Getting an Infant to Sleep: Strategies for Parents

When it comes to getting an infant to sleep, there are many factors that parents have to balance. They have to balance the child’s personality and preferences with the recommendations of doctors and parenting guides-and these two things are seldom perfectly aligned. They have to balance the child’s sleep schedule with their own schedules. They have to figure out how to regulate the child’s naps so that he or she sleeps the proper amount during the night. And in addition to these issues, there may be other, unexpected factors that come into play. All in all, figuring out how to give your child healthy sleep is one of the biggest challenges of the first several months of parenting.

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Choosing a Doctor for Your Baby

For new parents, the early stages of pregnancy are all about keeping the mother healthy and preparing for labor. You might be so preoccupied with these concerns that you forget about the years of parenting that will follow the birth. While some tasks can be saved until later, there is one thing that must be taken care of as early as possible: finding a doctor for the baby. Parents should start thinking about this early in the pregnancy, and it is best to have a doctor chosen by the seventh or eight month.

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How Will We Know If Our Newborn Baby Is Ill?

New parents are often worried that they will not be able to tell if their newborn baby is unwell. There are precautions that you can take to help keep your baby strong and well. Washing your hands after each diaper change and staying away from sickly people is a good idea. If you have decided to breastfeed your baby, then try and keep doing this for as long as possible, at least twelve months if possible. Make sure your baby is properly immunized and never let anyone smoke around your baby. Placing your baby on his back to sleep reduces the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

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Bonding With Your Newborn Baby

Not all mothers feel an overwhelming rush of love when they first hold their baby and look into their eyes. They should not feel alone if they do not instantly connect with their newborn baby. Sometimes after a difficult birth, feeling exhausted and possibly being in pain a new mother can feel a bit resentful of the traumatic experience she has just had to endure. Sometimes bonding with their baby can take time but she must relax, it will happen. There are some things that can happen that can cause the bonding process to be delayed, such as:

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The Pros and Cons of Circumcision

Although circumcision is a long-established tradition and is very common in the United States, it is a perpetual subject of controversy. There is a substantial body of evidence that circumcision might have health benefits, but the procedure also comes with risks. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics does not consider the benefits of circumcision significant enough to outweigh the risks, which is why they do not officially recommend circumcision, saying that it “is not essential to the child’s well-being.”

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Hunger is Not Why Babies Wake up at Night

For new parents, sleep can seem like a rare and priceless asset. During the early months, babies can be very unpredictable in their sleeping habits, and they wake at all hours, sometimes for seemingly no reason. Many pants find that their infants settle down and sleep more predictably after the first couple of months, but then things get rough again a little later, usually between the ages of 6 and 10 months. No one is sure exactly why this happens, and research has not made it clear. However, it is likely that frequent wakeups at this age result from a variety of factors. Here are a few of the most common ones.

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New Baby: Co-Sleeping or Crib-Sleeping?

In child care, there are few issues more contentious than where a baby should sleep. It is the kind of thing that can arouse arguments between friends and drive wedges between spouses. Everyone seems to have strong feelings about it, and there are no sleeping conditions that all doctors categorically recommend for everyone. This makes it an extra thorny issue, but it does not have to be so complicated. Ultimately, the main goal is to sleep in a way that is most beneficial for both the baby and the parents. And while sleeping habits are a matter of personal choice, there are things that doctors do and do not recommend.

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