Nothing creates anxiety quite like a sick infant — especially in the first weeks when everything feels fragile and uncertain. This guide is not a replacement for your paediatrician. It's a map: the kind of knowledge that helps you stay calm, act quickly when it counts, and avoid unnecessary panic the rest of the time.
The IAP recommends a schedule of well-baby visits in the first year. Make sure you attend all of them — they're not just for vaccinations. Your paediatrician uses these visits to track growth, development, and to answer the questions that pile up between appointments.
Fever: The Most Common Alarm
A fever is not a disease — it's a sign that your baby's immune system is working. But the response to fever depends entirely on how old your baby is.
| Age | Temperature Threshold | What to Do |
|---|---|---|
| Under 3 months | 38°C (100.4°F) or above | Emergency — call your doctor immediately or go to hospital |
| 3–6 months | 38.5°C (101.3°F) or above | Call your paediatrician same day |
| 6–12 months | 39°C (102.2°F) or above, or lasting 2+ days | Call your paediatrician |
In newborns under 3 months, never wait and watch with a fever. A temperature of 38°C or above is a medical emergency regardless of how well your baby looks.
Dehydration: Harder to Spot Than You Think
Babies lose fluids quickly during illness. Dehydration can turn serious within hours, especially in summer or if your baby has diarrhoea and vomiting simultaneously.
- Early signs: Fewer wet nappies (fewer than 4 in 24 hours), dry mouth, no tears when crying
- Moderate signs: Sunken fontanelle (soft spot on head), sunken eyes, skin that tents when pinched
- Severe signs: No urine for 8+ hours, very sunken fontanelle, extreme lethargy — go to hospital
Breathing: When to Act Immediately
Occasional sneezes, snuffles, and irregular breathing during sleep are normal in newborns. What's not normal:
- Nostrils flaring with every breath
- Skin pulling in between ribs or below the chest (retractions)
- Breathing rate above 60 breaths per minute (for infants under 2 months)
- A grunt with every breath
- Blue tinge around the lips or fingernails (cyanosis) — call emergency services immediately
Jaundice in Newborns
A yellowish tint to the skin and whites of the eyes is jaundice — caused by bilirubin accumulating in the blood. Mild jaundice is extremely common (over 60% of newborns) and usually resolves on its own within 2 weeks.
What needs attention: jaundice appearing in the first 24 hours of life, jaundice lasting more than 3 weeks, or a baby who is very yellow, difficult to wake, or feeding poorly alongside jaundice.
Traditional sunbathing advice for jaundice is outdated. Modern guidance from the IAP recommends phototherapy in a clinical setting for significant jaundice — home sunlight is not sufficient and UV exposure carries its own risks.
Growth: The Bigger Picture
Babies should roughly double their birth weight by 5 months and triple it by 12 months. A single weight measurement tells you little — it's the trend that matters. Tia's growth chart plots your baby's weight, height, and head circumference against the IAP reference curves, flagging percentiles that warrant a conversation with your doctor.
Slow weight gain can have many causes — a latch problem, illness, or occasionally something that needs investigation. Don't try to self-diagnose from a chart; bring the data to your paediatrician.
The IAP Vaccination Schedule
Vaccines are one of the most powerful tools we have for protecting your baby in the first year. The IAP schedule includes vaccines at birth, 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 14 weeks, 6 months, 9 months, and 12 months — missing or delaying them leaves a real gap in protection.
Tia tracks the complete IAP schedule and sends you alerts on Telegram before each due date. You can mark vaccines as given and keep a permanent record that travels with your family.
Never skip or delay vaccines based on mild illness or a mild fever. The IAP guidance: vaccination is safe with mild illness. Significant fever or acute illness is the only reason to postpone.
A Rule of Thumb for New Parents
When in doubt, call your paediatrician. There is no such thing as a silly question in the first year. A good paediatrician would rather you ring once too often than miss something important.
Tia's Ask Tia feature is designed to answer parenting and logistics questions — sleep patterns, feeding concerns, developmental milestones. For any symptom question — fever, rash, breathing, pain — Ask Tia will always direct you to your paediatrician rather than try to diagnose. We built it that way on purpose.
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