Hot answers tagged newborn
47
Our first couple months were... bad. From that experience I can give you these pieces of advice:
Realize that you are most likely not in this alone. Friends and family are a wonderful thing. Especially those that have kids, they'll know and understand. If one of them calls to say they want to come over and see the baby, and asks if you need anything... ...
45
This was a difficult decision for us, as well.
I was convinced that circumcision was the wrong choice for us (despite my upbringing teaching me that all boys should be circumcised), but my wife was hesitant, for exactly the same reason you cited.
I did some research, and we were surprised to find that circumcision rates were much lower than we had ...
40
I personally saw no benefit to circumcising my son.
My reasoning:
Being Different
There's three schools of reasoning often used here. 1: "The son should look like the father." and 2: "Locker room teasing" and 3: girls don't like a guy with a foreskin
The son isn't going to resemble the father (size wise, hair wise, etc) until he's 15+ and at that ...
29
Honey shouldn't be given till the age of 1 year. It can contain spores of Clostridium botulinum, which causes botulism. An adult's intestinal tract can prevent the growth of these spores, but in a baby the spores can grow and produce life-threatening toxins.
26
My wife and I faced this very issue with our twin boys, now four years old. When we first brought them home from the hospital, we kept the little wristbands on them for the first few weeks, until they started to outgrow them. Then, we painted their big toe a different color so that we had a foolproof way of keeping track -- the nail polish wouldn't come ...
22
Yes, the more interaction you and your wife have with your child, the better!
Babies are learning at a phenomenal rate, and the more stimulus they receive, the more they are able to pick up about the world around them.
Studies have shown that there is a link between parents reading to young infants and reading habits:
Shared book reading at 4-months was ...
22
Yes, it's okay for both parents to sleep at the same time, for several reasons.
The human mind is finely tuned to the sound of crying babies, you'll be surprised at what you can hear subconsciously while you sleep. Our pediatrician wisely commented that newborns have only one desire - to grow older - so you can be sure they'll tell you if something is ...
22
In short, you have to be a ninja.
Boys are much better at getting money shots than girls (my nephew got me in the ear as I turned my head to shield my eyes). What you have to do is have a towel in one hand, as you take the diaper off with the other.
Place the towel (can also just be the new diaper, but you'll usually end up changing twice) over the ...
21
Newborns cry because they need attention. Rather than learning patience, research indicates that not responding to their cry increases their cortisol levels as well as placing a child at risk for poor emotional attachment with adults. There is also the risk that your child is in pain or sick and needs your prompt attention. Here is an article that further ...
19
This is an understandable concern, and it's no secret that kids do cost money no matter how you put it. The easy answer is that lots of people have had lots of kids before us, and they managed to get by. It's a question of how you choose to spend your limited resources.
I think few are lucky enough to not have to think about what stuff costs. As for the ...
18
Breastfeeding is hard
For all the talk about how "natural" breastfeeding is, nothing quite prepares you for the feeling of being a complete and total failure as a mother quite like having trouble with breastfeeding. It's not easy, you don't "naturally" know exactly how to hold the baby, and he doesn't "naturally" know how to latch on. If your baby latches ...
18
It is the baby's first growth spurt. Major growth spurts occur at 2, 3, and 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months. They can last a little more than week (such as in your case). If a two week old baby is demanding the boob, it probably needs it.
However, there are babies who have trouble nursing and will keep on wanting the boob in attempt to get milk out. It IS ...
18
Due to individual differences, healthy full-term babies may breastfeed as often as every hour or as infrequently as every four hours and thrive.
As long as the baby is getting enough, you can follow his lead for when to feed him.
However, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that newborns nurse at least 8-12 times every 24 hours. If the baby ...
15
I don't want to discourage you, but we tried... and tried.. and our girl (18mo at the time) thought our newborn was awesome when we visited mommy in the hospital the day after. She did not think it was awesome that the baby was coming home with us. And that mommy spent all day with the new baby. There was no consoling her at all.
She was completely upset ...
15
The benefits include:
strengthening the neck, back and body muscles, as well as the arms and shoulders
additionally babies who get tummy time are less likely to develop Torticollis (where the neck muscles tighten and restrict movement
giving the baby an opportunity to see the world the way they will for the rest of their life
helps avoid the development of ...
13
Newborns are really totally helpless and completely rely on their parents for all their needs. They usually only cry if they have some need to be satisfied (hunger, diaper, sleep, or even company). Don't let your newborn cry without reason. Newborns and infants cannot learn patience the way you seem to indicate, and letting them cry for too long might ...
12
You're not doing it wrong, it is that bad!
No matter how much you are warned, nothing can prepare you for the tiredness, on top of the tiredness, on top of even more tiredness, plus the stress of new responsibility and holding down a job.
All the parents I've met after the birth of their first share a certain look when talking about this 'special' time.
...
12
This is very normal. As a mother who breast feeds my child does this as well, it is called cluster feeding. Although it can be very frustrating there really isn't much you can do about it. Usually once babies come out of the "newborn" stage, the cluster feedings stop. Although once in a while they can pop up when the infant is going through a growth spurt. ...
12
Can this be baby acne?
If it is, it has nothing to do with the number of times you bathe your child.
The rule of thumb torbengb mentions, to wash it once a week, is ok, altough I would bathe it more than that, but that's probably more because of social pressure and not for health reasons. We washed our baby regularly with a washcloth with lukewarm water ...
12
One possibility is that the diaper is the wrong size. Diaper leaks sometimes indicate that it is time to move on to a larger diaper (it can also indicate that the diaper is too big, but that should be fairly self-evident from putting the diaper on). For a 2 week old, though, this seems unlikely.
Another reason for leaks is that the diaper is not being ...
12
Having kids has been a fairly expensive endeavor for my family. We have two kids - a 2 year old and an 8 month old.
Our biggest 'expense' has been a loss of income (of the mother). Although I am not a stay at home mother, time taken off for maternity leave, taking care of a newborn, etc. adds up. Between the two kids, we "lost" about 16 months of income. ...
12
Certainly people lived and existed before clothes were invented, so to some extent one could claim we don't "need" clothes. However clothes, especially for tiny babies, serve purposes other than warmth:
absorbency. Babies don't just leak from the diaper area: they drool, spit up, and just like us, they sweat. Most baby-specific clothes are very absorbent ...
11
We had lots of diaper leaks in the beginning, and we tried a few different brands until we found one that worked well. As our infant grew, the story repeated itself and we switched to a different brand again.
Try a few, and see if that helps. Every brand and every size is different, and not all fit perfectly.
Also, make sure that the edges of the diapers ...
11
I think that's good advice. Try to ignore light fussing. Wait and see if it develops into something more.
We were told the same by the midwife, and at least for us it was good. Most of the time, our son stopped fussing again on his own. If he didn't, we'd sometimes tuck him in a little and that would be enough. Sometimes it was the beginning of some real ...
11
This is something babies do. What looks like her entire meal is more likely a lot of drool and mucus, some stomach acid, and just enough breast milk to tint it white. There are some situations where a large amount of milk/formula gets burped up, and this is usually one of two situations; an overfull stomach (some babies will eat to bursting; the reflexes ...
11
Wish I could comment on some of the other answers, but I'm a noob, so I can't...
Anyway, there's absolutely nothing wrong with posting your pictures, your names, all of it.
Continuing to promote "stranger danger" and god-forbid-someone-gets-teased and god-forbid-someone-finds-out-about-our-mistakes philosophies is really just silly. Let's get over all that ...
11
This pamphlet, put out by the South Carolina Department of Health, suggests it is safe at one month. You should avoid large crowds, but the fresh air and stimulation is good for baby. You should probably not allow people to touch your baby's hands (since baby may put them in his mouth). Your greater concern in going outside is the weather - keeping baby ...
11
The guideline I've been given by our pediatricians was to avoid anybody with an easily transmittable disease for the first six weeks. The main reason to stay away from crowds and/or strangers is that you don't really know who in the area is ill or contagious. You don't want somebody to sneeze in your kid's face at any age, really, but a newborn is more ...
10
Don't be afraid to choose to not breastfeed.
I had twins and tried to breastfeed them. It lasted 2 weeks and I gave up and started pumping instead. I got my sanity back and was still able to feed my boys breast milk. I was making enough that they got exclusively breastmilk for 9 of their first 12 months. I felt lucky that I was able to do that. But if ...
10
Most of the time it's okay to just put the clean diaper right back on. If it's too moist too often, he will get a rash, but usually that's more due to waiting too long to change rather than putting a new diaper on too soon. Make sure to clean all the urine off so the moisture is just from the wipe. You can use some baby powder if it starts to bother him, and ...
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