first day in the ISCU (Infant Specialty Care Unit) I had more than enough time to peg down that odor.

Here is what I find really cool so far this term during my peds rotation: I'm actually doing something for the first time. While the interventions may be simple (gavage, diaper changes, and med administration) it's the first time in my clinical experience where someones care is almost soley in my hands. And knowing what to do when and why is a pretty cool feeling.

Today my patient was a 2 week old infant born at 36 weeks. After an emergency section, the baby was hypoxic and wasn't breathing very much/well for about the first five minutes of life and about 10 hours later began having seizures. The last 2 weeks have been a time of stabilization, understanding what damage may have occured during the hypoxic period, and controlling the seizure episodes.


It's not uncommon for preterm infants to have difficulty nipple feeding as their sucking and swallowing reflexes are not properly coordinated. In addition to this, my patient isn't always the most alert baby (as in no crying or fussing what she's hungry and pretty drowsy during feeding) so the majority of her feeds are done via gavage (a fancy way of saying feeding tube + gravity). So, today I learned how to set it up, how to fortify her mom's breast milk, and how not to take it all apart in the end. Basically, the lesson of this story is don't try and unhook a feeding syringe from a feeding tube with a baby in one arm or the tube residual will likely end up all over your clothes and the floor (luckily not a great quantity but enough to be frustrating).

I also got to administer my patient's anti-seizure medications through the same  NG tube that her meals come through. Pretty simple, its just depressing a plunger slowly, but it's still a novel feeling to dispense medications almost by myself (someone still has to watch as I am still a student).

The rest of my day was spent snuggling a different patient who is a withdrawal baby and just needed some TLC and an occasional pacifier to nibble on. The only danger with this is when you are sitting in a dark room, rocking in a chair, holding a warm baby after getting up at 5:30 to get ready you find yourself nodding off occasionally. So cozy!

Tomorrow I will be with the same patient but things will go much smoother as I made the awkward mistakes today! Until next week!