Water, the best choice for babies at night
Dear Dr. Donya
I am a regular reader of your column and find it quite useful. I am from India and living in Surabaya.
In your column on April 10, you advised only giving babies water at night. I am quite confused about this. I have a six- month-old daughter and I bottle-feed her milk at night when she wakes up. I feed her twice, at about 11:30 p.m. and early in the morning at 3 a.m.
Please advise me, is this OK or not? Will she have any dental problems because of this?
-- Pallavi
Dear Pallavi,
When a baby wakes up at night, water is the best choice for feeding. You can bottle-feed your daughter milk and immediately afterward, to clean her teeth, give her some water.
Theoretically, a nighttime bottle should not be needed after the age of three months, but most babies still need feeding so choose water, or milk and then water immediately afterward.
-- Dr. Donya
Dear Dr. Donya,
I would like to ask your advice in dealing with my son's vomiting. He is a year and 10 months old. When he was under a year old, he didn't have digestion problems, but since he turned a year old, he often vomits when taking medicine and also when he cries. It is difficult for me to give him medicine. Does my son have a digestive disorder? Could you advise me on an easier way to give my son medicine?
-- Murti
Dear Murti,
Does he have any vomiting while he eats? If he only has a problem while taking medication or crying, I can say that he does not have a digestive problem. I use a syringe to give my son medicine and make a game of squirting it in his mouth -- one syringe for him with medicine and one for me with water.
Give him time to grasp the idea, and it is important to pick a medication that has a good taste, not too sweet and not too bitter. Do not force him to swallow the medicine if he doesn't want to. You may want to mix the medicine with some juice or add it to ice cream, but do not mix it with milk.
He is one-and-a-half-years old, so talk to him and give him the reasons why he has to take the medication, and he will understand. Good luck.
-- Dr. Donya