The firsts
Jabs, teething and the first proper illness
The immunisation timetable, what teething actually looks like, and the symptoms that mean stop reading and ring someone.
The jabs
The UK schedule starts at eight weeks, with more at twelve and sixteen weeks, then around one year. Your GP surgery invites you, and it is worth putting the dates in your own calendar rather than assuming.
Take the appointment if you can. It is a good one for you to own: it takes twenty minutes, involves a few seconds of crying, and it is the kind of thing that quietly evens up the load.
Afterwards, expect grumpiness, a possible mild temperature and a dead-leg sleep. Infant paracetamol is often recommended after specific jabs, so ask the nurse rather than guessing.
Teething
Usually starts somewhere between four and ten months, occasionally much earlier. Wildly variable.
Real signs: drooling, chewing everything, red cheeks, sore gums, disrupted sleep, general misery.
Not caused by teething: high fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, a rash. Those are illness and need looking at on their own merits. Teething gets blamed for a great deal that is not teething.
What helps: something cold and firm to chew, a chilled teething ring, clean fingers with firm pressure on the gum, and appropriate infant paracetamol or ibuprofen if they are genuinely distressed. Skip teething gels with anaesthetic in them for young babies unless a pharmacist recommends one.
The first illness
It will happen, probably around the first nursery or the first family gathering, and it will feel much worse than it is.
Normal: snotty, off their food, clingy, sleeping badly, mild temperature.
When to ring someone, today
- Any fever in a baby under three months. This one is not a judgement call. Under three months with a temperature of 38 or above, ring the GP or 111 now.
- Fever of 39 or above in a baby three to six months.
- A rash that does not fade when you press a glass against it. This is a 999 call.
- Breathing that is fast, laboured, grunting, or where you can see the skin pulling in between the ribs.
- Floppiness, unusual drowsiness, or a baby who is very hard to wake.
- Not keeping any fluids down, or noticeably fewer wet nappies.
- A cry that is weak, high-pitched or continuous and unlike them.
- Any moment where your gut says something is wrong.
That last one is a legitimate reason to call and clinicians will tell you so. You know what your child is normally like, and that information is genuinely useful to them.
Save 111 in your phone now, and know where your nearest A&E is before the night you need it.