Welcome to Monday Mornings with Dr. Mona where each week I answer your questions.

To leave a message call 954-526-2641 and I may pick your question for a future episode.

Let's get to our first caller.

Hi Dr. Mona, my question for you is about having a new baby and what to do with a toddler's

child care. We currently send our son to preschool three mornings a week and review for a baby in

December. So I was just curious what your thoughts are on keeping him in the preschool program

when we have a new baby. And I would just say my main concern is just

spreading illnesses to the new baby and just protecting him. So would love your thoughts.

Thank you so much. Bye.

Uh these are the kind of questions that I think keep us up as parents. You know what are the

best things that we can do in this situation. So I want to walk you through some things to consider

because in the end this is a choice that you make based on the resources you have and your

comfortability in the situation. So it's true that newborns immune systems are more naive. So

this is really about benefit versus risk. Watch my newborn and outings video on YouTube for more.

But briefly we look at the first two months of a newborn as higher risk for illness, right? Mainly

due to if they get a fever it's more concerning for an under two month old and that we have to do an

automatic workup blood work if they're like younger than one month. Sometimes they need a um

lumbar puncture which checks some fluid in the brain. So it's also a matter of hey if the older

toddler is going to school brings home a virus. The child gets a virus and subsequently gets a

fever. It's going to be you know more of a workup an admission to the hospital. But this isn't

an automatic thing that happens, right? It comes down to resources also. I think there is a benefit

of having your older child or your son in school. You know that is going to help you focus on the

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