What Does Your Newborn See in His First Few Days?

By Linda Jenkinson

A young baby is aware of a lot more then we used to think in the past. In fact some of the capabilities of very young children are astonishing. In the "Good Old Days" people thought that a newborn was almost blind. They thought a baby couldn't focus and was more or less colorblind. Meaning that a newborn is only aware of a fuzzy colorless world. We know now that this is not the case.

A newborn is not that little being focused only on himself and his own needs, like hunger, thirst, and other discomfort. From day 1 a newborn is fairly alert, interested and aware of what is happening in his surroundings. He is capable of experiencing and very interested about what is going on is his world. Contrary to old beliefs a baby is able to focus on objects and people that are about 10 inches away. Things that are closer of further away are out of focus, if this were different our newborn would be highly intimidated by the multitude of stimuli. If a child can see color from the moment its born is still unknown, but chances are that he can. And if not he or she will learn in a very short while.

A natural preference for faces

So your baby sees the same things you see, but of course has no idea about its meaning. That's something he has to learn. Still very young children have a clear cut preference for certain objects. He or she will stare (or gaze if you will) to more complicated and will show more interest to moving then to static objects. This is one of the reasons your face is so enormously interesting to him. The eye contact that he is capable of during the first few days is very important for the development of his social skills.

Your baby is programmed so to speak to find your face attractive and inviting. As his interest in your face grows, his interest in the rest of the human species will grow with it.

It takes about 8 months before your baby is really capable of recognizing your face, at that point he or she will temporarily be scared by unfamiliar faces.

Linda, mother of two is an inspired author of http://www.baby-strollers-guide.com and also writes about shoes and baby footwear

Tips On How To Take Care Of Your Three Month Old Baby

By Anne-Lie Karlsson

It is difficult for a newborn to adapt to its new environment. After all, the baby was naked and worried about nothing while in the womb for nine months. Then suddenly he will came out into this cold and bright place trying to adapt and breath alone. Your baby is more attuned to the outside world and more sensitive to changes in his environment. The newborn can feel sensations of pain, pleasure, heat and cold throughout his entire body.

During his first two weeks of life, a baby usually lacks the energy to do more than sleep and eat. When the baby is two weeks old, he begins to lie awake for longer period of time eager for something to play with. A baby usually plays by sucking something.

Why baby is crying
Crying is the most important way a newborn has to communicate it wants. Crying may indicate that the newborn is hungry, feels pain or is cold. Crying also may indicate he fear or his dislike of something. However, crying is also an exercise for the newborn. Two hours a day is the average amount of time a newborn cries during the first month. When a baby cries, it doesn't necessarily mean that he is hungry so should not always answer a baby's cries with a bottle of milk.

Bathing
Never leave the baby alone while he is bathing. Most babies drown because their parents leave them alone. Babies and infants love to be bathed because they want the relaxing and soothing sensations of water. Warm water is used in bathing the baby. The baby's head must be supported with the hands or an arm. Use mild soaps and thoroughly rinse before drying. Oil and lotion are used if the baby's skin is dry skin.

Diapers
Diapers should be change regularly to avoid the possibility of diaper rash. The baby's skin is tender and sensitive and can be easily injured. Mothers and caretakers should clean the baby's skin to avoid irritation.

Feeding the newborn
A baby knows how much he wants and when he wants it. When the bay cries for food, he is hungry; but when he stops eating, that mean he is satisfied.

Sleeping
The amount of sleep a newborn requires also varies a great deal. The baby who has inconvenient waking periods at night can usually be encouraged to go back to sleep by changing his position or giving him something to cling to. Leaving him to cry his head off will not improve his sleeping pattern. It is not necessary to keep quite once the baby is asleep because he is not disturbed by noise as much as sudden changes in the level of noise.

A newborn baby will adapt to the sleep-wake cycle that parents favor. Therefore, experts suggest you should start letting your baby fuss for a few minutes when he or she wakes up during the night.

Thus, a three month old baby may quiet down and love to see your face. He feels excited or smiles at you when he sees you. When the baby hears your voice he will find you and look directly at you and start gurgling or trying to talk back. The part of the brain that governs hand-eye coordination and allows a baby to recognize objects is developing rapidly now. His hearing, language, and smell have also become more receptive and active.

If you want to quit wasting time and receive immediately all information and resources you will ever need, then visit us now. Anne Karlsson offers more information and resources about pregnancy, parenting and child care at http://www.9monthsandafter.com and http://www.thestripturnedblue.com

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Newborn Baby - What to Expect the First Month

By Caroline Miller

The magical day finally arrived. My baby I and are finally here. She was a douzy at ten pounds. In a few days we finally got to take her home and were we in for a rude and constant awakening. As I write this she is screaming her lungs out for no apparent reason. That ladies and gentleman is the nature of motherhood. You can do whatever you think is possible to try and help her but in the end you cant understand her and she has no other way to tell you what's wrong or what she may need besides screaming and crying. I have a close friend that tried to describe to me the feeling she got when she first took her baby home. It may sound weird but this is what she said to me. She said "all this crying is driving me crazy; I just want to kick her out a window". Now we know she wouldn't even dare do any such thing but that point goes to show you what kind of guerrilla warfare goes on in a home the first month that a baby arrives.

If you are one of those type of people that cant function without 8 hours of continuous sleep than I urge you to never have a baby or to find someone to wake up in the middle of the night to take care of them. The first month we woke up every hour on the hour to give her her feeding and to change her. Even during the day it isn't any easier because she still needs to be fed and she still needs to be changed. She will wake you up to make sure that it happens. Essentially there is almost no sleep involved for you during the first month of parenthood. I know that's a tough pill to swallow but there really isn't anything you can do about it. You either go in knowing full well what is going to happen or you don't go in at all.

Reading this right now doesn't even begin to do justice to exactly what I am talking about because words can never describe the skull penetrating screaming and crying or the crippling effect of no sleep on the body and mind. It is something that you need to experience for yourself but it doesn't hurt to be forewarned about what terrors lie ahead.

I love my baby and watching her grow and mature is something that I can never replace in my life. She is amazing to me every day I see her and even though she will bring you to your knees from pure exhaustion I hope that your children bring you that kind of happiness.

This author lives in Flemington, NJ with her husband and 5 month old daughter and is an expert contributing author for a luxury baby shower party favors boutique offering variety of baby gifts, coffee baby shower favors, handprint footprint kits and more. This author and Babygiftstation is also dedicated to providing valuable and informative articles on childcare, baby safety tips, pregnancy health, parenting, potty training and more.

Newborn Baby Care, Guard Against Brain Damage, Support Baby's Head

By Anne V Agar

I want to stress how important it is to support any baby's head when lifting and carrying them because it isn't well known how much damage can be unwittingly inflicted on tiny and helpless infants.

I believe every mother of a newborn is given this advice as soon as she first moves to lift her baby. "Support his/her head". All mothers realise that for the baby's sake, they must do this, but the danger is that not everyone in families heeds this advice and it isn't just uncomfortable for the unsupported baby - It's very dangerous.

No-one would deliberately risk a baby's health but many folk don't know it isn't just about the baby's comfort, it's about possible - and highly likely - brain damage, which can be slight or devastating.

The danger area, or weakness, in a baby is the point where the brain meets the spinal cord. A rocking motion with the head unsupported can cause some damage to the part of the spinal cord that controls breathing.

So a child born completely healthy can be injured in this way without anyone realising. The result is brain damage to some degree and a harder life for the child from thereon.

Obviously colicky babies are at extra risk because they need a lot more lifting and carrying, usually by a parent who is exhausted and exasperated by the hours of crying.

Researchers who examined the brains of children who were thought to have been killed by violent shaking discovered that even mild shaking can cause damage to the nerve fibres that control breathing. The lack of oxygen makes the brain swell and can easily cause some degree of brain damage or even death.

When we speak of brain damaged folk I guess most of us think of brain damage to an extreme degree but it doesn't always mean a wheelchair and 24 hour care.

Indeed it can be slight enough to just affect a child's intelligence, reaction speed, co-ordination or indeed anything the brain is wonderfully designed to control, but even this kind of damage is bound to make a big difference to the quality of life the child would then lead.

Rough play with a baby before it can even crawl is extremely dangerous and everyone who is likely to be involved in the care of a new baby needs to be made aware of this. Also they must be advised to take care to always support the newborn's head when walking with baby in their arms, and the reason explained clearly.

I find it very worrying because on several occasions during my own life I've seen people lift a baby without supporting the head and have quickly said "Support its head" and I think of the thousands of babies who had no-one there to help them out with that extremely important advice.

In an effort to keep helpless babies safe we need to have warnings and advice about supporting a baby's head printed on packs of diapers and baby formula, just as warnings about the dangers to health are printed on packs of cigarettes and tobacco.

Adults make their own choices about risk-taking with their health or are addicted and therefore disregard the warnings, but babies are completely dependent on their carers, so in my opinion it's very important that all carers, including older siblings, have the dangers of a baby's head not being supported explained clearly to them.

It is much easier to remember and comply with a rule if we know the reason for that rule.

My aim is to keep babies as safe as possible and ensure that setbacks and any form of distress are avoided, therefore I have also written on the subject of some of the 'colic cures', the extremely good, the bad, and the downright dangerous, though not in that order, so that parents can be prepared and capable of eliminating baby colic quickly and safely if the need arises.

http://www.colic-cure-secrets-revealed.com/index.html

Newborn Baby Care - How to Take Care of Newborn Baby

By Varadharajan R

Giving birth to a child is sometimes really amazing and it is safe when the baby is in its mother's womb. From the instant the baby emerges from the cocoon, you need to pay special attention and there is plenty of it in newborn baby care about "how to take care of newborn baby". Know well what will be the newborn baby needs, except for the love that you offer. You need a good knowledge in taking care of the baby connected with food, sleep and skin. It's sometimes excruciating that you can't handle it to your wishes since the skin, eyes, bottom and other features are so delicate. There are some common problems with skin conditions like baby gerbils, baby acne, cradle caps and heat rash with sunburn common with newborns of any country.

Baby skin care: Skin care is the foremost factor in spite of its adaptability to the new environment. Skin is so red that it offers irritation and infection to every touch. So, it's best to wash cloths with special detergents. Baby skin loses moisture quickly and it needs time to absorb and retain moisture to its need. So, keeping your child with cold or warm perfume baths daily is not suggestive but may be on alternative days suiting other conditions. New born baby care is so gentle that it needs special treatment. It's best for protecting the baby from bacterial infection by using homemade baby wipes and diaper to cleaning your little ones.

Umbilical cord: Until and after the falling down, the area around the umbilical cord should be kept clean with hygienic soft cotton with alcohol application.

Head care: Head is so delicate with soft hair to keep clean using only baby skin care natural shampoo perhaps the same product. The pulpy scalp is a protected area against rough handling when padding anything around it.

Heat rash and sunburn: Skin learns to accommodate with new surrounding and so nothing is there to worry. Whatsoever, keeping off the baby from direct sunlight for a long time should be avoided as a measure of infant care against heat effects. Protecting the baby appropriately perhaps with cheap baby clothing suiting to the weather is wise of the mother.

Baby acne and cradle caps: Baby acne may have its effect for the first two or three months but no need to treat unless infected. It is protected with homely and regular baby baths with natural care therapy. Cradle caps should be handled with soft brush to clean using some herbal moisturizer. It's best to use natural baby products avoiding synthetic products like talcum powder complimented by organic skin care treatments to avoid dry skin.

Newborn baby care is not so easy to all. It is a skill with the parents especially the mother to know how to take care of newborn baby.

It's best suggested to collect more ideas and purchase related baby products by visiting care taking of newborns AND care taking of babies.

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