About the First Year
This is a very busy time in you and your new baby’s life. The 1st year is very much about ensuring your baby thrives by getting off to a great start. At the same time, as babies get themselves established in this world there will also be things that need more urgent appointments. A child’s 1st year is characterised by a mixture of routine and more urgent appointments, along with quite possibly telephone advice too. You’ll see quite a lot of your paediatrician and that is completely normal; reinforcing the importance of someone you get on with and feel confident in.
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Why Dr Sara Watkin for Paediatric Care & Advice?
I love the first year of life, passionate about helping babies thrive and also pride myself on my support of parents as this is quite a scary time too.
30 Years Experience
Tertiary Trained & Experienced
Calm & Reassuring
Full Paediatric Admitting Rights to HSA
Acute Paediatrics
General Paediatrics
Former NICU Chief of Service
Paediatric Emergencies
Available 24/7 Quickly
Care Needs & Services
There are things to organise, such as immunisations, and many milestones to monitor. Babies pick up bugs and find certain things make them irritable. They have their feeding foibles and a mind of their own sleep pattern. Everything is new and many things are firsts. You’ll spend time worrying whether everything is going OK too – all perfectly normal. One of the greatest challenges for parents is that babies have very limited ways of communicating all is not well and so it is tough sorting out the minor from the more important. If you’ve had a child before, you’ll know just what I mean and if this is your first, you’ll be amazed how fast you grow in confidence too, especially with reassurance and some guidance.
Services I provide, or areas I cover, include:
- Immunisation and vaccinations
- Advice around breastfeeding and then feeding & nutrition generally
- Growth advice and concerns
- Developmental follow up and milestones
- Skin, spots, rashes and other blemishes
- Fevers, viruses etc
- Ears, noses, throats & eyes
(occasionally these require referrals to ENT or eye specialists too) - Allergies and intolerances e.g. Cows Milk
- Intolerance & nut allergy
- Urgent or emergency care
(I have a close working relationship with George Town A&E and full admitting rights to the paediatric wards)
I also ran developmental follow up in the UK but this was predominantly for ex-preterm infants as normal, routine checks and follows were conducted by health visitors and GPs. However, here in Cayman, most follow up for babies and children is conducted by the paediatrician. You’ll find I want to schedule certain visits for this purpose, to ensure your baby is developing and thriving as he or she should.
Safe sleeping is another important issue. Did you know we primarily grow when we are asleep? Also, parents worry about SIDS – Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Great strides have been made in reducing this through better advice. A good start is the latest guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics:
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Access & Appointments
Perhaps one of the most important considerations in the first year of life, in my opinion, is access, when you need it. I frequently get calls in the evenings, during the night, at weekends etc when parents have concerns. Regardless of how minor something may turn out to be from a medical standpoint, it’s rarely minor in the mind of a new parent. This is something I firmly recognise and so you will never be made to feel you shouldn’t have called. I am lucky in that we also have an excellent Urgent Care service for evenings, Sundays etc and they are very good at calling me if they have any concerns. It’s an extra level of cover that you don’t get everywhere.
