Advantages of “Rooming In” with Your Newborn

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Many moms-to-be who are planning to give birth in a conventional maternity hospital may not be aware that they have the option to keep their newborns by their side from birth, until mother and baby leave the hospital together a couple of days later.

Giving birth is no small feat, and every detail should be planned beforehand as much as possible. One of the choices a mom should give thought to before the big day arrives, is whether she will want her baby “rooming in” with her. Rooming in is the term used to describe when a baby is not kept in the nursery, but on mom’s bed or beside her bed, for the customary two days before they go home together. A new mom can also opt to have a partial rooming in: keeping her baby beside her during the day and asking the nurses to care for the newborn in the nursery at night.

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Baby Eczema: How to Prevent It and Safe, Effective Remedies

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Infant with allergic diathesis

It breaks a parent’s heart to see their infant’s skin go from smooth and petal-soft, to developing patches of reddish or whitish dry, rough, itchy skin. And the constant itching is an affliction to both baby and parent. Yet, eczema, also called atopic dermatitis or simply dermatitis, is relatively common among babies. Ten to fifteen percent of all infants will develop this chronic autoimmune condition; some babies are as young as one or two months when symptoms start, but more often, the condition will develop in the first six months of life. Sixty-five percent of babies who will develop eczema show their first symptoms by the time they turn one year of age. Ninety percent of all children who will have eczema show symptoms within the first five years of life.

The propensity for eczema can be inherited from a close relative, or it can be indicative of allergies to certain foods, pet dander or potentially irritating substances like soaps and fragrances.

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What Are Good Exercises to Do Before Getting Pregnant?

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Not long after giving birth, many modern moms get busy getting their figures back through regular exercising; after all, new moms tend to have excess abdominal fat and stretched-out skin. Both of these improve or go away with regular exercising.

But what about before birth? Is there any benefit to pre-pregnancy exercising, in preparing the body for pregnancy and subsequent delivery?

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The Best Exercises to Do After Having a Baby and How Long Should You Wait?

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Giving birth means your body has just gone through a major physically traumatic event.

You want to wait at least two months or longer, before you start doing any abdomen-tightening exercises. However, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advises that it’s okay to start with light, low-impact aerobic activity such as walking and stretching exercises, within days of giving birth, if you had a normal pregnancy and vaginal delivery. Start slowly, and as you feel more up to it, increase the length of your exercise routine or its frequency.

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Babies’ Cells Found in Mothers’ Brains!

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Scientists have known for years that during pregnancy, cells from the developing fetus can wind up in the mother’s bloodstream. But a newer study shows that fetal cells can also travel to specific organs, such as the heart, lungs, skin … and even the brain, where they can become integrated among the mother’s neuronal cells permanently.

This process is known as “microchimerism.” (The name comes from Greek mythology, in which Chimera was a creature that was part serpent, part lion and part goat.) Microchimeric cells were first noticed in humans when cells containing the male Y chromosome were found in the blood of mothers after a pregnancy (these foreign cells can live in the mother’s bloodstream for years after a pregnancy).

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Picking Up and Carrying a Crying Baby Lowers Infant’s Heart Rate Immediately!

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A study in Japan has shown that a crying baby’s heart rate drops very quickly if the infant is picked up and carried by a familiar caregiver. Just holding the baby won’t do; the infant has to be picked up and carried.

Lead researcher and neurobiologist Dr. Kumi Kuroda, of the Riken Brain Science Institute, theorized that this is the same response that we see in other mammals, including puppies, kittens and lion cubs, all of which relax and go limp when picked up and carried with their mothers’ mouths.

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Infant Asthma

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), asthma is the most common chronic condition affecting children in the United States. In 2009, an estimated 10.2 million U.S. children — almost 10 percent of Americans under 18 years of age — have been diagnosed with asthma.

And it is increasing at an alarming rate; up 75 percent from 1980. A rise in asthma cases among infants and toddlers accounts for a large part of the overall increase. One of the difficulties of diagnosing asthma in this group is that it is difficult to safely measure lung function at that age.

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