Age specific questions from birth through about 3 months. Younger: pregnancy. Older: infant.
41
votes
8answers
2k views
Should we circumcise our son?
My wife and I will be having a son in about a month and we are still deciding if we should have him circumcised.
There does not seem to be a strong medical opinion on the matter but we are ...
40
votes
9answers
4k views
How do you cope in the first few months?
How do you cope with the sleeplessness, the stress, the fear in the first few months?
Our baby just came home yesterday. He was five weeks premature, so he was in the NICU for two weeks. The stress ...
23
votes
4answers
2k views
How do I make sure I don't mix up identical twin newborns?
I think all babies look alike, even when they are not identical. I need to come up with a strategy over the next few months.
18
votes
6answers
3k views
How much should I interact with my newborn?
I have a 2 month old baby. My wife and I take care of him collectively. As he is growing, his sleep time is reducing. Sometimes, due to our schedules, we want him to sleep, but the baby is still ...
15
votes
5answers
889 views
Is it okay for both parents to be asleep at the same time?
It's day 2 and we've been trying to always have 1 of us awake at all times watching the baby so that we're never both sleeping at the same time. Does a newborn need to be watched 24/7 or am I just ...
15
votes
6answers
380 views
How to prevent “open air incidents”?
We have a newborn who seems to like to pee when we change his diapers. Any tips on how prevent this?
13
votes
7answers
1k views
What are the risks of posting baby pictures online?
We've set up a Twitter account for our daughter so that interested people (friends, relatives, old ladies) can follow her, find out what she's doing and see how adorable she is.
My sister heard this ...
13
votes
3answers
2k views
Should you give honey to a newborn?
I visited a friend-of-the-family in hospital soon after they'd had their new baby. I was surprised to see a jar of honey by the bedside. I thought it was for the parents to have in Tea or on toast, ...
12
votes
6answers
297 views
How soon until I can take my newborn to take a walk outside?
I understand that newborn's immune system is still weak and crowds/strangers are to be avoided. Knowing this, how soon can I take my newborn outside, for example to take ~1 hours walk in a non-crowded ...
12
votes
7answers
2k views
How often should I bathe my newborn?
He's starting to get pimples. We had thought that we only needed to bathe him once a week, though I can't remember where we read that.
12
votes
9answers
784 views
What are the basic items we should buy to receive our new baby?
We've being looking online for a to buy list of basic items we should buy before having a baby. We are planning to move so we want to buy just the basic needs.
12
votes
4answers
786 views
How does having a second child change your life?
Most parents would probably agree that having a child will deeply change your life. But how does having a second child change your life?
Second-time parents won't be much surprised about the smell ...
11
votes
11answers
1k views
What to buy to prepare for the arrival of a new baby?
Our baby is going to be born in a few months, what should we make sure we have before she gets here?
11
votes
9answers
2k views
How can we make our newborn breastfeed less frequently?
We have a new baby (almost two weeks old). For the past 8-9 days she's had a habit of Breastfeeding every hour during the afternoons. She can spend 30mins feeding, then 30mins active and gurgling, ...
11
votes
6answers
758 views
Can we afford to have a baby?
I'm not a parent (yet!), but the wife and I are seriously thinking about starting a family. We both really want kids, but I'm just worried about the financial strain a baby could have on us.
Am I ...
11
votes
6answers
14k views
Do I really need to wake my newborn to feed him?
We have a two week old child. He's eating well during the day, eating at least 8 times a day, and is breast feeding. His weight gain has been 'normal' so far, and he regained his original birth weight ...
11
votes
5answers
873 views
When changing diapers, how soon should we put the new diaper on?
Are we supposed to put the new diaper on immediately or give our newborn some diaper-free time? His skin under the diaper is slightly moist when changing it, should we give him some time to air out? ...
11
votes
4answers
330 views
What are the biggest expenses for a new baby?
My wife is expecting, and as we plan, I want to know if there is anything that people were surprised by how expensive it is, or didn't realize they would need to pay for?
10
votes
8answers
265 views
What to read or learn before expecting?
We want to be prepare for our 9 months period as a couple and be sure to give a proper environment for our baby. What should we read before and during the 9 month period?
Please note: answers should ...
10
votes
4answers
794 views
Should I respond to “fussing” the same as crying in an infant?
During the night my 7-week-old will fuss in his sleep (grunt, flail, etc...). This fussing rarely proceeds to crying but he usually will not settle on his own. When I pick him up he will usually ...
10
votes
9answers
4k views
Baby breastfeeds for only 5 mins before sleeping again
My daughter is 2 months old and is exclusively breastfed. After drinking for only 5 mins she falls asleep again and wakes up crying again after 30 mins. We have tried different things like tickling ...
10
votes
11answers
312 views
What is a reasonable amount of time to wait before family visits your new baby?
My wife and I are preparing to negotiate with our families about visiting our first baby. We want to take some time to recover and feel like we have a comfortable routine before taking visitors. We ...
9
votes
5answers
1k views
How often should my wife breastfeed our newborn?
Our newborn is one week old and a boy. When we were still in hospital, the nurse was giving formula milk to our newborn every 3 hours. But since we brought our baby home, we exclusively breastfeed our ...
9
votes
4answers
7k views
How can I prevent diaper leaks with my newborn?
My 2 week old son has at least 1 diaper leak per day. I am not 100% sure but the leak seems to always be along the top of the diaper, near the sides. Initial reading tells me that this is a common ...
9
votes
6answers
159 views
How do you choose a first pediatrician?
While it would be great to be able to just use the doctor we were raised with...
assuming that's not possible:
How does one not merely locate a good first pediatrician, but evaluate them? What are ...
9
votes
3answers
206 views
What stroller features are essential for regular use on the subway?
With subways being crowded spaces, with gaps to get over, escalators and steps etc., what types of stroller, and what functionality in a stroller should I be looking at for my newborn/infant?
9
votes
5answers
965 views
How do we introduce a newborn to the family dogs?
When our newborn arrives home, how do we introduce our two dogs to the child? We have two Shetland Sheepdogs and they are of course very friendly and loving. Despite this, it feels that in the ...
8
votes
4answers
784 views
Is there any benefit to not responding immediately to a crying infant?
Crying is a newborn's favorite activity. They cry whenever they feel hungry, unsafe, or uncomfortable.
But sometimes I prefer to not respond to crying as quickly as possible, in order to teach my ...
8
votes
5answers
2k views
How to help my newborn pass gas
I have a newborn (10 days). She seems to struggle with a lot of gas several times a day (first question, is this too much!?). How do we help her pass the gas more quickly and easily? She does get it ...
8
votes
6answers
2k views
Can pacifier-use interfere with breastfeeding?
I don't really want my newborn to use the pacifier because I'm afraid it will interfere with breastfeeding. The first week I'd nurse her for an hour to an hour and a half - basically until she was ...
8
votes
5answers
5k views
New born seems to be spitting up entire meals. Should I be worried?
We have a baby that is a little over a week old and it seems like after some feedings she is spitting up what looks like her entire meal (breast feeding). I've been weighing her and she still seems ...
8
votes
5answers
277 views
What are some good strategies for preventing Diaper Rash?
Rather than make a question I thought a wiki would be better for this. (Hope I can convert it later).
My wife and I are more apt to try and prevent things from happening to the kids, and diaper rash ...
8
votes
5answers
6k views
At what age should I enroll my child in dental and vision plans?
Background:
Most insurance coverage in the US has separate policies and payroll withholding for health, dental, and vision insurance plans. One can typically decide who's covered independently for ...
8
votes
2answers
221 views
Is it bad to use a pacifier?
I've been using it when she gets fussy and she seems to love it. Is this a bad habit to get into? I've heard there are potential dental/breastfeeding/dependency issues. Is there any truth to this?
7
votes
8answers
2k views
Why is my newborn crying constantly?
my 4 week old daughter will not stop crying. We've tried everything from sucking, both on pacifiers and fingers to breastfeeding, white noise, movement, diaper is clean she doesn't seem to have a ...
7
votes
10answers
722 views
Do we need an electronic breast pump?
Since we plan that my wife is going to be a full-time/stay at home mom, do you think she will need an electronic breast pump?
We are first time parents. We do not sure if we need the electric one or ...
7
votes
3answers
259 views
What is “Tummy Time”
In a pediatric visit for my 1 month old son. The doctor suggested that we do a "Tummy Time" practice several times a day. She explained to us how to do it. But I could not understood what are the ...
7
votes
3answers
2k views
Ok to mix breast milk with water?
Our 2 month old breast feeds 90% of the time, but if my wife is away we will use pumped breast milk from a bottle. The other day my wife was out and we only had 1.5 oz of defrosted breast milk. Our ...
7
votes
3answers
444 views
Can I figure out what my baby wants by the sound it makes when it cries?
Can I figure out what my baby needs from its crying?
According to Dunstan Baby Language, the sound used before hysterical baby crying gives information on what the baby needs. The Dunstan website ...
7
votes
2answers
108 views
What can help prepare a 15 month old for the birth of a sibling?
My son is 15 months old and we are expecting a girl in 7-8 weeks. We have started talking about "baby sister" and we talk about baby sister's chair, car seat, room, etc. I know he doesn't understand ...
7
votes
6answers
987 views
How do you know when a baby needs to be burped?
My daughter just turned two, and over the last two years, I've learned a lot. Most parenting skills were easy to learn, but I never figured out burping when she was in the infant stage. In retrospect, ...
7
votes
6answers
5k views
How can I keep my infant from sleeping while bottle feeding?
We've been trying to get our infant on a schedule, but he tends to fall asleep before he's done eating, which makes it challenging, because he doesn't finish, and wakes up hungry too early. It also ...
7
votes
5answers
264 views
How to cut infants nails
My two month old daughter has sharp nails. Please suggest some safe way of cutting her nails so that she doesnt scratch herself. We bought a supposedly baby nail clipper but it is no different from a ...
7
votes
2answers
341 views
Do dummies (“pacifiers”) hinder speech development?
I have always frowned on the use of dummies, because my mother (who ran a nursery for 25 years) was adamant that they can hinder a child's speech development.
Our new baby is very unsettled and very ...
7
votes
2answers
384 views
What should I expect regarding development of baby born severely underweight with Symmetrical IUGR?
My baby was born at week 38, weighting 4.5 lbs.
According to the ultrasounds, he stopped growing on week 34 and he was diagnosed at birth with Symmetrical IUGR. Before week 34, everything seemed ...
7
votes
2answers
2k views
Recommended method for checking a baby is not too cold
At our antenatal classes we were told that it can be misleading to feel a baby's hands to check if they are too cold, because the extremities can get cold even when the baby is ok. A better method is ...
7
votes
1answer
113 views
What items should an infant first-aid kit contain?
Let's say we want to put together a little first-aid kit for home and travel for our newborn. What items would you suggest to be in there?
6
votes
4answers
206 views
Introducing a newborn to my 2 yr old
My wife and I have a 2 year old little girl. We in the upcoming weeks will be having a new addition (another girl) added into our home. We want our 2 year old to embrace her new little sister, love ...
6
votes
6answers
848 views
How young is too young to take a child overseas?
My wife and I are expecting a child at the end of February. My sister-in-law is planning on getting married in early May in Macedonia (we live in the US). This is our first child and we're more than a ...
6
votes
2answers
174 views
Is an “Amber Necklace” effective for helping with teething?
My daughter seems to be starting to teethe. She's 7 weeks old and hasn't quite figured out teething toys and we don't want to start with drugs or other medications. We've had numerous friends suggest ...
