Standard newborn growth involves specific weight ranges and milestones during the first month. Early intervention for gas, eye discharge, and stuffy noses ensures the baby remains comfortable and healthy.
A well-balanced diet and proper hydration can help keep you and your breast-feeding baby healthy. Although vegetables provide rich amounts of vital nutrients and water, the American Pregnancy Association recommends avoiding certain varieties to prevent excessive gassiness in your little one.
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Weight gain is one of many indicators of good health in a newborn baby. Slow weight gain can be a sign of an underlying problem, according to Children’s Hospital Boston. That said, sometimes a perfectly healthy baby has a natural growth pattern that is slower than normal.
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Birth is a stressful event for a newborn. Newborns must make many physiologic adaptations immediately after birth, and any number of things can occur at that time. The circulatory system changes, a new oxygen source must be utilized, and the newborn must learn to coordinate sucking and swallowing to obtain nutrition.
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Newborn babies are experiencing everything for the first time, including their first touch from mom and dad. This early contact helps promote healthy psychological and physical development. Lack of physical contact can prevent normal development and can even lead to higher rates of illness or death in infants.
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Newborns need to eat every few hours, since their stomachs don't hold very much milk at one time. It may take a few days for your baby to wake up and start eating normally after birth. A newborn that suddenly stops eating after that needs medical evaluation, unless you're offering feedings too close together.
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Since newborns seem so small and fragile, it is natural to worry about your baby's health and safety. If your newborn develops a red face while she is moving around, you may think something is wrong. In most cases, however, your newborn's red face is normal and doesn't indicate a serious problem.
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Your newborn baby is vulnerable and dependent on you for appropriate care. Following fundamental safety guidelines established by your pediatrician will ensure your baby is safe and healthy. For the first year of life, your baby will spend most of her time sleeping and eating.
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Infants breathe primarily through their nose, and when a stuffy nose hits your baby, you’ll probably find out quickly from the snuffling, snorting, fussing and crying that she resorts to in her attempts to breathe properly.
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Newborns can develop a number of condition that alarm new parents but have little or no medical significance. A whitish collection of mucous-looking material that accumulates in the corners of newborn eyes falls into this category.
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When you're shopping for infant formula, you might wonder if it's prudent to switch brands if another brand is on sale. If your baby is doing well on one formula, you might worry that changing brands could cause side effects, such as diarrhea.
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Your baby's umbilical cord is her source of life during pregnancy. Once your baby is born, she begins breathing oxygen and obtaining nutrition from milk or formula, so the umbilical cord is no longer needed.
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A baby’s brain begins to form three weeks after conception, according to the University of Maine. By the time he’s born, a newborn has 100 billion neurons. Some already connect to others, like those that regulate breathing.
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Simethicone drops -- an over-the-counter remedy used by some parents with colicky infants to reduce gas bubbles in the intestines -- are generally safe for use in newborns. While gas drops are generally safe, it is unclear whether they are effective in decreasing the symptoms of colic.
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Every baby is different, both before and after he is born, according to the American Pregnancy Association. By the seventh or eighth month of your pregnancy, you might notice routines in his behavior and preferences.
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The average weight of a 2-month-old baby girl is 11 pounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is based on statistics about thousands of children born every year. Research shows that half of all baby girls weigh less than 11 pounds, and the other half weigh more than 11 pounds.
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Tracking an infant’s weight can assure parents and health care professionals that a baby is getting the nutrition and stimulation he needs to grow at a steady pace. Doctors use growth charts to make sure that an infant’s height, weight and head circumference are within normal ranges.
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You may have seen videos of very young babies moving under water or heard that newborns have an innate swimming ability due to floating in the womb. These stories and videos are deceptive because a newborn cannot float or hold his head above water.
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Newborns may have eye conditions appear shortly after birth. A common symptom, yellow discharge, may appear after a few days or weeks. In some infants, the discharge will clear and not require further thought from exhausted new parents.
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Bouts of gas in a 3-week-old baby can be as painful for the parent as they are for the newborn. Infants may begin to show signs of occasional gastrointestinal distress: a distended belly, pulling up of the legs, flatulence, burping and fussiness.
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Just because your baby’s clothes are new does not necessarily mean that they are clean. In fact, manufacturers often add chemicals to clothing that prevent wrinkling and mold growth. Unfortunately, these chemicals can cause your newborn baby’s skin to become red and irritated.
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