Baby

Baby Original offers free advice for expecting parents and supporting family and friends. Main topical sections include pediatrician care, parenting, grandparenting, motherhood fitness and health, and social issues including pets, siblings, and schooling.

Pregnancy to Newborm

From moments of considering to have a baby to the first moments of life your little angel plays their part. Their little red face is all scrunched up, and the sounds that voice from her puckered little mouth are the most precious notes you could ever hope for. You ache any time the nurses take her for tests, and you deny offers from well meaning friends and family who offer to hold her while you get some sleep. All you want to do is be with your new baby, and you’ll forego food, water and sleep to do just that!

Parenting to Grandparenting

Parenting is often a thankless job. It is a difficult job, and a job that keeps parents up at night. From crying babies to whining toddlers, defiant teenagers to aloof young adults, parents constantly struggle to understand and positively affect the lives entrusted them. But in the end, it is a job every parent will say is the most amazing and wonderful adventure imaginable. It is the smiles, first steps, first homeruns, family trips, hugs and kisses that outshine the less appealing aspects of parenthood, and it is for these moments parents gladly lump the rest.

Day Care and Schooling

For many, it starts with the first day of kindergarten. For others, it begins a year or two earlier, with preschool. For all, it is a momentous occasion that marks the beginning of a learner’s journey that will never end. It's late summer, and it school is about to begin!

Eager little kids follow anxious parents through stores, buying back-to-school clothes, backpacks and sneakers. They get fresh haircuts, take extra bubbly baths the night before and are sent to bed extra early to ensure a good night's sleep. The next morning they're off to school. Be it kindergarten, middle school or college, the routine is mostly the same. May be by the time they’re in high school, the bubble bath is out of the question, and they can borrow the car and do their own shopping, and by college, parents can only wonder about that good night’s sleep, but these details are only minor. The first day of school is a blend of excitement, anxiety and curiosity for all students and parents as well.

Bathing Your Baby

Filed under: Bathing — Baby Original @ 10:16 am

Most babies come home from the hospital with remnants of the umbilical cord still attached to the belly button, or the umbilicus. Until this falls off give your baby only sponge baths. Clean the navel area twice a day or so with a cotton swab dipped in antiseptic. Do this gently but thoroughly, making sure to get to the base of the cord stump. Watch for yellow matter, a sort of “weeping” that may develop, and for redness. These are signs of possible infection-notify your doctor if they persist. Keeping the top edges of the baby’s diaper folded down below the navel will help to keep the area dry. When the cord falls off, usually within ten days to two weeks after the baby’s birth, it is not unusual for a few drops of blood to be left on the navel. No bandage, binding, or tape is required. If the umbilicus doesn’t dry up in a few days after the cord comes off, an umbilical granuloma may be present. This is a little nubbin of tissue in the umbilicus at the junction of the old cord and the new skin. Your doctor can remedy the situation easily at the baby’s first checkup. If there is much bleeding or a foul odor coming from the cord, consult your doctor earlier for any special instructions needed.

For a sponge bath, you will need a warm, draft free room, a basin of lukewarm water, and two big towels-one to bathe the baby on, and the other to wrap him in after the bath. If your baby cries when totally undressed, give him a bath in stages, removing only part of the clothing at one time. Many babies love the feeling of being totally naked, though and enjoy waving their arms and legs about freely. You don’t really need soap for a newborn, some parents don’t use it for several months. If you can’t bring yourself from skipping it altogether, use very little because soap will dry up your baby’s delicate skin. Ordinary scented soap may trigger an allergic reaction, and it will disguise the wonderful “baby smell” that lets everyone in the house know that an infant is present.

Infants do not need to be bathed every day. The diaper area is of course, cleaned frequently, and two or three full baths a week are sufficient.

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