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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.