Parenting Blog

It is a great feeling to become pregnant and women naturally become more careful and responsible after they come to know about their pregnancy. Generally women are good in taking care of the baby inside them but sometimes due to carelessness they might let themselves in to dangerous situations. Accidents are one of the leading causes of baby death in United States and to reduce the number of deaths due to this reason mothers should become more careful. This means that they should try to avoid some of the most common accidents they are prone to.

You can follow these suggestions to stay away from the most common accidents:

Do not forget to wear the seat belt: Seat belts are able to save around eleven thousand lives every year. You should not be worried about the seat belt hurting your baby if a car crash happens. What may be more dangerous to the baby is getting you injured. You should carefully wear the seatbelt by placing the lap-belt below the baby and not across the belly. The shoulder-belt should be worn over the shoulder and between the breasts. If you are not comfortable and the belt feels too tight adjust is appropriately.

Practice Safe Driving: If you are a rash driver then you should be especially careful. In general, everyone should obey the traffic rules, take care of the speed limits, pull your car off road when you feel sleepy, when your drive never use the cell phone and under any circumstances avoid an impaired driver.

Do not go to lonely Places: When you are pregnant just avoid going to places where somebody could ambush you especially dark stairs, isolated parking spaces or other deserted areas.

Take Precautions while walking on the Roads: You should remember what you were taught when you were child and follow the rules as a pedestrian. Use the crosswalk and look at both the ways before crossing the road.

Make your home safe from fire: Deaths due to fire are more common than the total deaths due to all the natural disasters together. Therefore, make your home safe by installing smoke detectors and if they are already installed make sure they are in working condition.

Take care in handling food items: Food should be carefully handled as well as stored. They should be washed well before cooking and avoid using stale and expired food items. Clean the knife and cutting board before and after using with soapy hot water.

Stop the germs from spreading by washing hands at regular intervals: Clean your hands from time to time using warm water and soap. Let the soap and lather remain on the hands for a minute or two before you wash it up with clean water.

It is a fact that babies are more sensitive to loud noises than adults. They can tolerate noises of very less decibels, generally ones over which it is easy to talk. Some babies have a tendency to cry and scream in protest to the noise, while the others simply fuss. So it can be a bit difficult if you plan to take your babies somewhere where the music is really loud.

Like there is to everything, there is an exception for your baby’s sensitive ears also. If you used to live in a noisy surrounding while you were pregnant – like your husband used to play music, or your son used to scream and shout while running around the house – your baby has probably already become accustomed to these sounds because he also used to hear low muffles of the same sounds when he was in your womb. It is highly probable that he might be able to sleep right through the time when that sound is made. However, unfamiliar sounds startle the baby, and in most cases, he reacts by crying. But when they are around five months old, they tend to move toward the source of the sound.

Things that can harm your baby’s hearing capability

Here are some of the things that can harm your baby’s sensitive ears:

• Constant exposure to environments having loud noises such as rock concerts and airports.
• History of hearing problems in the family.
• Some complications in during the birth which caused a lack of oxygen for the baby.
• Premature birth
• Some types of birth defects.
• Chronic middle-ear inflammation or ear infection.
• Prenatal exposure to rubella.

Can I do anything to develop my baby’s hearing capabilities?

Yes, there are some things that you can do to develop your baby’s hearing capabilities. Here are some of those:

• Play soft music that contains sounds from the piano and the cymbals. Babies tend to like such sounds and enjoy them.
• Talk to your baby. It is very important that you communicate with him. For example, if he seems interested in something you are doing then telling him about it a very good option. You should also try reading to him. Do keep on babbling, but proceed further only if you think your baby is interested.
• Try to tune into whatever sounds attract you babies attention. This will help you to make her understand exactly what has caused it.

It is very important that you help your child in his hearing development because it is a very effective way for him to communicate to the world in both the present and the future.

Finding the proper way to feed your baby, the way it suits him might take some trial and error. If you are able to give your baby the right start he will enjoy a lifetime of mental and physical health. Since every baby is unique, you will have to figure a lot of things on your own, while trying out a few tips you can gather from here and there. Some points need to be taken care of by you so that your baby doesn’t become colicky.

• Find an appropriate bottle

If you use a bottle to feed your baby, make sure that the bottle does not make the baby gulp the contents. The baby will have stomach problems if he swallows more air along with the feeding. The hole of the nipple in the bottle should not be too small. This could irritate the baby and make him swallow more air and gulp more food.

You can use bottles that are specifically designed to reduce intake of air by babies. These can be curved or might have vents or liners on the inner side of the bottle. Such a shape prevents air bubbles from arising in the liquid and the nipple is prevented from collapsing.

• The posture of the baby

Hold your baby in an upright position while bottle feeding or breastfeeding the baby. This will help the formula or breast milk to take a smooth path to the stomach. If the baby is curled up, some air is sure to get trapped in with the food he consumes.

• The feedings should not be frantic

Do not wait for your baby to starve or cry before you feed him. A baby is likely to swallow air along with feeds if he starts crying out of hunger. Feed the baby in a calm atmosphere. Create a soothing ambience while you feed your baby.

• Make the baby burp

Making the baby burp frequently will help the infant to get rid of air bubbles occupying place inside the stomach. Stroke the back of the baby and lie him flat on the stomach to make him burp intermittently when you bottle feed him

• Establishing a proper diet for mothers who are breast feeding

If you breastfeed, then your diet must be well proportionate and balanced. Eliminate the dairy products in your diet, about which you are suspicious. This might help you in knowing the product for which your baby might be sensitive. Spicy food, wheat products, caffeine and alcohol should also be avoided. This is a little difficult to implement in real life but is necessary for the care and safety for your child.

You may not be aware but there are a lot of diseases which you may unknowingly transfer to your baby. These are genetic diseases that some families are prone to and pass from one generation to other. You can prevent your baby from these genetic disorders by taking the help of genetic counseling. It determines the risks and chances that you may pass on some inheritable diseases to the baby. A genetic counselor may help you in identifying the risks, investigating the problems, interpreting the disorder and related issues, analyzing the risk recurrence patterns and may guide you through the available options.

According to the CDC around three percent of the babies are born with birth defects in United States. Although in most of the cases Genetic Counseling is not mandatory but couples should consider if they encounter one or more of the below mentioned risks:

• Prenatal Tests Reveal Certain Abnormalities
• The results of an Amniocentesis indicate chromosomal disorders
• If a close family member is observed to have a genetic disorder
• Already have had a child with inherited
• If the mother is 35 years or more

Apart from these there are also some ethnic groups that are more susceptible to certain genetic disorders. Sickle Cell Anemia is more common in African Americans, Tay – Sachs disease is mostly found in Central or Eastern Jews and similarly percentage of cases with Thalassemia are more with Italian, Greek and Middle Eastern people.

When you indulge yourself in genetic counseling the most important way of assessing genetic risk is to look around and comprehensively study the blood relatives of both mother and father for genetic disorders. You should notice the how close is the person who suffered a disorder and the reason behind the occurrence of the disease. Some of the common questions the doctors ask to avoid the chances of a genetic disease are:

• Do you observe diseases like hypertension, diabetes and cancer in your family
• Do you have a history of twins in your family or other disorders like muscular dystrophy, hemophilia or cystic fibrosis
• Do you have mentally challenged people in your family
• Does any of your cousins, brothers and sisters have encountered any complications during their pregnancies
• Which ethnic background you belong to
• Do you suspect your baby to born with any birth defects and if yes what are the reasons behind your thinking

With little precaution and knowledge you can prevent your baby from lifetime sufferings from incurable diseases. Make it a point that you do not ignore even the slightest possibilities of a mishap and take this matter very seriously.

Breastfeeding is the bond between the mother and the baby. It is a very challenging part of pregnancy. Some mommy’s complaint ‘I did not have sufficient milk’, others say, ‘Breastfeeding hurts’. Breastfeeding and the birth experience that the mother faces are connected. It is a researched fact that the general obstetrical problems (technological, medical, surgical interventions) can give rise to a number of problems like the inability of the baby to suck, swallow, breathe. It can also lead to mothers discomfort while the baby is breastfeeding.

Even today, many of us consider breastfeeding and child birth as two unrelated and separate events. The connection between these two events can be visualized properly if you think of breastfeeding as the 4th stage of labor (after dilation and baby-birth).

The thumb rule says that you will have fewer problems in breastfeeding if you have less intervention at the birth time. So all you need to do is a little homework and make your parenting journey easy. Some tips for you include:

1. Educate yourself and your partner about the childbirth by taking a childbirth education class. The more knowledge you have regarding the birth, the better you will be able to nurse.

2. Study the details of epidurals, labor inductions, v-bacs and c-sections. Researches suggest that women who had C-section have less chances to room-in with their little baby and also have less chances of breastfeeding their babies. The less pain you have had while and after birth, the more problematic will be for you to concentrate on your baby’s needs.

3. Take enough information about how your provider can aid you labor easily without the use of drugs. The smoother your pregnancy is, more comfortable will be the post pregnancy period for you. Ask if you can labor in a tub, the support which you will have, whether you will be allowed to move around.

4. Find a Doula. Doulas help in providing various kinds of help before, during and after child birth. Researches show that doulas help mothers feel satisfied about the baby-birth.

5. Inquire about your hospitals post partum policies. Breastfeeding succeeds more by skin to skin contact with the mother. You can ask for waiting before the baby gets cleaned, measured, bathed until there is a nursing chance.

6. Tell the hospitals not to give any supplemental bottles of formula or glucose. This has increased a lot in the past few years and this is true that supplement feeding will derail nursing.

7. Be well aware as parents. Participate in the decisions for you and your little one. Ask the advantages, disadvantages and risks of various drugs. Meet with other nursing mothers and know their experiences.