Family Tips

Bonding, perhaps, is one of the most pleasurable aspects of baby care. Physical closeness to a child develops an emotional connection.
For infants, the attachment is vital for their emotional growth, which also influences their development and physical growth. Children who don’t have a parent or any adult in their life who loves them without reserve potentially will have more problems in their own adult life.
If both parents hold and touch their baby frequently, the baby will soon know the difference between their touches. Each parent should try the opportunity to be “skin-to-skin” holding the newborn while feeding or cradling.
Babies, especially premature babies and those with medical problems strongly require attachments. Numerous researches have shown that “skin-to-skin” relations and massage help with infant digestion and growth.
Infants usually like vocal sounds - talking, babbling, singing, and cooing. Many babies also love listening to music. Baby rattles and musical mobiles are one more way to stimulate infant’s hearing. You should certainly try singing, reciting poetry and nursery rhymes, or reading aloud to your infant.
But be careful to keep noise and light levels moderate.

Swaddling is another soothing method which first-time parents should learn. Swaddling keeps infant’s arms close to the body and legs surely bound. This method keeps an infant warm, the surrounding pressure seems to give newborns a feeling of security and comfort.

Here’s a guide how to swaddle an infant:

Spread out the swaddling band, with one corner folded over a little bit.
Lay the baby face-up on the swaddling band with his or her head at the folded corner.
Wrap the left corner over the body and tuck it beneath.
Take the bottom corner up over the baby’s feet.
Wrap the right corner around the baby, leaving only the neck and head uncovered.

Nevertheless some resent studies proved that swaddling is unnecessary and hinder natural development of a child. According to historical records our ancestry swaddled only premature and infants with medical problems. In any case parents keep their options open.

Before you bring your baby home you will probably decide whether you will use cloth or disposable diapers. In any case you will need about 10 diapers a day, or about 70 a week.

Before diapering a baby or changing his or her clothes, think over whether you have all supplies within easy reach so you won’t have to leave your baby on the changing table. Note that even a newborn can easily turn over. So, you’ll need:
- one clean diaper
- a fastener (if you use cloth)
- diaper ointment in case if the baby has a rash
- a container of warm water, or wet napkins
- cotton balls
- clean washcloth or diaper wipes

If the diaper is wet, lay your baby on his or her back and remove the dirty diaper. Use the water, cotton balls, and washcloth or the wipes to gently wipe your baby clean. When removing a boy’s diaper, note that exposure to the air may make him urinate. When wiping a girl, wipe her bottom from front to back to avoid possible urinary tract infection. If your baby has a rash, apply special ointment. And always wash your hands thoroughly after changing a diaper.

Diaper rash is a common concern. As a rule the rash is red and bumpy and will go away with a warm bath, some diaper cream (they are available at any baby shop or drugstore), and a little time out of the diaper. In most cases rashes occur because the newborn’s skin is highly sensitive and becomes irritated by the wet diaper. If your have forgotten to change your baby’s diaper in time, your baby for sure will have rash.
In order to prevent or heal diaper rash, if it has happened so, parents may use the fallowing advices.
Change your baby’s diaper frequently, and immediately after it became wet.
Cleaning the area with mild baby’s soap and water and apply a diaper rash or “barrier” cream. Creams with zinc oxide are the most popular for this case because they form a barrier against moisture.
If you use cloth diapers, wash them in detergents without dye and fragrance additions. Also let your baby go without diaper for some part of the day. This will allow the skin to air out.
But if the diaper rash continues for more than 3 days, call your doctor, as it may be caused by a fungal infection that requires special treatment.

Feeding your newborn by breast or from the bottle, you may be surprised to know how often to do it. Generally, it’s recommended to feed babies on demand, that is to say, whenever they seem hungry. You may guess that your baby is hungry from his or her crying, putting fingers in the mouth, or making sucking noises.
Just newborn baby may need to be fed every 2 hours or perhaps more frequently, as the stomach is very small and breast milk is quickly assimilated. If you’re breastfeeding, let your baby to nurse about 10–15 minutes at each breast.
Some newborns are awakened every few hours for eating. Call your baby’s doctor if you need to awaken your infant frequently or if your baby doesn’t want eat or suck.
If you’re formula-feeding, you can easily control if your baby is getting enough to eat. If you’re breastfeeding, you may be sure that everything is well, when your baby seems satisfied, produces about six wet diapers and several stools a day, sleeps well, and gains weight regularly.

During feedings and cry babies often swallow air, which can make them fussy. To prevent this burp your baby frequently. If you’re breastfeeding, burp your baby each time he or she moves to another breast and after the feeding.
Hold your baby upright with his or her head on your shoulder. Support your baby’s head and back while gently patting the back. Or put your infant face-down on your lap. Be sure to support your baby’s head and gently pat his or her back.

Preparing to bathing your baby you will need the fallowing things: soft washcloth, mild and unscented baby soap or liquid for bathing, a soft brush, towels or blankets to cover your baby, an infant bath filled with warm water - to test the water temperature, feel the water with your elbow or wrist, or use the thermometer (it should register 98,60 - 100 F ). An infant bath is a plastic tub that can fit in the bathtub and is better fitted for the infant; it also makes bath time easier to manage.
When your baby is ready and permitted by the doctor to have a tub baths, the first time should be gentle and very brief. If the baby becomes disturbed, go back to sponge baths for a week or two.
Undress your baby and then place him or her in the warm water immediately to prevent chills. Make sure that the temperature in your room is not to low. Use one of your hands to support the head and the other hand to immerse the baby. Gently and slowly lower your baby into the tub.

Wash his or her face and hair with a wet washcloth. When you rinse the soap or shampoo from your baby’s head, move your hand across the forehead in that way so that the suds run toward the sides and soap doesn’t get into the eye, as even the baby shampoo may irritate the gentle baby’s eyes. Right after the bath, wrap your baby in a towel, and cover his or her head. For this very purpose you can get special baby towel with hood which is great for keeping a freshly washed baby warm.
While bathing your infant, never leave him or her alone. If you need to go aside, wrap the baby in a towel and take him or her with you.

If you have never talked to other parents of a newborn, you may be surprised to learn that your infant in fact sleeps almost the whole day and night, and the sleep may take about 16 hours or even more! Newborns generally sleep for periods of 3–4 hours. It is explained by their digestive system, which is so small that they need nourishment every few hours and should be awakened if they haven’t been fed for 5 hours. But your baby may also be that rather often exception to the rule and sleep during the whole night or 6-8 hours without awakening.
At 3 months of age, about 90% of babies sleep between 6–8 hours. But if yours doesn’t, it’s not a cause for concern. Babies must develop their own sleep patterns and cycles, and if your newborn is getting weight and seems healthy, don’t concern if he or she hasn’t slept through the night at 3 months.
It’s important to place baby on the back to sleep to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). It is the common recommendation, though this unpleasant phenomenon is not properly studied. In addition, remove all fluffy bedding, quilts, sheepskins, stuffed animals, and pillows from the cradle so that your baby doesn’t get tangled in them. And also alter the position of your baby’s head from night to night and during the night, if possible to prevent the development of a flat spot on one side of the head and torticollis.

Hyperactivity which declare itself in deficiency of attention and impulsive behavior is the disorder to some extent touching up to 20 % of children in an elementary school. Nevertheless, this medical condition is recognized not by all doctors and psychiatrists. And unrofessional environment is full of the most various myths about hyperactivity, the majority of which has nothing in common with the reality. And what is the reality?

Hyperactivity is really medical disorder.
This diagnosis has been officially recognized by the main medical, psychiatric and educational organizations worldwide. The syndrome of attention deficiency and hyperactivity is one of forms of the minimal brain dysfunctions. This syndrome has the biological nature. Researches show that in its basis lies disbalance of chemical transmitters - neurotransmitters - in a brain of the child.
There are various opinions on the reasons of hyperactivity development. It can be genetic factors, features of a structure and functioning of the brain, birth traumas, and infectious diseases of a pregnant woman or the child in the first months of a life, etc.
Primary symptoms of hyperactivity are inattention, inability to be focused for a long time, impulsiveness and restlessness. Hyperactive people have problems in some aspects of a daily life, especially in the areas demanding organization and time sense.

When the hyperactive child jumps from his seat during a lesson and starts to walk up and down the classroom, it is not that he has not been learned how to behave. He just cannot control the impulses. He is declined to fallow the first inducement under the influence of the external emotions. It is difficult for him to sit motionlessly for a long time, not to fidget or talk, he frequently touches and drops various things, pushes coevals, etc. And strict discipline is not enough for overcoming hyperactivity.

Actually, too strict upbringing, right up to punishment of the child for impossibility of self-control, frequently can only aggravate symptoms of hyperactivity. If the child needs high motion activity, there is no sense to suppress it. It is better to try to learn him or her to splash out energy in the acceptable ways: going in for sports, dances and outdoor games. The emotional tension should be also reduced.

Hyperactivity equally touches both boys, and girls
Despite of the believe that hyperactivity, as a rule, affects only boys, girls are also subject to hyperactivity and show the same symptoms.

Hyperactivity frequently remains at the adult age
More than 70 % of hyperactive children stay hyperactive at teenage age, though, maybe, to a lesser degree. And almost 50 % of children have this syndrome in an adult life. Hyperactivity usually disappear by the teenage age, but lack of attention and inability to concentrate are still kept.

Hyperactive children can be taught
Such children for the best mastering of the material need to be active during lessons. Thus there is an impression that their brain work only when the body moves. They like lessons during which they can make something by hands, to test something, build models, and in mathematics, for example, use an abacus. During learning and storing the information they usually touch or move things and it is better not to disturb them.