When it comes to dealing with a premature baby, the rules change somewhat from the typical ones for dealing with a baby where everything has happened more or less on schedule. Sometimes you will find that, due to their reduced size and strength, your baby has less of an appetite if it has been born prematurely. In order to mitigate against this you may need to pay more attention and encourage him or her to feed. Even though their natural desire to feed may be reduced as compared with a stronger baby, they will still need to feed in order to gain some of the strength that they lack.

A newborn, fully healthy baby will want to feed between eight and twelve times a day. They will automatically wake up in order to do this. A premature baby may prefer naturally to sleep, as they will tire easier due to their lack of strength. This may mean that you need to wake your baby and persuade him or her to feed. After a time this will become a more natural process as they gain in strength and consequently in appetite. While you are waiting for this to happen, it may be necessary to wake without “fully waking” – an alarm clock set to a gentle chime will mean that you can wake, feed, and go back to sleep, which is much better for your own health. By keeping your baby in the same room as you, you can simplify this matter a great deal.

Based on your baby’s health and size, the pediatrician at the hospital will generally be able to help you work out a feeding schedule for them. This is important, especially for first-time parents, as getting the hang of feeding at the right time and in the right way can be a hit and miss process, and with a lot of other things to keep track of it will make a big difference in terms of your quality of life. You can be the most devoted parent in the world, but you will need your own sleep and down time in order to really make it count. This is no criticism, just a fact of life.

As things stand, a baby normally wants to eat fairly regularly, but there are special cases that can make the usual advice a little bit less useful. In these cases, you will have to work to make things tick over in the way you want them to. For example, you may not be producing milk in quite the way that you would hope. This is not through lack of intent or effort on your part, but because the human body is a complicated organism that often does not do what you want it to. The pediatrician will be worth their weight in gold in this respect.

With your intent and good will, and the advice of experienced individuals, you will become completely au fait with the best way of doing things and, before too long, the regularity which makes any process easier will kick in, so you can get on to the enjoyable aspects of parenting.

A newborn baby, although one of the most incredible joys in a person’s life, can also present something of a headache. The spending that is required to keep a baby healthy, happy and well-clothed is something that can really mount up and make any parent panic a little bit. There is no doubt whatsoever that some unscrupulous individuals will try to take advantage of this by selling baby gear at extortionate prices and trying to emotionally blackmail parents into spending that kind of money – “if you really care for your baby, you’ll pay whatever it takes” being the rather grubby subtext of their sales pitch.

Paying these people no heed can be difficult, but it really is the best option in the long run. Anyone who tries to tell you that your baby needs what they are selling has run out of more inventive sales techniques and is just a money-grabbing ghoul. You can dress a baby in hand-me-down clothes and they will not be adversely affected physically or mentally. It is one of the last points at which you can observe a total absence of direct peer pressure – your baby doesn’t care a jot if their clothes are not designer and you have not spent every penny you have on them. Let your baby’s happiness be the only important factor in all of this – some shyster’s sales pitch will be no help to anyone but themselves. Giving them what they need does not necessitate spending untold sums on supposedly state-of-the-art baby clothes.

One of the most familiar traditions when it comes to a new baby is the question of what color to paint their nursery, and what color clothes to buy for them. As the old traditions have it, there are only two options, and these are dependent upon one major factor – the sex of the baby. If your baby is a boy, the tradition claims, he should be clothed in blue. If you have a daughter, then they must be clothed in pink. There is, it has to be said, absolutely no practical reason as a parent for sticking to this, although it does save a few seconds when people meet your baby for the first time and do not have to ask “Is it a little boy or a little girl?”

What can be said for certain is that children do react to colors quite early on, and for reasons best known to themselves will favor certain colors over others. Psychologists will even point to the effect that can be had by color on grown adults, and some sports teams even take it into account when choosing uniform colors. Have you ever seen a professional men’s football team wearing pink jerseys? Clothing your child in a color that they like can, without a doubt, make for a happier baby. Clothing it in the color of your favorite team may have the effect of giving them a liking for that color and therefore that team, but it is a bit underhand. If you are OK with that, go ahead.

If you’re looking for a creative and different way to honor new moms- and dads-to-be and help them get ready for their baby, consider throwing a baby safety shower instead of the usual “blankets and snugglies” shower.

Traditional baby showers are great fun and they offer new parents an opportunity to prepare their “nests” for the arrival of a new baby. Usually a baby shower is intended to give new parents a leg up in acquiring essential items like baby clothing, bath supplies, bottles or nursing equipment, toys and games, and special blankets or other treasures like silver cups. I’ve always viewed baby showers as one of the best ways that a community can come together around the birth of a new child. It reminds me of one of the best aspects of the “old days” when a town, village, or neighborhood considered the birth and caring for a new child its responsibility, too.

A baby safety shower is in keeping with these old communitarian traditions. It’s more than just fun and games, it’s really a learning experience for the whole community where all the activities revolve around baby and home safety. Parents and caregivers certainly have a great time, but they also leave with a higher awareness of ways to keep their new babies safe at home.

The shower’s theme may focus on a variety of safety issues (see the Baby Safety Checklist below), including child-proofing one’s home, nutrition or health. Also, you can arrange a baby safety shower for as many people as you can fit in your party space. At bigger safety showers, all of the moms and dads in attendance–not just the couple being honored–can visit a variety of exhibits where safety-savvy parents illustrate home safety information with games, puzzles, songs, prizes, and other activities. At smaller showers, it might work better to have one person lead the group in discussions and safety games.

Usually baby showers involve a collection of family and friends of the new parents, but safety showers are also a good way to create and promote partnerships within the broader community. By offering, for example, to distribute baby products donated by local stores, or by providing information from local community health service providers, you can enhance your ties with the local business community and build your relationships with local health and social service organizations. All this creates goodwill in your community and it provides your invited parents with welcome information, products, and services.

Use your creativity to create a baby safety shower for your personal situation. The key to throwing a safety shower that will be rewarding for all involved is providing important safety information in a festive and inviting setting. So–have fun, and learn about the all-important matter of better safety practices for your household.

BABY SAFETY CHECKLIST

The guidelines below were developed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. It’s important to remember that, while these standards are based on sound principles, certain parents may disagree with some of them. For example, the bedroom guidelines state that a baby should never sleep in the same bed as an adult. However, from the Attachment Parenting perspective, sleeping with one’s baby is considered an important aspect of bonding and is even believed to possibly lower the incidence of SIDS. Therefore, I recommend using the following guidelines as just that, guidelines, which should be examined carefully in light of your own views and beliefs about baby care giving. Always consult your pediatrician if in doubt of the best way to proceed.

Baby Safety Checklist

In the bedroom:

Put your baby to sleep on her back in a crib with a firm, flat mattress and no soft bedding underneath her. Follow this advice to reduce the risk of suffocation and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). To prevent suffocation, never put babies to sleep on adult beds.

Make sure your baby’s crib is sturdy and has no loose or missing hardware. This will prevent babies suffocating or strangling by becoming trapped between broken crib parts.

Never place your baby’s crib or furniture near window blind or curtain cords. This will prevent babies from strangling on the loop of the cord. To prevent falls, keep children away from windows.

In the bathroom:

Keep medicines and cleaning products in containers with safety caps and locked away from children. This will prevent children from being poisoned.

Always check bath water temperature with your wrist or elbow before putting your baby in to bathe. This will prevent burns to a baby’s delicate skin.

Never, ever, leave your child alone in the bathtub or near any water. This will prevent children from drowning. In addition, keep children away from all standing water, including water in toilets, 5-gallon buckets, and pools.

In the kitchen:

Don’t leave your baby alone in a highchair; always use all safety straps. This will prevent injuries and deaths from the baby climbing out, falling, or sliding under the tray. Be sure to use safety straps in strollers and baby swings.

Use your stove’s back burners and keep pot handles turned to the back of the stove. This will prevent deaths and injuries from burns. In addition, keep children away from tablecloths, so they can’t pull down hot foods or liquids on themselves.

Lock household cleaning products, knives, matches, and plastic bags away from children. This will prevent poisonings, bleeding injuries, burns, and suffocation.

In other living areas:

Install smoke detectors on each floor of your home, especially near sleeping areas; change the batteries each year. This will prevent deaths and injuries from fires.

Use safety gates to block stairways and safety plugs to cover electrical outlets. This will prevent injuries from falls and electric shocks.

Keep all small objects, including tiny toys and balloons, away from young children. This will prevent choking and possible death.

Additional Information and Resources

If you would like more information about baby safety or about how to organize a baby safety shower, including specific tips on planning, organizing, and coordinating one, please write to the Office of Information and Public Affairs, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Washington, DC 20207. The article above was adapted from a report prepared by the Product Safety Commission.

Author: Scott Corbett is a writer, entrepreneur, and father of two. Please visit his designer baby blankets and baby bedding store at http://www.sleepytimestore.com and check out his parenting blog at http://www.babytalkblog.org .

Article Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Scott-Corbett-1151/baby-6882.php

There is an entire industry devoted to baby clothing, and it goes without saying that it does a lot of business given the numbers of babies born to new parents every day around the world. As a new parent, you will naturally want to do everything right, so the question of how to clothe your baby in a way that benefits them will be one of the many at the forefront of your mind. That you are thinking in such a way reflects good parenting instincts on your part, so you are doing things in the right way. And usually, following your instincts will be a good idea.

There is really no way to be absolutely 100% sure about everything before you do it, but there are without doubt certain conventions which, if followed, will increase your chances of getting things right. Apart from anything else, you need to make sure that your baby’s clothes are the right size. Too loose and they will lose out on the warmth which the clothes are designed to give. Too tight and your baby will be uncomfortable – plus you will need to change their clothes more frequently as they outgrow them. Somewhere in between is the best answer.

This is why, at an early stage, it can be highly beneficial to have the good fortune to inherit some older baby clothes. As long as they are clean, they present no health risk, and they will enable you to get a measure of what kind of clothes you will need to buy for your child when you inevitably need to do so.

With a newborn baby in the house, especially if it is your first, there is so much to learn that you simply cannot replicate with classes, books and additional parenting aids. Every baby that is born will have its own unique traits, and although you can learn a lot from other parents, from books, from TV and a wealth of other sources, there is always the fact that what works with one baby may not necessarily work with another. However, this should not be viewed as an apocalyptic warning. As a parent, you will learn quickly how to deal with your baby, and they will form an attachment to you.

The question of how often to feed a baby is one that often arises for new parents. With regard to how often they need feeding, it seems to differ slightly but is generally between two and three hours between feeds. At this stage of their life, any baby is programmed to sleep for short periods and awaken to be fed at such intervals. This is why parents will talk about sleepless nights at the early stage of parenthood. As the child grows older, they will of course begin to go longer between meals, but at an early age, with no ability to articulate their needs nor understand what people are saying, they will find their own way to make things clear to you. This regularity of needing to be fed is why many parents keep the baby in the same bed as them in the early stages.

Author: BabyCareCorner.com
Article Source: PLR Articles

Initially, your baby will want to feed between eight and twelve times a day. This is because it has a very small stomach and can only eat a small amount at a time and – as you will become aware very quickly – it will process the food very quickly into its diaper. As he or she grows, however, so will their stomach and the time between meals will become longer. As a parent, the most welcome effect of this is that they will begin to wake less often in the night wishing to be fed. However, real life is never so simple, so you may have a few false starts before you eventually reach the stage where your child is not waking you most nights.

Part of this process is weaning your child. There will inevitably be some resistance from the baby in this respect. They have become attuned to being fed at a certain time each night, and a change in this routine will be an unwelcome one – they are babies after all, and the concept of change is in a lot of respects a completely alien one for them. Sooner or later it has to happen, and the best way to ensure it is a success is to schedule things so that they are fed shortly before you go to bed for the night – thus hopefully encouraging them to sleep through to the morning.

As your baby grows, you will find that they can eat more at one sitting, so take advantage of this by making each meal time more thorough and letting them eat their fill each time.

To give your baby a decent bath there are a few things that you must stick to, aside from which you have more or less free rein to do as you wish. The potential for mishaps is taken as read, and no parent will want to take undue risks when washing their baby, so staying away from those is more or less self-explanatory. For simplicity, it is necessary simply to avoid lifting the baby too much – soap and water do not make for easy handling, and dropping your child is a constant and terrifying fear for parents – prevention is, in this case, a straightforward matter.

In the first six months of your baby’s life, a water depth level of approximately five inches will be fine. The temperature should be somewhere in the region of body temperature – slightly above is best (around 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) as the water will cool from the moment it is in contact with the bath. You can then put your baby in the bath, using one hand to hold up his or her neck and head and avoid it getting bumped. You then wash him or her with a soft handcloth and a small amount of soap. Moistened cotton wool should be used to clean their face, and to moisten any dried mucus before wiping that away.

Rinsing away all soap and any remaining dirt requires a clean facecloth, and then you can dry him or her with a small towel which you can use to wrap him or her. Then you can use a mild moisturizer in order to keep his or her skin soft.

If you are out and about on the move with your baby, there is every chance that you will need to change their diaper at some point – it is not ideal, as anyone will tell you, to change a diaper in a setting that is outside your home, but sometimes it is simply unavoidable. In this respect, you will need to be prepared. Any trip that you make out of doors with your child will need to be planned with a good deal of awareness of what it takes. The first thing to be aware of is that you will need to take quite a few things, but they need to be easily portable – so taking just the right amount is crucial.

Firstly, you will obviously need a clean diaper. Ideally, before going out you will have changed your baby to put on a disposable diaper. The reason for this is one of disposal, as throwing away a soiled cloth diaper means you have one less in your rotation, but carrying it around is of course less than desirable. Also for disposal, you may want to carry a bag – not indispensable, but nicer for whoever has to empty the garbage pail in which you dispose of the diaper. As well as this, some moist wipes will help with cleaning your baby’s affected area. A change of clothes is also advisable, in case the old diaper has leaked and soiled the outer clothing. The change should, of course, take place in a public washroom for reasons of privacy and practicality.