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Tips to Help Baby Sleep Through the Night

Every baby is different, so it’s only natural for some to have a more difficult time with nighttime sleep than others. Some babies take to it very well and at a very young age are able to sleep through the night with only the occasional wakeup. Others, however, require a lot of patience and guidance in order to get to point where they can sleep all night. But in every case, there are things parents can do to make things easier for the baby as well as for themselves.

If your baby has trouble sleeping through the night and you are ready to move to the next stage, Continue reading

Medication For Gestational Diabetes

If you have gestational diabetes and you have not been able to control it with the advised changes to your diet and exercise regime then you will be prescribed medication. This prescription is usually given to you a couple of weeks after diagnosis but the timing can vary according to your blood glucose levels. You could also be given medication if an ultrasound scan reveals that your baby is large for his gestational age. The medicines available include Continue reading

How Can I Encourage My Infant To Develop Healthy Eating Habits?

When your baby is six months old and you first introduce her to solid food do not try and overload her spoon. Trying to give her too much food could put her off trying other food types. Variety of foods is important so make sure you are feeding her the four main food groups which are: Continue reading

Establishing Good Eating Habits in the First Year of Baby’s Life

There is no question that kids enjoy sweets, and if left to their own devices, many would indulge in junk food far more often than they should. But it would be a mistake to assume that children naturally prefer unhealthy food over healthy food. If good habits are instilled early, kids can actually grow up enjoying vegetable, fruits, and other healthy foods. It’s a matter of Continue reading

7 Tips for Babyproofing the Home

When it comes to keeping our babies safe, many parents are very careful with illnesses and infections, but there is another danger that is much easier to avoid: accidents. A third of all childhood deaths are caused by preventable accidents, and the vast majority of these could be avoided with better babyproofing and safer practices.

There is nothing parents can do to stop a child’s natural curiosity. Kids have an inborn urge to explore, and this means getting into things, playing with items that are not necessarily for babies, and making a mess of the home. For parents, the goal is not to stop Continue reading

How Can I Help My Baby Into An Anterior Position?

Have you heard of OFP which is optimal fetal positioning? This is a technique to encourage your baby into an anterior position by changing your posture especially when you are in a sitting down position. What you are trying to do when using this technique is tilt your pelvis forward, not backwards so if you are in a sitting position, always make sure that your knees are lower than your hips. To help you, try these following tips: Continue reading

Staying On The Ball!

You may be one of the many pregnant women who use a birthing ball to exercise and strengthen your back. Unfortunately, most do not utilize the benefits of their birthing balls until they have gone into labor. Midwives recommend birthing balls to pregnant women because they encourage you to maintain good posture by balancing on them. By sitting on the ball you are forced to sit properly so that your back is well aligned and this relieves your back of pressure which is especially helpful later on in your pregnancy. Birthing balls are sometimes used to encourage your unborn baby to move into the correct position enabling you to be more comfortable during labor. You often see them in maternity wards.

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The Perils of Meconium

Meconium is your baby’s first poo! It has the consistency of treacle, it is odourless and unlike later offerings it is sterile. It is very dark and almost impossible to wipe clean. Meconium consists of water, mucus, amniotic fluid, lanugo which is downy baby hair and also intestinal epithelial cells. For most babies it is just their first poo (one of many!) and means a very gooey first nappy but in some cases it can be a cause for concern.

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New Health Reform Gives Breastfeeding Moms a Break

breastfeeding, pumping, expredssing milk, breastfeeding and going back to work, expressing milk in the workplace, obama, obama's new health reform laws, nursingWhen I was working my first job after college (in other words, I was in my young 20′s), there was a mom who had just had her second baby. She had gone back to work a mere six weeks after her baby was born, and she was breastfeeding. I probably would’ve never paid much attention to this, except for the fact that we had one bathroom in the office, and it seemed as if every time I had to use it she was in there pumping. At the time, it was an annoyance. Looking back now, after I’ve had two children that I breastfed, I can’t believe she stuck to it. I think there may have been five females in the entire office; this, coupled with the fact that we were in a male Continue reading

Cord Blood Donation-Now Available at at Hospital Near You

When I was pregnant with my first child, I had read about the benefits that the blood in my baby’s umbilical cord could have for others. Filled with stem cells, this blood could help those with cancer, sickle-cell anemia, immunodeficiency, marrow failure and genetic diseases that call for transplants. Normally, this blood is literally thrown away, so if it has so many benefits, I thought, why not donate it? Unfortunately, when I told my OB my intentions, she informed me that the hospital that I was giving birth at didn’t have the availability to store the blood and get it to a bank. And my hospital was of the norm–there are only approximately 175 hospitals in the United States that can transfer cord blood to a bank, but it looks as if that’s about to change.

Time recently reported on a Public Donation Kit that’s allowing Continue reading