The first days of newborns' life are full of surprises - the child adapts to extrauterine life, his body undergoes regular changes. Some of them come as a surprise to new parents, causing serious concern for the health of the child. Such changes include swelling of the mammary glands in babies, often observed in the first 3-4 days after the birth of a child.
Instructions
Step 1
The mammary glands swell in about 75 percent of newborns, both girls and boys. This occurs most often in normal-weight, full-term babies. Swelling of the mammary glands is nothing more than a manifestation of a hormonal crisis caused by the flow of maternal hormones through the placenta in late pregnancy and through colostrum and breast milk after childbirth. After birth, the concentration of hormones in the baby's blood decreases sharply, and this causes manifestations of a sexual crisis.
Step 2
Signs of a hormonal crisis are not only an increase and hardening of the mammary glands, but also bloody or whitish vaginal discharge in girls, edema of the external genital organs. The manifestation of the crisis reaches its maximum a week or two after birth, after which they subside and after another one or two weeks they disappear without a trace.
Step 3
The size of the swollen mammary glands of a child usually does not exceed three centimeters in diameter. A significant, uneven or unilateral increase, redness, edema, soreness and fever indicate a rare disease for newborns - mastitis, requiring an immediate medical examination and treatment. Normally, during a hormonal crisis, both glands are enlarged symmetrically, the child does not feel pain when touching them, the skin color is not changed.
Step 4
The swollen mammary glands do not require special care, but it is important not to injure them, not to touch them unnecessarily and not to bandage them tightly with diapers. A whitish or transparent liquid can be released from them - in no case should it be squeezed out, this can lead to injury to the mammary glands and their inflammation. No ointments, compresses, bandages or heating are needed - they can even seriously harm. You should also avoid hypothermia and carefully follow the rules of hygienic care of newborns to prevent the development of mastitis.
Step 5
If a newborn girl, in addition to swelling of the mammary glands, has vaginal discharge, this also does not require any special measures, except for regular and correct toilet of the genitals. A doctor's consultation is necessary in case of redness and severe swelling of the genitals, as well as if the child is restless and touching when washing or changing a diaper clearly hurts him.
Step 6
According to experts, the hormonal crisis indicates the normal adaptation of the newborn to life outside the mother's womb. The sexual crisis does not have any effect on the child's health and reproductive abilities in the future.
