What you need to know about newborns

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The appearance of a child is always stress and a sea of new information. You will gradually learn how to cope with your unique child yourself, and now we will tell you how not to twitch over trifles in the most exciting first month of meeting your child.

Even if during pregnancy you read all the books about children you could reach, anyway, upon returning from the hospital, you will probably feel as if an alien suddenly settled in the apartment. Today, few people have the experience of dealing with babies before the birth of their own children. The main thing is to remember that all difficulties are temporary, soon you will learn to understand the child a little better. Rest when possible, watch your diet and allow yourself to treat this strange creature as a normal, strong and healthy person with very little life experience. Don't be nervous about trifles!

Newborns don't look like postcard babies

Having well crumpled in the birth canal, children are swollen, with bruises, with red eyes; skinny, with thin and long arms and legs; with flaky red skin, a scattering of pimples, or with silky black hair on the ears. Do not worry, after a couple of months the baby will be smoothed out, it will eat up the fat, the excess hair will fall out. By the age of three months, most babies finally look like model infant photographs. However, some are great right away, but be prepared for anything.

Newborns sleep a lot

The child spends 16-20 hours in sleep for the first 2-3 weeks of his life, interrupting for food, soiling diapers and trying to understand what is happening around. As you prepare for your sleepless nights with your baby, you might be surprised. Use this opportunity to recover from childbirth, sleep yourself! By the third week, many have colic, which everyone struggles with with varying degrees of success, and that's when the fun begins.

Babies make sounds all the time

They sneeze, sniff, creak, swarm. The most common cause of sneezing is too dry air in the apartment, which causes mucus to dry in the nose and the appearance of the familiar boogers. A child with boogers can become a real tyrant, because the nasal passages of a newborn are narrow and tortuous, and without nasal breathing it becomes difficult to eat and sleep, which the child honestly reports with the only means available during this period - a cry. The way out is air humidifiers and instillation of saline solution or its analogs "with water of some sea" into the nose, of which there is darkness in any pharmacy.

Hiccups are rarely caused by hypothermia

The most obvious cause of a newborn's hiccups is getting air into the stomach while feeding or overeating. A full stomach presses on the diaphragm, the nerve endings of which are irritated, send an impulse to the brain and immediately receive a response back - the diaphragm begins to contract frequently, often, while the lungs grab air, producing a specific sound. You can hold the child with a "column" so that he burps. The child himself does not suffer from hiccups, although sometimes it lasts a very long time and prevents him from falling asleep.

Bathing a newborn is optional

Of course, bathing a baby is a pleasant process for everyone, but it is during the newborn period that it is complicated by an umbilical wound, which is not recommended to wet. Here you can get out: bathe in a small children's bath, in boiled water, or you can simply wash it under the tap after a bowel movement or wipe it with a damp baby napkin until the umbilical wound is overgrown. Then - complete freedom, bathe as much as you like.

Newborns can swim

The sight of a baby swimming in the bathtub can completely turn your ideas about the adaptability of a baby to the outside world. This is really impressive. Unfortunately, the umbilical wound greatly complicates the child's acquaintance with water. However, after 3-5 weeks he will still be able to swim, later the ability will be lost without training. If you take the trouble to accustom your child to an inflatable ring or free swimming, you can let him into a big bath, and sit next to him and be touched. It is strictly forbidden to leave a child in the bathroom unattended either with a circle, or even in a whole inflatable spacesuit.

Breast milk will be what it should be

The child will receive all the necessary micronutrients at the moment, even if you eat poorly and irregularly. Your body has enough resources to compensate for the deficiencies in your diet for the first 2-3 months. The child will definitely receive calcium, you must choose where: from your teeth or from the curd you eat.

Sterile cleanliness around the newborn is unnecessary

Of course, you should wash your hands with soap and, if possible, limit the child's communication with snotty relatives. But daily boiling, sterilizing and washing everything around with bleach is unnecessary. The child's body must learn to cope with elementary household bacteria on its own.

Don't lick the baby pacifier

You can simply rinse it, wipe it with a damp cloth, pour it over with boiling water, if you are very afraid of germs, but does it really occur to someone that your saliva is capable of neutralizing something other than visible debris? If you are absolutely sure of the health of your and your partner's teeth, do not smoke, drink enough fluids - okay, lick it (I still mind!).

Don't try to make breast milk fatter

You do not need to eat sour cream instead of kefir while breastfeeding. Most of the calories are likely to settle on your sides, and fatty milk will be more difficult for your baby to suck and much more difficult to digest. In the first month, the child should gain only 600 grams. Despite the fact that it is customary in our country to brag about well-fed babies, it will be difficult for you to carry it yourself, and all physical activity is given to a chubby child with great difficulty.

Children are born with a specific set of reflexes

There are about 75 of them in total, you don't need to know everything, but the following look pretty funny:

• Sucking reflex - the child begins to rhythmically suck on any object in his mouth: your nose, chin, collarbone, knee. Hungry babies are violent and picky.
• The hug reflex - with a sudden noise, for example a loud clap of his hands next to the child, he first pulls the arms to the sides, while opening his fists, and then, as it were, covers himself with the arms.
• Reflex of support, straightening and automatic walking - if a child supported under the armpits is put on a support, he straightens his torso and stands on bent legs on a full foot; if it is slightly tilted forward, then it makes step movements along the surface.
• Babinsky's reflex - if you run the tip of your finger along the outer edge of the infant's sole in the direction from the heel to the toes, they will unfold in a fan-like manner.
• Grasp reflex (monkey) - when pressing on the palm of the newborn, he grasps and firmly holds the fingers embedded in his palm. The child can even be lifted in this way above the support.

Healthy skin does not need to be smeared with anything

If your child does not have irritation, multi-stage diaper change schemes (remove, wash the bottom, dry, sprinkle with powder, spread cream, put on a new diaper) can and should be simplified. Really, you just need to rinse the ass or wipe it with a damp cloth and dry it. If there is irritation, there can be a great many reasons: too many clothes under which the child sweats corny, too much baby cream that clogs the pores of the diaper and interferes with the rapid absorption of secretions, a poor-quality diaper, errors in the mother's diet. The easiest way to calm a little irritation is to often leave your child to air out with a bare, clean bottom. If the baby's underarms and underneath the diaper is noticeably redder than the rest of the body, the problem is overheating. There is no need to stop using diapers, it is better to reduce the temperature in the apartment or wear fewer clothes.

Baby poop is very different from adult poop

This fact just needs to be accepted. While the child eats, grows and sleeps (that is, does everything that a newborn is supposed to do), the contents of his diaper can be anything. Any color and consistency. If you are breastfeeding, there may be no stool at all for 2–4 days, and this is also the norm: milk is completely absorbed. Maternal "I don't like our poop", perhaps bread and butter for probiotic producers. If you do not like it, do not eat it.

There are no identical children

Comparing your child to someone else's is not the best thing to do. Compare it with the developmental norms at the current age, this is enough. A child is born with a character, usually the character of the next of kin. Perhaps you will finally have the opportunity to look at yourself from the outside. Relax and receive.