Baby Care

Archive for the ‘New Born Baby’ Category

The date of the appearance of the child into the world is very close, and you increasingly think about what you will feel. Your anxiety and mixed feelings are natural. But usually there is an unknown fear of something. And you are already well prepared for childbirth and meeting the child. Do not hold the emotion in yourself. Talk to your child how much you have to wait for his/her birth, his/her name, describe the room where he/she will live. Very soon your baby will be with you.

1) The first signal.
You are afraid that everything will begin at night and you will not have time to get to the hospital? Do not worry. It’s even better if, at the time of labor pains, you can get some sleep. You’ll need some power. Just tell yourself: “I will have a healthy physiological childbirth. And try to sleep. But be aware of the fact that the beginning of the birth may be different: sometimes a few days before the event the cork goes out (a small lump of mucus). In any case, look at the color and amount and be sure to tell the doctor everything. Remember the important rule: once the water started to move away, the child should not be in pain more than 6 hours (maximum 12 hours). So you should be in the maternity hospital, do not delay.

2) The path-way.
Something is pulling at the bottom of your stomach? Contractions are repeated every 10 minutes? So, it’s time to give birth. Explain to your husband, what happens to you, let him help and support. While your husband prepares something to eat, take a shower. Water removes the pain and helps to relax.
Do not forget: your bag, your passport and the exchange of maps.
If you go on your own, it is better to sit in the back seat and relax!

3) Procedures.
In the reception at hospital record your data, measure the pressure and weight. Better pre-shave at home, but if youdid not have time don’t worry, you’ll be shaved in the maternity hospital.

4) Help.
Cervix is gradually revealed, fights are intense, and the intervals between them are reduced. If the pain becomes intolerable, doctors may suggest anesthesia. Do not rush to accept. Think about the upcoming battle, unpleasant pain. Try to focus on the kid: talk with him/her, put your hand on belly (baby has much more pain than you and you should always remember that and try not to hold breath, and it is difficult for him/her to breathe). Encourage your child!

5) A comfortable posture.
To reduce the pain, you can move, take any convenient position. Relax! Try not to stretch the muscles of the face. First, the drawing of muscles near the eye may affect the eyesight. Secondly, because of this red dots may appear on the face. Contractions will be easier, if you walk. Try to swing with the hips. This dance relaxes perineum muscles and helps to open the uterus. Then lie for a couple of minutes and relax, but then rise – movement is very important. Experienced nurses will tell you how to breathe correctly. You should listen carefully and faithfully follow their advice! This is very important!

6) In a difficult moment.
You have heard about gap and cut? It is not necessary that this happens to you. But even if it happens, do not worry. The doctor gently and quickly makes the necessary incision. You do not feel it. And after birth, when the baby is peacefully snuffling in your abdomen, the doctor will apply sutures. There is nothing to be afraid of.

7) Now you are a mother.
Finally, the head appeared! So the most difficult part is over. Soon it should be born! Look how handsome he/she is! After the usual procedures of weighing, measuring growth, examination of a pediatrician, the baby will be put on your stomach and you will be able to hug your miracle. It is a reward for your work! That’s it! Congratulations!

List of things which a young mother need is really enormous. But a small bottle for feeding is always the first in this list. Even if you are breast-feeding your baby, you’ll need a couple of bottles in order to save squeezed milk. Later bottle will become a loyal assistant when your baby starts trying different juices. And, of course, if you are bottle-feeding your child, the bottle is an essential item.

While choosing the bottle for feeding, please pay attention to the material. Glass bottles, unlike plastic ones are more brittle and heavy. If your child has already grown up, then you’d better choose plastic bottle, as children like throwing objects on the floor, and this subject can be his/her glass bottle.

The form is also important. It is very important to choose a bottle that is easy to clean. For example, the triangular shape is not conducive to perfect purity: the brush simply can not penetrate into all corners.
What about nipple, it is the most responsible part. Here you have to be very legible in the selection. First, the form of the nipple should remind the maternal breast. But it’s not a secret that it’s difficult for a child to suck milk from breast. But
Milk in a bottle comes easily without much effort. For this reason, many children while trying milk from the nipples become “lazy” and refuse to eat from the breast. If you don’t want to face with this kind of problem you need to buy a “correct” dummy with a broad soft ground and a short nipple. It makes the child perform the same movements as eating from the beast.

Mainly, producers prefer latex or silicone nipple. However, the latex has a sharp smell and taste; it would be preferable to choose silicon. It has no smell and should not cause an allergic reaction.

It’s also worth mentioning that the nipples should be made by same company as bottles: they are of the same diameter, and in the future, this will facilitate the purchase of new “details”.

But the most important parameter for the bottle is the ability to allow air, preventing the vacuum, thereby reducing the probability of occurrence of intestinal colic.
However, some modern bottles solve this problem thanks to the so-called anti-vacuum “skirts”. Among these models the best choice is Philips AVENT bottle. It has a unique system preventing vacuum. In the process of feeding the kid doesn’t outstrip from nipple, as its edge bent without losing form. During feeding, you can also see bubbles on the surface of the milk which proves that the air goes into the bottle.

Bottles Philips AVENT positively affects the well-being of the babies. This was proved by British scientists. Seven years ago, British experts in the field of child nutrition carried out clinical studies, during which they compared the behavior of 60 infants. They were divided into 2 groups, one of which ate from the Philips AVENT bottle, the others – from the standard “tableware”. As a result, it was found that infants who were breast fed or ate from Philips AVENT bottles, suffered from colic much less, and consequently, behaved more calmly.

Philips AVENT bottle itself is made of lightweight and durable plastic. Its form is convenient for both adults and children, and a wide spout ensures easy cleaning and filling of the dry mixture. Another plus is its nipple made of silicone; it has no taste and smell, and it repeats the shape of female breasts.

Finally, after a detailed story about quality, it is worthwhile paying a little attention the quantity. If you give child milk, you need immediately to buy about five bottles in order to have clean at hand. If you are breast-feeding, two small bottles are enough. Later they will be useful for giving a baby water or juice.

All cares, worries and suffering associated with your child’s birth, are behind. Question number one: How to name the child? What should you take into consideration while choosing a name? Beautiful sound? A memory? The desire to perpetuate a name of a close relative?
Whatever your promptings are, try, above all, take care of your child’s happy fate, which to a large extent depends on what his/her name will be combined with.
In this case there isn’t any instruction. You are free with your choice. But there are some criteria which are worth following.
1. It will be better if the name is easy to pronounce and can be easily remembered. The name which is difficult to pronounce becomes a hindrance in communication.
2. The name must easily go with the patronymic.

3. Preferably, the name should not make any difficulties while making different forms.

4. It is vital that the name sounds softly and easily, for example: Alexander Vladimirovich, Alexei Mikhailovich. Pronounce these loudly, and immediately feel the difference with the other ones: Stepan Igorevich, Dmitri Stanislavlovich…

The harmonious sound occurs when the stress in the name and patronymic are in the same syllable account. It is desirable to get some nice sounds, in other words, that the combination of the name and patronymic did not have many consonant or vowel sounds.

5. In any case do not call your son like his father, for example: Aleksandr Aleksandrovich, Nikolai Nikolaevich, etc. Repetition of the parent contributes to the development of negative qualities.

Choosing a name is a very responsible activity. They largely determine the fate of your child.

Those days are gone when women just stayed at home, engaged in farming, giving birth and raising children.

Now many of them go to work and not just because of our difficult times of earning a living, but also because the representatives of weak sex have the talent and the ability to make a career. And even after giving birth, women do not want to leave their profession and seek to quickly return to the workplace. How not to feel guilty for an “abandoned” baby?

All the women, who a few months after giving birth, return to work, feel a bit guilty for their children. It is absolutely clear: the child is still very small, and they fear that they deprive their child of their love and care. Therefore, before going to work, try to solve all the problems worrying you.

The kid loves you more than anybody

Mothers need to know that returning to work does not mean that you should stop breastfeeding your child: it is possible to transfer a child to the mixed-feeding or decant the milk and put it in the fridge.
It is understandable that you inhibit the very idea that perhaps you do not see how your baby will say its first words, but do not get upset because of this. Studies have shown that a child’s achievement becomes “real” only after demonstrating it to his mom and she will evaluate it and rejoice with him. So you will still be playing a primary role for your child’s. And it is precisely because of this inextricable link, you will always be the most beloved for him/her, despite the fact that he/she spends most of the day with grandma, nanny or kindergartener.
 
There is no need to get upset when after returning home from work your child will not talk to you. Your task is to explain the child why you working and that you will always come back to him/her and give him/her having all your free time. So gradually the child will get used to the fact that you are away for a part of the day.

Sometimes, working mothers feel that if they stay at home with their baby, he will develop faster. But this is a totally groundless fear.
In relation to children the most important is not quantity but quality of these relationships: it is important how close you are to your child, whether you understand each other etc. Therefore, if one day you come tired from work, and you cannot force a long time to play with your child and give him affection and attention, as usually, do not blame yourself. If your house has an atmosphere of love and if your child feels your care and understanding, he/she quickly forgets this little episode. 

If baby stays with people who he loves, he will get used quickly to your temporary absence, and in the future this experience will help him/her be more independent.

You can go to work, if your child …

Is already three months. He is sleeping and taking meals at about the same time, allows strange people to take him in their hands, and it is easy to placate.
Six months. He is sleeping, expresses displeasure when he/she does not like something, and smiles as he/she is pleased.
Nine months. He knows how to play alone; he/she holds a bottle and actively researches all he/she sees with his hands.
Year. He/she understands most of what you say to him, knows how to pronounce some words, and shows finger on things that you show him/her.

Sixteen months old child clearly understands almost everything that you say, even if his/her own speech still resembles “mumbo jumbo”. The ability to understand spoken language is an important step toward the own speech activity.

Stages of Speech Development

As with other skills, there is no clearly defined age and mastering the mechanism of speech. There are 16 months old children who hardly pronounce a few words and the other 16 months old include up to twenty words in vocabulary. Articulator skills of the child are not developed yet, and often the pronunciation of the kid is understandable only to his/her parents.

First words

The child’s first words are a kind of labels – nouns to describe people, animals and all other items affecting the baby. At first, he/she learns to speak the simple one or two words, and then move on to phrases. During this period, on average, a child learns two or three words each month. Then, suddenly – as a rule, in eighteen months(plus-minus two months) the kid is going through a so-called “voice breakthrough”, after which learns ten words every day and improve the skills of perception of speech with even greater intensity.

When a child learns well a few words, he/she will try to express his/her thoughts more precisely. Initially, he/she will use the intonation. For example, when he/she learns to pronounce the word “cat”, he will shout “cat!”, when the cat will be digging in a flower pot – because earlier he/she had heard that you criticize your pet for it.

Sentence Formation

Finally, the child will understand how to put string small beads of his/her growing vocabulary to short strings of sentences. At first he/she is not concerned with “unnecessary” words like prepositions and conjunctions – these official words are meaningless for him/her.

But he/she is pleased with the combination of the words that have meaning for him/her. For example, if a kid “catches” cat again for eating his/her favorite geraniums, he/she won’t say “You are a bad cat!”, but he/she will say “Bad cat!”

Experts call these initial inexpert sentences “telegraphic speech”. They usually consist of two words. These sentences indicate a new level of communication between the child and the world. For example, a child may rush to the window and cry “Dad home!”, seeing the approaching of his/her father, or shout “Swing!”, being on the playground.

Ultrasound showed that you will become a parent of twins. You can feel happy – you will have double joy and double trouble.
Few simple tips will help you to cope better with suddenly increased happiness.
Do your best to teach kids to eat at the same time. If you are breastfeeding a child, first attach one to the chest, then the second. Normally, twins develop, and weigh the same, but there are exceptions. If you see that one child weighs less, then give him/her extra food.

The second important point is to make children sleep at the same time. If you see that children are restless without any reason, it’s worth a try to put them to sleep together. During 9 months of pregnancy they are much accustomed to the neighborhood of each other, and at first they can miss this. In the future, they will learn to sleep separate from each other.

Kids love when they are carried on the hands. Of course it will be more difficult to hold both kids at the same time. But you should not deprive kids of this endearment. Try to hold them in your arms while sitting on a chair, preferably on a rocking chair.

Baby bathing is one of the most important procedures. But you cannot do this alone, you will need a help from your husband, relatives or friends.
After 6 months children learn to sit and crawl, allowing you to relax a bit. Certainly they will find something to do. But here arises another trouble – it is very difficult to follow two children who are running in different directions.

Despite the fact that twins are very similar, be sure, that very soon you will start to differ them. Always remember that they are two different individuals. There is no need to buy them exactly the same thing and make the same hairstyle. You raise two different kids, who will certainly bring you a double portion of happiness.

Care items
You need to take care of baby’s daily hygiene procedures. To ensure that this is comfortable both for you and for your child, you must have all the necessary items.

• Baby bath chair and bath (when the child starts to sit)
• Thermometer for measuring water temperature.
• Thermometer for measuring air temperature
• Rattles and rings  for teeth
• Cotton sticks (with limiters)
• Comb hair brush (for small children)
• Scissors with blunt ends

Baby Care Products
In order to take care for a child you need toiletries, made specifically for children. They are safe for baby’s tender skin, do not cause irritation of mucous membranes and allergic reactions on the skin, and provide thorough care.

• Baby soap
• Children’s cream
• Baby oil
• Child Protective cream, baby cosmetic milk
• Children shampoo
• Children Bath Bubbles
• Wet wipes
• Sanitary napkins impregnated with oil
• Powder

Child kit
You also need to have medical supplies. You must buy all in advance in order to use it at the right moment.

• Manganese
• Sterile and non-sterile bandage, sterile cotton wool
• Brilliant green (antiseptic)
• Bactericidal plaster
• Hydrogen peroxide 3%
• Suction
• Enema: size-1 (2-3 pieces), one of them, with cut off pears, can be used as a vapor tube
• Thermometer for measuring body temperature (preferably electronic)
• Polyvinyl chloride film or a special children’s oilcloth

Clothes
Buy clothes for your child in sufficient quantities, but not to buy anything extra – the child grows too fast, and many things will change.

• Warm diaper – 4-5 pc.
• Cold diaper – 4-5 pc.
• Warm loose jacket – 3-4 pc.
• Cold loose jacket – 2-3 pc.
• Night cap – 2 pc.
• Warm Hat – 1 pc.
• Sliders – 5sht.
• Light Overall – 3 pc.
• Cloth for walking – light and warm – 3 pc.
• Panties, T-shirt, t-shirts, body – few sets.
• Bib – 2 pcs.
• Apron for feeding from polyvinyl chloride – 2 pcs.
• Socks – 4 pairs.
• Boots.
• Mittens for the smallest (without fingers) anti-scratching
• Overalls for walking – 1 pc.
• Bedding – 2 sets.
• Towel for swimming – 2 pcs.
• A warm woolen blanket – 1 pc.
• Blanket flannelette – 1 pc.
• Sleeping bag or envelope – 1 pc.

Necessary items
All that you buy for your child must be the most convenient and reliable.

• Baby bed with a hard mattress
• Pram (with removable basket, handles on the sides and rear, with the rain, with umbrella or sun visor)
• Swaddling table
• Closet or chest of drawers for child’s clothes
• Arena
• Children’s chair for feeding
• Backpack “kangaroo”
• Infant car seat
• Means to protect the child from the modern life

What to do when the first-born is showing extreme jealousy towards the new baby? This question often bothers all the parents. We are here to help you solve this problem.

You have to teach your older child how to interact with his new sibling in proper ways. You can teach your toddler how to play with the baby in the same way you teach him anything else. Increase your little demonstrations of love for your child. Say extra I love you, increase your daily dose of hugs, and find time to read a book or play a game. Temporary regressions or behavior problems are normal, and can be eased with an extra dose of time and attention. Whenever the children are together, “hover” close by. If you see your child about to get rough, pick up the baby and distract the older sibling with a song, a toy, an activity or a snack.

Avoid comparing siblings, even about seemingly innocent topics such as birth weight, when each first crawled or walked, or who had more hair! Children can interpret these comments as criticisms. Whenever you see the older child touching the baby gently, make a positive comment. Make a big fuss about the important “older brother.” Hug and kiss your older child and tell him how proud you are.

Here are tips on how to cope with a jealous older sibling:

• Teach your older child to interact with the baby in the proper way. You can do this by explaining to your child that the baby is delicate at this age and requires careful handling.
• Involve your older child in caring for the new baby. For instance, you can ask your child to rock the baby’s cradle gently or help to dress the baby.
• Be lavish with your praise every time you observe the older child behaving gently with the baby.
• Avoid neglecting the older child. Try to continue to do the things you did with your older child before the baby was born.
• Avoid drawing comparisons between your child and the baby. Your older child could interpret this as criticism.
• If your child verbally expresses resentment towards the baby, do not be defensive about the baby. Respond gently and reassuringly.
• Unless you are confident that the older sibling will not harm the baby, never leave your children alone together.

Take a deep breath and be calm. This is a time of adjustment for everyone in the family. Reduce outside activities, relax your housekeeping standards, and focus on your current priority, adjusting to your new family size.

Despite all the parenting done during pregnancy, despite weeks of feeling movement within and fantasizing about your baby, despite months of having strange dreams, worrisome thoughts, and musings about what kind of parent you will be, the first time you hold your baby in your arms and call yourself mother or father, mama or papa, mommy or daddy, an awareness floods over you that life will never be the same again. Another human being is now dependent upon you for survival. More than anything else, you want to be the best parent possible.

As parents, you want the best for your child, but caring for your new baby is not always easy. From soothing your newborn to common health concerns, here’s where you can get information on a wide range of baby care topics.

Becoming a good parent means much more than knowing a lot about babies. Ask pediatric doctors or nurses what it was like for them to be new parents. They will tell you that all their knowledge about babies was not enough to keep them from being over whelmed by their own babies. All new parents feel the same way. All new parents work at knowing, understanding, and loving their babies. Your baby will work just as hard at learning to know, understand, and love you. This is the process of attachment-the work that parents and babies do together to form a deep and lasting love. It is what becoming a family is all about.

As a child grows, parents are forever faced with new issues and concerns. Check out our older baby care section for parenting tips during the later months following the birth of your baby.

Whether you’re a new parent or a baby veteran, knowing the health benefits of proper baby and child nutrition is one of the best ways to ensure a healthy start for your children. Good eating habits can be formed as soon as your child begins to eat solids, but knowing just when that time has come may not be so clear. Check out for information on your child’s diet.

Your child’s first meal is one of many milestones on the journey through baby development. Learn more about developmental steps such as potty training and toddler development so that you can help support your child throughout these various stages.

Clothes and toys

According to some women it is rarely possible to find two suits in the store that would look good to mother and have suitable size, price, style and purpose. So it is very difficult and even almost impossible to dress twins in different ways. Usually twins ask to be dressed just like each other. Other mothers, however, emphasize that it is almost impossible to buy just two suits, so they have to dress their twins differently. On the other hand some people state that twins often have to wear second-hand clothes, and they have to dress differently from the very beginning of the life, thus getting to like the clothes each of them wears.

Some mothers are buying two identical toys, as they think that otherwise the children would quarrel. Other mothers say that they prefer buying different toys (except for items that have particular value for children, such as bicycles, dolls, etc.), and that the twins are getting used to share what they have with pleasure.

In fact, parents play a great role in solving this problem. If parents believe that the twins should always dress in different ways and they have to share their toys from the very start then most of the time twins learn to do so.

If parents encourage children when they insist on wearing the same clothes and having the same toys and, especially, if they yield to children every time, children become even more demanding. Of course, the same principle defines the relationship of parents with only one child: if the parents are strong, the children usually give up, but when the parents vary, the children argue.

Parents will be able to develop the consciousness of identity in twins and their own taste, if each of them will have his/her own box for clothes. It is also a good idea if the same clothing will have labels with the name of the owner or some kind of sign. The advantage of similar clothing with different colors is that it is quite different and can help to distinguish the twins and to emphasize their individuality. If one of the twins had always worn the green and the other – yellow, it helps others to distinguish them.

Individuality

This finally led us to the question of how to emphasize the similarities in the twins and how much should parents encourage twins to develop their identity, especially if they are very similar. All admire twins, pay attention to them, especially when twins are dressed alike and look alike. Parents of twins are often asked an absurd questions: “Who is smarter?”, “Who do you love more?”. Parents are hard to resist and not to satisfy the tastes of sentimental or unhealthy people. How can they avoid this? The most important problem is that twins sometimes think that others like them just because they are similar that people think about them just as identical babies wearing the same clothes. This is indeed a charming spectacle when they are 3 years old. However sometimes twins are still trying to draw attention to their similarities and they wear the same clothes even when they are 30 years old. In some cases they dependent on each other so much that they are not able to love or to have their own families. The result is no longer charming. More over, it is very sad .

This does not mean that parents should be wary when they dress their twins alike, or that they should be ashamed, when the surrounding pay attention to their children. The similarity of the twins is a pleasure for them and their parents.

Twins are usually strong personalities: the sense of independence from the parents develops very soon, they are adapted to actively participating in team games more than other children, they are distinguished by a deep commitment and generosity towards each other.

But it is reasonable on the part of parents not to give them similar names to avoid unnecessary underscores of the fact that they are twins (especially if they are very similar). Call each of them by name, rather than simply: “Children”, dress them similarly only in early childhood, put them in a circle of other children as early as possible so that they are not used exclusively to each other. Parents should encourage twins to have friends, if they want to. Also, encourage friends and neighbors not to hesitate to invite one of the twins to play or to visit (while the other will be able to fully seize attention of parents).

Sometimes one of the twins is fully dependent on the other in carrying out household tasks. In this case it is more reasonable to separate them. But on the other hand it is foolish and cruel to separate the twins, if it is not necessary and is done as a manifestation of despotic authority of their parents.

If you like one of the twins more than the other

Conscientious parents are too worried if one of the children gets more attention than the other, or if one of them is always served first (for example, because he/she is smaller and weaker, or for any other reason).

There is no need in such an absolute justice: indeed, the desire to such justice will make the attention and love to children somehow artificial. Each child requires a sincere love of parents for those qualities that are worth to love. He/she is satisfied if he/she has the feeling that he has a strong place in the hearts of parents. This is when your child won’t be worried by the signs of attention and love that his brothers and sisters get. But in the end, he will always notice if there is any tension in relation to the parents. The desire for absolute equality in the treatment of children will attract the attention of each of them to their rights and force the child to insist on them with the tenacity of counsel. Avoid phrases such as “Mother will put on John’s shirt first, but put on Nock’s trousers first” or “Today it’s John’s turn to sit next to dad.”

The language of twins

Often twins invent their own system of communication: the views, grunting, unintelligible words. This may delay the development of the normal language and even lead to a temporary backlog in school. Sometimes parents have to try not to comply with the requests of the twins until they are express themselves in normal language.