Our nursery has been especially created to give newborns the tender love and professional care mothers and fathers expect. Services include:

• Neonatologists on call 24 hours a day - The same neonatologists that provide care for Integris Health newborns
• Licensed as a level II nursery by the Oklahoma Department of Health
• State-of-the-art newborn nursery technology
• Advanced sick newborn care-trained registered nurses 24 hours a day
• Partnered with area hospitals for emergency, level III, infant transportation
• When minutes count most your Lakeside physician’s office is located only feet away from mom and baby.
• 24-hour a day professional monitoring of nursery newborns

Caring for you and your baby is our number one labor of love.

Making Your House Safe for Toddlers and Children

During infancy babies stay where you place them and can’t roam the house and get into trouble. However, parents are often bewildered when their once-peaceful babies start crawling, walking, and happily getting into everything. To prevent such a rude awakening, it’s important to plan ahead, and start baby-proofing your home long before your child takes that first step.

Keep Baby Right Where You Want Him

Although a blanket on the floor and a few toys once seemed enough to keep him happy, you’ll find that once he has discovered how to get around, your baby will be everywhere. Even if you are supervising your child closely, it’s a tedious task to pick him up and carry him back into the room a dozen times or so. That’s why they invented baby gates: so that you can easily confine your child to a specific room.

Besides keeping your child under your supervision, there is another reason why babies and toddlers should not be able to roam freely: stairs. Little kids love to climb – but although the stairs may seem appealing, they can also be dangerous when an adult isn’t present. Even if you don’t use baby gates to corral your kid into one room, blocking off the stairs with a gate is advisable.

Keep Baby’s Toys Low, and Everything Else High

Basically, you have to assume that your baby is going to get into anything that is within her reach. (And believe me, she will!) Make sure that everything that is okay for your child to play with is stored close to the floor – in toy boxes, lower cabinets and drawers, etc. All the rest should be stored far, far above her head.
Items that should be kept out of your child’s reach include chemicals, sharp objects such as scissors and knives, and anything small enough to swallow if she put it in her mouth. Even if it’s not particularly dangerous, anything that could make a bigger mess than you’d want to deal with should also be stored away from your baby’s grasping hands – as well as anything particularly valuable, breakable, or sentimental.

Shut Baby Out

Keep your baby out of cabinets. When you can’t store everything out of a child’s reach, you can buy plastic cupboard locks that will prevent your child from opening cupboard doors. You can also get plastic doorknob locks to prevent your child from getting into certain rooms or closets. All medicines should be stored in bottles with childproof lids, and outlets should have plastic covers on them.

Not everything needs to be off-limit; use your judgment. Many a child has thrived on banging pots together, but decisions like that have more to do with your sanity than your baby’s safety.

Clean Regularly

When you have a baby or toddler making the rounds every day, it’s important to keep her areas clean – particularly the floor. Vacuuming or sweeping will pick up sharp objects such as carpet tacks or stray nails, which can often appear as if out of nowhere – particularly when your little one’s face is that close to the floor! Cleaning regularly will also keep the floor’s cornucopia of dirt and food crumbs to a minimum – remember that young children put virtually anything into their mouths.

Be Mindful of Choking Hazards

Precisely because of the children’s tendencies to taste everything, parents need to be conscious of choking hazards. When your child is a baby or toddler, anything small enough to go into his mouth and be swallowed – and consequently be choked on – should be picked up and put safely away. A basic rule of thumb to follow is that a child can choke on anything the size of a marble or smaller. Even food should be cut into tiny pieces, no bigger than the tip of your pinky finger, before being served to your baby or toddler.

Try to Anticipate Anything and Everything

Kids have an incredible knack for taking adults off-guard. Whatever you wouldn’t think of in a million years – that’s what your child is getting into, right at this moment. Therefore, the best method of baby-proofing your house is to systematically go through each room and think, “If I were two feet tall, what could I get into in here? What would be dangerous about this room?”

Have a bookshelf that leans precariously? You’d better find a way to anchor it, because your toddler will no doubt choose that shelf to test his climbing skills. Think the tops of the tables are safe? Don’t be so sure – your child isn’t going to announce that he can climb them now, after all. It’s the parenting rule of thumb – you’re always going to find out about your child’s new skill in the worst possible way.

While it’s not possible to prepare for absolutely every possible situation, you can at least teach yourself to look at the world through your child’s eyes – and anticipate accidents before they can happen.

Generally speaking, it's all right to allow your pet near your new baby, as long as the pet is well behaved and you are there to supervise. It's common for a pet, who has until recently been the focus of the family's attention, to become jealous of a new baby. You should allow your pet to become accustomed to this new member of your household while in your presence. Continue to give your pet plenty of attention, both when your baby is present and when you have time alone with your pet. This will keep the jealous behavior to a minimum. If your pet shows any aggressive or hostile behavior toward your infant, you should quickly reprimand him. He'll learn fast what behavior is allowed near the baby. If your pet doesn't respond well to your reprimands, though, get help from a professional trainer. When your baby is very young, I'd recommend not allowing the family dog or cat to lick your baby's face. This could transmit infectious material (such as feces) into the baby's mouth or eyes. As your baby grows older, her immune system will get much stronger and she can play with and even be licked by your pet without any consequences.

It's a good idea. A healthy newborn does not have to be kept away from other people. However, a new baby is more susceptible to viruses and bacteria, so it's best to keep her away from people who may be ill. You should avoid exposing your newborn to anyone who is showing symptoms of a cold — coughing, sneezing, nasal discharge, or fever. And since people who don't know they're sick can also spread germs, it's completely appropriate — and not rude — to make everyone wash their hands before touching the baby. Even if they're not showing signs of illness, they can't be sure that they haven't come into contact with someone who is ill. Some viruses can live for up to eight hours outside the body.

During your baby’s first 10 days, you'll probably want to keep your baby in the same room with you as much as possible while you two are getting to know each other. But as long as he or she is in their crib or strapped into a car seat or bouncy seat, your baby is unlikely to get into any trouble if you take a few minutes away for a shower or to use the bathroom.

It's not a problem to have close friends and family hold your newborn, as long as they wash their hands first and avoid coughing or sneezing near him or her. Also, try not to let too many people handle your baby for too long. Newborns are more susceptible than adults to whatever bugs might be going around because their immune systems aren't mature yet. Once they're more than a month or two old, you won't need to be so vigilant about protecting them from germs.

Your newborn has already made the journey home from the hospital, so he or she has probably had their first taste of the outdoors. This is an area where you can use your own common sense. It's fine to take a newborn along on an errand or over to Grandma's house. Just make sure to dress your baby appropriately and don't stay outside too long. Most parents tend to overdress their babies. Give your baby one more layer than you need yourself to feel comfortable. If your baby gets too hot he or she may get cranky, and could even start running a fever and losing fluids.

As long as you have a good car seat, short car trips are fine from day one. Air travel is another story. A newborn can fly at a week old if it's absolutely necessary, but it's better to wait until he's at least 4 to 6 weeks if you possibly can. The worry is all that recycled air on the plane. Babies are so vulnerable to germs during their first month so they're bound to pick up some stray bug if they're cooped up with dozens of strangers breathing recycled air.

By the time they're 6 months old, many babies are able to roll from their back to their side or tummy, so there's not much you can do to keep an older infant on his or her back the entire time they are asleep. But keep putting your baby to sleep on her back anyway until they are at least 1 year old — it's the safest position because it's the one that's least associated with sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The risk of SIDS peaks between 2 and 4 months of age but remains a threat until babies are 12-months. Preventing SIDS is the most important reason to put your baby to sleep on her back, but a study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found other benefits, too: Infants who sleep on their back suffer from fewer ear infections, fevers, and stuffy noses than babies who sleep in other positions.