[egrmamma3]

Hey y'all
We recently received a placement of a newborn little guy. He is now just 7 weeks old. He had his first visit with bio parents today. I imagined this would be completely uneventful due to his age, but I think I was wrong. He has been VERY gassy tonight and unusually sleepy with lots of crying during his awake times today. He had a very pleasant morning until the visit, so I'm confused by this behavior...normally a very happy, easy to soothe baby. Could this possibly be attributed to the visitation??? I can't imagine, but I'm sure stranger things have happened. I'd love any feedback.
thanks

[mylovebug]

was the visit supervised? Atleast if it was you could ask the cw if she noticed how things went, if she burped him if she gave tylenol or anything. you never know what it could be.

[EandDmom]

Did they maybe feed him a different type of formula? Maybe they didn't know what to do with him so they just feed him and he ended up with way to much in his little tummy. I agree with above reply and ask the caseworker if she noticed anything?

[Larue]

Our little one is 10 weeks old, and has weekly visits with her parents. I supply them with a diaper bag with her power formula in a bottle, and bottled water, and most importantly relay instructions on how many ounces she is currently drinking. If she is overfed, which did happen at one visit, she spits up and gets an upset tummy. She was born exposed to meth, and has a pretty sensitive tummy. Could this be what happened? Like the other posters mentioned, I'd ask the CW for more info.

Best wishes!

[cecegarrett]

As a nurse that has worked with countless newborns... I firmly believe that these little people pick up on a lot. I would echo what everyone else has said and suggest you ask the cw what she noticed. Blessings!
CeCe

[parenting-over-40]

I would email the CW and let them know what you noticed about your little guy. Also ask if they noticed anything about the visit that might have caused his gassy tummy. I take the babies and they do get awfully gassy (especially drug exposed babies).

Despite their young age these babies do feel the stress of the visit with their birth parents. I had one that would stress out for hours after a visit. I quickly learned that once my little ones come home from a visit, we take a bath and wash the hair. If birth mom or someone at the visit smelled of smoke, the baby can pick up on that and that can cause problems (at least it did in one of my little ones).

Once I started doing baths, that took care of the meltdowns after visits with one baby. Then the meltdowns started coming a day or 2 before visits. This little one was just a couple of months old and would stress out big time. They know!

[mom2fabtwins]

One of the twins would have a hard time after visits. He was overly sensative to moods. If you were laid back and easy going - all was great. If you were the least bit anxious he would pick up on that and display it 10 fold. He started visits at 10 days old. There were many times it would take 7 ,8, 12 hours of holding, pacing and cuddling for him to settle down after a 45 minute visit.

As he got older, I have no idea how he knew - but he would start to get sick prior to the visit. I never mentioned when he was going to have a visit. I would take him to daycare and we would be VERY careful not to mention it. Visits would be from 3-4, so they would be picked up from daycare at 2:30. About 11:00 am he would start to run a temp. as it got closer to 2:30 the temp would go up and up. 4 times over 5 months I got called at 1:00 to pick him up because his temp was over 101. On 3 other occassions, just as I called daycare (to report a cancelled visit) they were going to call me to say he was getting sick - not 101 yet, but close. On these 3 occassions he was perfectly fine by 4:30 when I got there to pick them up.

Regardless of age - they know! The stress of the parent, the difference in feeding, the smell, the sound of the voice. It all comes into play. Just work you schedule to allow for a wind down time after the visit. As pp said - baths help. Sometimes we would play soothing music on the ride home and that would help. Sending a blanket that smells like you will help also!

[luvmykids4]

Our first foster baby we received as a newborn. She had inconsistent visits with bio parents, and they were not especially tuned into their baby. She definitely seemed a little 'off' after visits. Babies pick up more than you realize, and if the caregiver ( bio ) is not the 'greatest', I think it can stress them out. Another thing that happened with our fd -- because she wasn't comfortable with mom, she would cry alot, and mom couldn't soothe her. In turn, mom would over feed her, she'd end up spitting up, etc. I did express this to cw. Best of luck.