Behind 9 months of pregnancy, childbirth – and here you are at home with the long-awaited baby. There are a thousand questions in my head, how and what to do. The first month of a child’s life is perhaps the most exciting for parents. We tell you what mom and dad should know in order to create the best conditions for their baby. By the way, a newborn is considered a child from the moment of birth to the 28th day of his life.
Newborn baby care
The basics of caring for a newborn baby are quite simple. Here are some important tips for young parents from a pediatrician, Ph.D., blog author Anna Levadnaya.
- The apartment in which you bring a newborn from the hospital should be clean, well ventilated. Try to keep the temperature around 20-22 degrees, humidity – more than 40 percent. In winter, when the heating is on, it is recommended to use a humidifier. Remember that it is better to dress a child warmer than to keep him undressed, but in a stuffy and hot room. Babies are still poorly developed thermoregulation, and they easily overheat.
- Change diapers promptly. If the newborn has frequent and loose stools, then you can use a diaper cream to protect delicate skin. Give your baby air baths regularly.
- You can bathe your baby as soon as you return from the hospital. It is not necessary to boil water (in urban conditions, the water has already passed through all the filters). Start swimming with a water temperature of 36-37 degrees, gradually reducing it to 30.
- Wash your baby with clean water in the morning.
- As needed (every 5-10 days), the child needs to cut his nails. To do this, use special safety scissors with rounded ends so as not to injure the baby’s skin. Don’t cut your nails too short. It is recommended to leave 1 mm free edge, the shape of the nail is a square with slightly rounded edges. If redness or inflammation appears around the nail in a child, be sure to consult a doctor.
Feeding a newborn baby
No one will argue that mother’s milk is the best food for a child. The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding up to 2 years of age. True, a woman does not always manage to establish lactation. Here is what WHO advises at the very beginning and most important stage for successful breastfeeding.
- It is in the first month that lactation is established. It is very important to feed the baby on demand, and not by the hour, as was customary in the past.
- It is not recommended to supplement newborns with water (unless there are special indications for this). Mother’s milk contains enough water to meet the needs of the baby. And supplementation can cause problems with lactation, as the child will eat less milk.
- For the same reason, in the first month it is not recommended to abuse the dummy and use the bottle.
- Remember that the main factors that indicate whether a child has enough milk or not are weight gain per month (an increase from 400 to 1200 grams is considered the norm) and the number of urination per day (at least 12 times).
If breastfeeding doesn’t work out
If it so happened that the mother cannot breastfeed a newborn baby, artificial mixtures will come to the rescue. It is important to choose a quality formula that will suit your baby. Be sure to check with your pediatrician. Choose mixtures of well-known, proven brands that have proven themselves well. The best option is an adapted milk formula. It is as close as possible to the composition of breast milk, easier to digest. Be sure to look at the age label and pay attention to the expiration date. As for the introduction of the mixture, all recommendations and dosages are detailed on the instructions, follow it.
Newborn sleep
Adequate sleep for a newborn is no less important than feeding and caring for him. In the first months of life, children sleep most of the day. But often young parents are faced with the fact that they can’t rock a screaming baby in any way. There can be many reasons why your newborn baby does not sleep, ranging from the most trivial (for example, the child is uncomfortable dressed) to the very serious (health problems). But there are some important tips from sleep consultants that will help you organize your newborn’s sleep.
- Make sure that the child is comfortably dressed: nothing presses him anywhere, neither hot nor cold.
- The room should also have comfortable conditions for sleeping.
- For a newborn baby, sleep consultants recommend creating conditions that are as close as possible to intrauterine. Now special cocoons for newborns are being sold – in it the baby is in a position close to the one in which he was in his mother’s stomach. You can make your own cocoon.
- Watch for signs of baby fatigue: as soon as you understand that the baby wants to sleep, start laying down. It is important that the child does not overdo it.
The older your child gets, the more attention he will demand from you. And you, as young parents, will have to master many more different topics. How to introduce complementary foods correctly? Should I start with vegetables or cereals? How to develop your child? Should I panic if at six months the baby does not sit by himself? There are many questions. In the articles of our section “I am a mother” we will try to answer in detail the most important ones.