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Pet Vaccines and Your Baby

Posted on June 21, 2018July 14, 2019 by TheBraveLittleMama

Note, I am not a veterinarian. This blog post is for information purposes only and shouldn’t be seen as medical advice. All information provided in this blog about is accurate and true to the best of my knowledge, but that there may be omissions, errors or mistakes.

Besides being a mom to my two sweet human babies, I am also a dog and cat mom. I have worked in the veterinary field for the past 7 years. Keeping your pets healthy so that you can in turn keep yourself and your kids healthy is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. Oftentimes the medical care for a pet that gets cut when babies start to enter the picture. Unfortunately, vaccines are one of those items that can easily become overlooked and overdue.

Vaccines exist that protect your pet against diseases that are only transmitted between dogs or between cats. Other vaccines protect against zoonotic diseases, meaning diseases that can be spread from animals to humans. These are the vaccines we will talk about. Children under the age of 5 are at a greater risk of contracting zoonotic diseases. I am not here to sway you into reconsidering pet ownership. In fact, owning pets can have a huge positive impact on your children’s health. A 2012 Finnish study found that kids raised in homes with pets have fewer colds, fewer ear infections, and need fewer antibiotics in their first year of life than babies raised in pet-free homes. Pets have a great effect on kids, both on their immune systems and on their emotional development. However, as a pet owner, you need to take the necessary steps to keep your children safe.

You can easily keep you and your child safe by properly vaccinating your pets with the vaccines listed below.

Leptospirosis: (dog only vaccine)

According to the CDC, “The bacteria that cause leptospirosis are spread through the urine of infected animals, which can get into water or soil and can survive there for weeks to months. Many different kinds of wild and domestic animals carry the bacterium.”
Symptoms can include, headache, fever, vomiting, jaundice and diarrhea.
Treated with antibiotics but may require IV fluids and hospitalization.

Rabies: (dog and cat vaccine)

The most common mode of rabies virus transmission is through the bite and virus-containing saliva of an infected host.
Once clinical signs of rabies appear, the disease is nearly always fatal, and treatment is typically supportive.
It is a legal requirement that you keep all of your pets up to date on this vaccine.

Low-cost vaccine clinics or your local animal control are good options if you are unable to afford routine care with your regular veterinarian. Keeping your pet up to date on all other vaccines recommended by your local vet, will help avoid your pet becoming sick with one of those diseases (Parvovirus, Distemper, Feline Leukemia, etc.). This in turn keep your child from the heartbreak of losing a pet to a preventable disease.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of treatment.

Stay posted for my upcoming blog post on “Pet Flea Prevention and your Child’s Health”.

Gender Reveal for a Second Baby

Posted on October 30, 2017July 14, 2019 by TheBraveLittleMama

Gender reveal for a second child? Is a big party appropriate for a second child? Do you make your friends feel left out if you don’t have something big and inclusive? The size and guest list of your gender reveal is something that you never expect to ever be conflicted over. But there I found myself, completely conflicted.

We were both born and raised in the city that we live. We went to college here and have since lived here since graduation. Our friend base is fairly substantial (seriously, not bragging here!). We also have a lot of family members that live here. Anytime we host anything that includes everyone, our guest list can quickly grown to 50+ numbers. Really it is a great problem to have and we consider ourselves lucky. But when planning anything, it is something that we HAVE to take into consideration.

Ultimately we, okay really just me because hubby doesn’t care, decided to do something with just our family. Since our last gender reveal party we have had baby showers, baby daddy showers and first birthday parties that all of our friends have given up their own time to be a part of. My decision was based both on two things. 1. The desire to not have to plan a party for a large group, and 2. The fact that I didn’t want to create yet another occasion that our friends would feel obligated to come and celebrate our lives.

We invited our family over for a simple dinner on friday night. At the end of dinner we popped confetti poppers that were PINK!! The rest of our friends and out-of-town family go the news shortly after – thank you social media. I am so happy that we choose the stress free option of having a quaint dinner with our family rather than going all out on a stressful, expensive party.

Also, with all that money we didn’t spend on a party, we decided to do a mini-shoot to celebrate our gender reveal happiness!!

What did you do to reveal the gender of your baby?

Photo cred: Vika Photography

Skin Cancer, Me and Motherhood

Posted on October 23, 2017July 14, 2019 by TheBraveLittleMama

I am a red-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned woman. My arms and face are covered with freckles. I have been sunburned more times than I can count. After college, I started avoiding the sun which was made easier since I was no longer surrounded by all of the college pool parties and lake weekends. As I have gotten older, I have hidden from the sun more and more. I’m pretty sure I went 3-4 years in a row without visiting a pool, lake or beach. I purposefully pick out foundations that have sunscreen in them to help add an additional layer of protection. Every year I go to the dermatologist to have her check me over for spots that could indicate skin cancer. I think it is fair to say that I had become paranoid about sun damage to my skin.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2017. I had just given birth to my first child, a beautiful little boy when I noticed a spot on my back that wouldn’t heal. I couldn’t really remember when it had showed up but I knew that it had been there too long for comfort. I scheduled an appointment with my dermatologist, where I was diagnosed with a Basal Cell Carcinoma.

There are far worse varieties of skin cancer out there. Generally speaking, Basal Cell Carcinomas are non malignant cancers (they don’t spread elsewhere in the body) that appear as red or pink open wounds or scars. It is the most commonly diagnosed skin cancer, with 4 million cases diagnosed in the U.S. each year. Hearing all of that did not change the immediate panic that I felt hearing that I (wtf, bad things do not happen to me!!!) had skin cancer. The good news is that my doctor was able to remove the entire lesion on my back and prescribed me a lifelong schedule of being checked every 6 months.

How has my experience affected my decisions as a mother? A lot. I consider it my mission to protect my son’s skin from any and all unavoidable sun damage. This does not mean that he lives indoors or in a bubble but it does mean that we make a conscious effort to avoid direct sunlight. Here are the things that we do:

Hats

My son wears a hat anytime that he is outside. Sometimes he is less cooperative but for the most

He stuffed the hat on his head so that we would hurry up and go outside on a walk. 6pm and lots of shade on our walk.

part, he knows that the hat means that it is playtime and is therefore more than willing to let me put it on him. Our favorite hat is this one that we found on Amazon. Large brim, neck coverage, comes in a ton of color options and it snaps under his chin so he is less likely to remove the hat. It also folds up nicely so it can fit right into my diaper bag so we are never without it!
Sunscreen

Anytime we go outside, any exposed sun gets slathered in sunscreen. Our favorite is Blue Lizard SPF 30+ sunscreen for babies. He is a daycare baby 4 days a week, so we also have a bottle at daycare for any and all recess times.
Pants

We live in the South but that doesn’t stop us from wearing long pants throughout most of the year. Clothing provides more sun protection than sunscreen ever will. He doesn’t tolerate long sleeves as well, which is why we go with the pants instead. If it is a REALLY hot day and we are going to be outside for a longer duration, then yes, he wears shorts (I’m not completely mad!).
Full coverage swim wear

Building his swingset in the shade.

Define going “overboard” with sun coverage

There are a ton of long-sleeved rash guards on the market, but fewer swimwear options with long pants. Sunscreen washes off pretty quickly when submerged in water and other than our backyard pool, most pools are in direct sunlight. Whether we are at a lake, public pool or an inflatable pool in the backyard, we go with full coverage swimwear and swim shoes to cover every inch of his skin. Plus, I think he looks freaking adorable in his swim get-up! Swimsuit can be found here, and swim shoes here.
We play in the shade

We have been very mindful in where we play in our backyard. We built the swing set in the shade. We have the sandbox in the shade. Our backyard is surrounded by trees so that area is shady for most of the day. During the small part of the day that it isn’t shady, we don’t go outside. I had to adjust the brightness of his pool photo in this post dramatically to make his face slightly visible in the photo.

You might think that I am ridiculous or you might completely agree with me. Once your skin is damaged by the sun, you can’t reverse that damage. As my son grows up, he will reach a point that I don’t get to make every decision for him. He will likely make choices that don’t always keep him protected from sun damage. That’s why I am so over the top with avoiding any unnecessary sun damage now, while protecting him from sun damage is completely in my control. These habits we are making now, may even turn into lifelong choices for him (fingers crossed). Nothing that we are doing to protect him from the sun have affected how much he plays during the day or have decreased his happiness levels but they have set him up for a lifetime of healthier skin.

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4 Things I Learned from My First Baby

Posted on October 9, 2017October 27, 2020 by TheBraveLittleMama

I’m not the first to tell you, but becoming a mom for the first time is an experience that no one can really prepare you for. There are wonderful and not so wonderful parts of becoming a parent. I have learned a few lessons along the way and I am sure that as mt first baby grows up and our little family continues to grow, that I will continue to learn even more.

Life is SO much easier when you give up having a specific plan

Babies change constantly. No phase lasts for a very long time and the second that you think that you can plan around their “usual” timing- nap, feedings, awake time, your baby will probably change things up on you. During my first few months as a mom, this made me feel like a failure. Why couldn’t I figure out how to manage my baby better? My life became less stressful when I gave up trying to stick to a plan and make everything work perfectly. If baby is not having a good day or doesn’t nap like “usual” then we may not make it today, we may not go grocery shopping today and that is OKAY.

Give your spouse a break

The years are short but the days are long. Insert fussy baby, difficult breastfeeding, blow out diapers and some days are much longer than others. I spent a few of directing my frustration at my husband, who really didn’t deserve it. I choose to breastfeed- a decision that I am proud of and would do over again 100 times over- but along with breastfeeding comes a lions share of the childcare. My husband made up for this with cleaning, doing our laundry, waiting on me when I was trapped on the couch with a latched on baby. Still, some days I was so jealous that he barely lost any sleep and definitely didn’t miss any meals or showers that I would be angry at him. Rather than focusing on what he was doing to support me, I focused on what he wasn’t doing.

Accept help whenever it is offered

This one sounds like it should be intuitive but for me it wasn’t. I am an independent mama that prefers to be self sufficient. I love helping my friends and giving gifts but when the generosity is turned back on me I have a hard time accepting it. My mother and mother in law live close by and in the beginning I did not want to accept their help. I am woman and I got this- except maybe I didn’t, at least not all the way. There is nothing better than getting to take a long shower or go shopping alone **gasp** because your baby is happily snoozing on Nana’s chest. Accepting help is not weakness and allows you to take care of your needs.
Live in the now- be present

Babies grow up fast, too fast if you ask me. Looking back I wish that I would have spent less time plugged into my phone, preoccupied and less time not focused on my baby. If he wants to be in the swing for 45 minutes straight, saying “more” every time he starts to slow down, then guess what? I’m going to stand there pushing his little tushie on the swing for 45 minutes. If he wants to cuddle with me for 20 minutes before going to bed, I am going to soak up his snuggles and sit in that glider rocking him. Rather than focusing on what other adult things I could be doing, like eating dinner, plugging into my phone or watching the latest episode of This Is Us, I focus on him. There is going to come a day, a mean and awful day, that he doesn’t need me to swing him or doesn’t want me to cuddle with him anymore so I am going to take in all in while I can.