Should I lay my baby on its back or its tummy?

Dear doctor, today you visit doctors who tell you lay your baby on its back while others tell you to lay it on their tummy. I lay mine on the tummy. Is there any problem?.

Rhena

Dear Rhena, the slogan today is back to sleep. In other words unless advised against by your doctor, babies should be made to sleep on their backs.

Laying babies on their backs has reduced the number of babies found dead in their sleep without reason.

Sleeping on the back has been blamed for babies regurgitating milk and the milk going into the lungs to cause aspiration pneumonia but what is true is a baby is more likely to choke with head down especially from soft surfaces and loose beddings. Also back sleeping has been blamed for flat back heads associated with reduced intelligence which is not true but in case you fear this lay your baby on the side or abdomen as long as you are watching them.

Dear doctor, my two-months-old child has white stuff in the mouth and I have tried to remove them but the baby then bleeds. Is there a quick remedy?
Jassy

Dear Jassy, Candida Albicans is a fungus that normally lives on our skins, in the mouth, vagina and intestines without causing health concerns.

Under certain circumstances, including reduced resistance to fight infections, Candida may flourish, and in the mouth, cause a white coating with reddened areas, called oral thrush. Since a baby’s ability to fight germs is not yet mature, Candida may easily strike especially if there is use of broad spectrum antibiotics. You can use Gentian violet which colours the mouth or Nystatin drops while you improve nutrition of the baby and meanwhile abandon any antibiotic you are using for a milder one.

Dear doctor, advise me before it is too late, because my one-year-old baby cannot harden his private part. I have tried many tricks including dressing while he is looking, bathing the neighbours girl when he looks on in vain. What else can I do?
Alice

Dear Alice, it is common for infants to have an erection when their bladders are full, when passing urine, as they take a bath, get a nappy change or for no apparent reason.

Erection then is not always necessary and may not happen in many cases, only to happen erotically when older.

Adults get erections when they fantasise, or dream about sex apart from watching sexual parts or sexual scenes. It is not true that infants will get an erection the same way as adults because they are too young to imagine or even know anything about sex.So your neighbour’s child or your own nudity cannot cause an erection in an infant normal or not.

Though erections in infants indicate normal functioning of the nervous system, lack of them does not indicate problems in the same system.

Dear doctor, I recently found that I have TB. I have never been exposed to TB by a relative or even visited hospital to catch it .Then how did I get it?
Jennie Kissame

Dear Jennie, Tuberculosis (TB) is an infection usually of the lungs, which may be spread from a person with the disease coughing and the other one breathing in mucus droplets laden with the germ.