Communicating with Your Newborn

From the day that a baby is born, her cries are virtually the only way she has, to communicate her needs to you. Through cries, she lets you know whether she is hungry, she needs a new diaper, she is sleepy, she needs to be held … or she is overwhelmed by all the activity around her and needs some space and quiet!

After a little while, you’ll be able to distinguish her different cries and be able to respond to them accordingly.

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Recent Guidelines Discourage C-Sections Due to Risks for Mother and Baby

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists published new guidelines that strongly discourage cesarean sections unless they are medically indicated, on grounds that they can lead to complications for the mother as well as the newborn. The report was published in the organization’s March, 2013 edition of its journal, Obstetrics & Gynecology, and appears online on ACOG’s website.

The group states that vaginal deliveries should be the norm, and that every attempt should be made to avoid early cesarean deliveries. The recommendations are an attempt to reduce the skyrocketing rate of cesarean sections, by limiting “maternal-request” C-sections and early deliveries for presumed big babies.

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Many Babies Are Fed Solid Foods Too Soon, CDC Study Finds

A study published in late March, 2013 in the American Academy of Pediatrics journal Pediatrics found that a majority of babies in the United States may be getting introduced to solid foods much too early, often leading to a variety of chronic illnesses.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed 1,334 new moms nationwide; they found that almost 93 percent had introduced solid foods to their infants before the babies were six months old, 40 percent had introduced solids before four months, and 9 percent had done so before four weeks of age.

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The Benefits of Neonatal Circumcision

There is a mountain of decisions to be made before a mother gives birth to her baby — and whether or not to circumcise a baby boy is an important decision that expecting parents need to address before the due date. Circumcision, the surgical removal of the foreskin that covers the head of the penis, was until relatively recently a traditional procedure performed on Read More

Newborn Care: 3 Things to Know About the Umbilical Cord Stump

Before birth, babies receive all their nourishment through the umbilical cord, a tube that runs from the placenta, on the inner wall of the uterus, to the baby’s navel. This is how the baby gets all her food, liquids, and oxygen, and it remains quite literally her lifeline until she enters the world. Cutting the umbilical cord is one of the first things that happens after birth, and clamping it shut—which, along with the cutting, is painless as there are no nerves in the cord—happens soon thereafter, leaving the baby with a Read More

The 5 Most Important Decisions to make About Your Baby

For first-time parents, the decision to have a child is sometimes much easier than the choices that come later. After all, we are biologically programmed to have, love, and raise children, so this choice is very often a no-brainer. But as the pregnancy starts to progress and the reality of your situation begins to settle in, you will discover that there are a slew of other decisions you have to make, beginning with Read More

What to do About an Overweight Baby

Overwieght_Baby

If you are worried that your overweight baby has gained weight too fast and now weighs too much, it is most likely that you are worried over nothing. Infants can indeed become overweight if they are overfed, but this happens only rarely. Even most perfectly healthy infants go through many different phases in their first year of life, and those who are born large and thrive during their early months commonly accumulate a lot of fat, which can make them look rather round and pudgy. But looks can be deceiving. Whereas we usually think of adults with a lot of fat as unhealthy, a decent amount of extra fat on a baby can Read More

Preparing your Toddler for a New Sibling

For many parents, having a second child is in many ways surprisingly different from having a first. For one thing, you know roughly what to expect from the pregnancy, childbirth, and early months, you feel more confident about your ability to handle a baby. You also know what sorts of advice to ignore, how much money you really need to spend, and what sort of feeding routine works for your family. But perhaps the most important difference between the first and the second is the simple Read More