Ryn, good point. I have been there when my 2 of my cats had kittens years ago, and yes they do lick them clean straight away. My friend did say that the vernix left of helped keep the baby's skin softer?? Is this right?
Alan, are you saying that with the vitamin K it's possible the baby's blood could clot too much?
I have not personally seen it happen but it is theoretically possible. I have however recently seen a patient (65 year old man) who came into hospital with an INR of greater than 10. This man was taking warfarin for a medical condition and had taken too much. Warfarin reduces how easily/quickly the blood clots. The INR measurers how well your blood clots. Normal range should be about 2. This man was given an injection of Vit K (2mg) and in 2 days his INR was down to 1.3. and needed quite a large dose of warfarin to bring things back to normal
I don’t wash off the vernix. It is a great moisturiser.
Last edited by Alan; November 19th, 2006 at 08:54 PM.
my hospital told me not to wash it off because it protects the skin - (i had a 10 day ODD baby with cracked skin) - you can still bath them, you just dont wash it off (like someone pointed out, it doesn't get 'washed off' in the womb)
Please please please do the heel p.r.i.c.k test with your babies. It's extremely important. I know because I have phenylketonuria (PKU) and if I had not been diagnosed by that test I would be permanently brain damaged and either in an institution or dead by now.
It is an entirely treatable condition (with a lifelong low protein diet and special formula) and I have gone on to live an incredibly normal life, right up to the point now where I am TTC myself (which is a completely complicated but possible process with PKU). But if my mother had refused that test, look what would have happened. I am so grateful for newborn screening and as far as I'm aware it IS compulsory.
My parents could have said 'Nah, we don't have anyone in the family with it', which is true, but that is the very nature of a recessively inherited condition... it is very RARE but anyone could have it, you just don't know. I am so grateful to my parents for having the test, despite me being the youngest of 3 (the other 2 of which do not have PKU) and for keeping me so strictly to my diet when I was a child.
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) - you can still bath them, you just dont wash it off
(like someone pointed out, it doesn't get 'washed off' in the womb
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