Best Start Babies Program

Our prenatal, newborn, and infant health and wellness program

A lifetime of health, right from the start

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Our desire at CCP is for children to achieve the highest level of health and wellness possible so that they can live up to their fullest potential, pursue their dreams, and establish a foundation for a lifetime of health. One of the key ways to accomplish this goal is for children to get the healthiest start in life. This is one of the biggest impacts we thought we could have on the health of our patients and their families, and even our community.

We have designed a program to help parents get their babies off to the very best start, beginning during pregnancy. We call it Best Start Babies. It is a program of preventive care, family and child vaccines, parent education, and support. We aren’t selling any supplements or anything else. We simply want babies to be as healthy and happy as possible, and parents to feel confident and secure in caring for their baby. The first year of life is a time of incredible growth and change, and is a very important time to optimize nutrition and health. With that in mind, here are the components of our Best Start Babies program.

BabyReady Prenatal Guidance and Planning

Most pediatricians offer a prenatal meet-the-doctor visit, and so do we. However, there are so many decisions that need to be made and factors to consider that affect the health of the baby, that we see many parents who have questions and are confused and unsure where to find answers. Therefore we offer a prenatal consult where we meet with parents to go over everything expecting parents need to know, all the decisions that need to be made before the baby is born, and health recommendations for pregnant mothers. We cover topics like safe sleep environments, circumcision, cord blood banking, and feeding plans. We also review pregnancy history and family genetic history. We provide education materials at this visit to take and read at home. For mothers who plan to breastfeed, we can combine our breastfeeding planning visit into this visit and help parents develop a breastfeeding support plan.

We want to help parents feel confident and secure about the pregnancy, delivery, and early parenting stages, and to provide the very best healthy environment for their newborn baby.

BabyShield Pre- and Postnatal & Family Vaccine Program

Did you know that several vaccines are recommended for pregnant women with every pregnancy? These vaccines are also recommended for fathers and other caregivers who will be in close contact with the baby. These vaccines, especially when given to pregnant mothers, will help protect the newborn baby against whooping cough (pertussis) and the flu. The antibodies from the mother will pass to the baby during the last few weeks of pregnancy (and possibly while breastfeeding as well) and provide a shield of protection for your baby for about the first four months of life.

These vaccines can also be given after delivery as well; it’s not too late! They will still provide important protection for your newborn by keeping family members from catching and passing on whooping cough or the flu to the baby.

We have provided these vaccines to parents for years in order to protect our youngest patients; we are now making more of an effort to get pregnant mothers vaccinated. One of the reasons we are doing this is that even though the vaccines are recommended by the CDC and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), our surveys show that most of the pregnant mothers here are not being told about these vaccines by their doctor, and we feel a responsibility to make the recommendations known and protect as many babies as possible.

We can provide these vaccines to pregnant or postpartum mothers, as well as fathers and other family members who will be living with your baby. Just call our office to get started. You can learn more here.

Newborn Hospital Care

As you might imagine, a lot happens to your baby in the hospital during and after delivery. The pediatrician, hospital nurses, other staff, and lactation consultants are the team that will care for your baby in the hospital. The nurses will examine the baby at first and perform all of the standard tests, medications and procedures on your baby. Dr. Pulliam will examine baby within the first 24 hours. This is a full physical exam, carefully examining every part of your baby. This exam is usually done in your hospital room with you. He will review any findings with you; there are many things about a baby’s appearance or behavior that seem strange but are perfectly normal. He will talk with you and answer any questions you may have.

He will carefully review the mother’s pregnancy records, lab results, and details of the baby’s delivery, and order any additional tests or procedures necessary. Before discharge, he will review any labs, jaundice and congenital heart disease screening, and hearing screening results.

There are expert guidelines on preparing babies for discharge and making sure the baby is ready to go home. We will follow these guidelines in discharge planning and let you know when your baby needs to follow-up for his or her first office visit, which is always within 1-3 days of discharge.

Breastfeeding Support

For those women who choose to breastfeed, we offer comprehensive lactation support and treat both mothers and babies. We want all mothers to be successful in reaching their breastfeeding goals, and for every nursing mother to breastfeed with confidence and joy.

We can help develop a breastfeeding support plan before your baby is born. After your baby arrives, we can help with all stages of breastfeeding, especially with getting started, avoiding common problems, and establishing milk supply and feeding success. We can also diagnose and treat both mothers and babies for common lactation problems. Please see  Lactation Services for more information.

BabyStrong Nutrition Program

Whether breastfeeding or formula feeding, we offer comprehensive support and expert feeding recommendations for newborns. However, in just a few short months after your baby is born, a liquid diet of breastmilk or formula is not enough and your baby has to start eating more solid foods. A great deal of research has been done in the past few years on optimal nutrition and feeding for infants. We provide a complete plan for when to start solids, what to start, how to do it, and how to provide the very best nutrition possible for your baby. Please note that we do not sell any foods or supplements in this program; it is all about enabling you to provide the very best nutrition and care for your child.

BabySafe and Sound Sleep Program

Next to feeding, perhaps nothing concerns parents more than their baby’s sleeping. There’s a good reason for this: parents need sleep too! Babies have to learn how to do almost everything; many people are surprised to learn that eating and sleeping are among the skills that a baby has to learn.

There are two main concerns with infant sleep; the first is safe sleeping. Parents are also surprised to learn that sleeping is a key safety issue for infants. The sleep environment you provide for your child needs to be as safe as possible, and there are clear ways to reduce the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related injuries and deaths. In our BabySafe and Sound Sleep Program, we will cover all the safe sleep recommendations and help you provide the very safest sleep environment for your baby. We cover this information at our BabyReady Prenatal Visit and at routine well-child visits.

The other issue is of course getting your baby to sleep soundly and at the times of day that normal people sleep, which means sleeping at night. Parents are usually sleep deprived the first few months, and are anxious to have their baby sleeping soundly, sleeping at night rather than during the day, sleeping longer periods, and sleeping through the night. There are things parents can do to help their babies sleep better, and babies can be taught healthy sleep patterns and habits.

Our goal is for babies to sleep safely and sleep well, not only for optimal growth and development, but for the sleep, sanity, and health of the entire family!

BabySmart Development program

The first three years of life is a period of incredible brain growth and development, faster and greater than at any other time. Our BabySmart program is our program to enhance and to optimize your baby’s development.

During every well-child checkup, we will carefully check your baby’s developmental milestones. At certain visits during infant and toddler years, we will also do a more formal developmental assessment.

At all visits, we will provide you with information on your baby’s development. More importantly, we will give you information on how to stimulate and further your baby’s development at every stage.

BabyWell Preventive Care

Well-child visits are the cornerstone of our health and wellness program and are essential to keeping kids healthy and safe. The other components of our program – nutrition, growth, development, sleep, parenting – cannot take place at visits for an illness; they can only happen at regular well-child visits.

We provide comprehensive preventive care for children from prenatal all the way through college. In our BabyWell Preventive Care Program, our goal is to establish the very best foundation for health and wellness, setting the stage for optimal health – body, mind, and spirit – right from the start. In this first year, we emphasize the following:

• Follow-up if any pregnancy or newborn issues
• Newborn genetic screening follow-up
• Genetic family history
• Family vaccines if not done before
• Breastfeeding support if child is breastfeeding
• Postpartum depression screening of mothers
• Growth and nutrition
• Physical, mental, and social development
• Hearing and vision
• Complete physical exams
• All routine vaccinations
• Safety and injury prevention
• Healthy sleep habits
• Oral health
• Parent education
• Managing any health problems
• Parent adjustment and the joy of parenting
• Building a foundation for a happy, healthy family

BabySure Parent Education Series

Our desire is to equip parents to confidently and successfully care for and nurture their children, body, mind and spirit. One way that we can do this is to provide evidence-based health information and advice to parents at every stage of childhood. During the prenatal, newborn and infancy periods we try to provide extra information, especially for new parents. All of these guides and booklets were written by Dr. Pulliam and contain the latest evidence-based recommendations and guidelines. We print them here in the office and keep them continually updated.