The arrival of a newborn is both joyful and stressful event for many, particularly the first time parents. After the initial awe at the marvel you brought into the world, concerns start to emerge. You begin worrying and wondering about all sorts of things – how to know whether the baby is sleeping enough, or whether she ate enough, that she is not cold, etc.
What you should know is that these are all perfectly ordinary questions that are troubling the minds of parents for centuries. To make things easier for you we compiled a list of baby health tips that we got from different pediatricians.
Tips about Baby Health Baby Care
Crying
People tend to think that their kids are crying because they are doing something wrong but usually that is not the case. Your baby can be perfectly clean, fed, rested, and healthy and still cry their lungs out because for example they are bored. Whatever is happening in their life they will react by crying because they don’t have any other way to share their thoughts. But then, you know your baby best – if you notice something unusual, like fever or rash that accompanies crying consult the doctor.
Feeding
Whether you are nursing or bottle-feeding your baby it is essential to know that they eat often and a lot. An average newborn will want to be fed every two or three hours. It is fairly simple to organize the feeding schedule – if you for example first fed the baby at seven in the morning and she ate for about half an hour you know that the next feeding should be around ten. The older your baby gets they will eat less frequently and before you know it they will start with solid food when you will have to make sure to find good for healthy baby foods.
Baby’s Sleep
Besides eating, another critical aspect of baby health care is sleep. On average, babies sleep between 14 and 17 hours during the first months of their lives. But they don’t sleep that much all at once – usually, they wake up every hour or so. Until your little one is one-year-old make sure that they are sleeping on their backs and that there isn’t anything like a pillow or blanket in their beds.
Oral Care
People often don’t think about oral care before most of the teeth come out. But, in general even if you want to start using baby toothbrush before they are one year old it doesn’t mean you should not care about baby’s teeth and mouth. Gauze should be in all baby health kits because you can use it to clean properly your little one’s mouth and gums. There are plenty of baby health products good for dental care.
Using a Pacifier
Sometimes we wondering whether it is okay for baby health to use a pacifier and from which point it should be used. Pacifiers are in general useful little thingies and they are perfectly safe. However if you want to breastfeed the child wait until they are two to four weeks old before offering the pacifier to them.
Health Insurance for a Baby
In the sea of questions we have as new parents there is the one about when to add baby to health insurance. Generally you can and should do it as soon as the little one is born – there is no special reason to wait. It is also important to know that you have to arrange everything for health insurance for new baby by yourself – it will not be done automatically.
Fever
Keep in mind that every fever above 100.4 is a cause for concern if your baby is younger than three months. Therefore if you think that your little one feels warm consult a pediatrician. However, if the kid received a vaccine within 24 hours before developing a fever then you should wait a bit because high temperature can be the body’s response to immunization.
Parent Care
Get Ready for Emotional Turbulences
If you thought that this will be over after pregnancy you are in for a big surprise. During the first months of baby’s life expect to be waking about completely amazed by the little human peaceful sleeping, spending an afternoon, freaking out about baby health, and going to bed scared that you will never gain control over your life. Remember that your partner is probably going through exactly the same thing.
Don’t Hesitate to Ask for Help
Parenting is maybe one of the hardest jobs you will ever have. Keep in mind that there isn’t such a thing as a super mom or super dad and that you are not a bad parent if you ask others to help you out. After all, that’s why all those grandparents, aunts and uncles are there in the first place.
Go Outside
Everything is different when you are outside. If things become too much to handle put the baby in a stroller, take the diaper bag, and head for a walk in the park. If there is someone who can take care of a kid while you have some time for yourself even better.
Conclusion
Raising a child is always challenging and especially when you are a new parent. However as you can see pediatricians have a lot of tips regarding baby health that can be useful. Are there some things that you would like to see here and we didn’t mention them?
Author’s Bio
Amalia Liberman is a wife and a mother of two as well as a novelist and writer, the author has been featured in Women’s Health magazine and also written different articles in lifestyle magazines. Her passions lead her to search out knowledge with all her searching and she doesn’t mind sharing her findings.