Written By: Debjani Arora | Updated : October 30, 2017 3:13 PM IST
No matter how many pregnancy and parenting books you have read prior to your delivery and how good your antenatal classes were, nothing prepares you to be a mother until your baby arrives. And when you hold your baby for the first time there are a hundred questions about your baby s well-being that comes to your mind. Am I holding my baby right? , Is the hospital cradle really safe for my baby? and what have you. Here are 19 baby care tips for new moms.
When the paediatrician comes to check on your baby there are more than a 100 question for which you seek answers. I know from experience that every question about your baby s well-being is a valid question. But these are the quick 5s that you will end up asking.
Why is my baby pooping so much?
Newborns poop and they poop a lot. Meconium, the baby s first stool is sticky, thick, dark green or brown in colour. It is typically the end product of epithelial cells, lanugo, mucus, amniotic fluid and other waste material. It is essential for your baby to get rid of this waste. The initial days will see your baby flush out the meconium. This means your baby might poop even 10 or more times through the day. This is not something you need to worry about, till your baby is feeding well and resting between the feeds. It is not a bout of diarrhoea.
Some babies, on the other hand, don t poop a lot during the initial days, probably just once or twice during the day and that is still fine. In case your child didn t pass motions in the first two days your doctor might advise giving a suppository to clear the poop. In either case, don t worry too much about your baby s poop. The stool pattern will get settled on its own. Here are seven tips to relieve constipation in babies.
Why is my baby not sleeping?
This is an exhaust, helpless mother s common complaint. We were to believe that babies do sleep for hours in the end and wake up just for feeds in between. But the reality is babies wake up quite often for feeds and have fragmented sleep. So asking this question is actually futile. All your doctor might answer is that it takes six months for the baby to settle into a proper sleep-wake cycle.
Why is my baby yellow?
Don t fret; this is the symptom of neonatal jaundice which is common in babies. This happens because your newborn s liver is not mature yet. It is not able to effectively flush out bilirubin a by-product generated due to the breakdown of red blood cells. After the first week or 10 days when the liver starts to function to its optimum, it expels bilirubin from the body and this suppresses the symptoms of neonatal jaundice. Your doctor might suggest you go for phototherapy or sunlight therapy to take care of the problem. Here are seven myths about neonatal jaundice that you need to know.
Should I wake my sleeping baby to feed?
Most doctors might tell you to feed your baby every three or four hours. But you might feel that you are disturbing your baby s sleep if she is catching on her sleep after being wide awake the night before. But ideally picking up your sleepy baby in your lap and feeding her is the right thing to do. Else, if your baby goes without a feed for long hours it could lead to dehydration.
Why is my baby crying despite feeding?
There could be many reasons for your baby to cry, hunger being one of them. But if you have fed your baby well, like nursed her for more than 30 minutes and still unable to control her cries, chances are she is suffering from colic. This happens when air gets trapped in the abdomen of a well-fed baby. Try taking her in your arms and help her take a burp to get the excess air out. Colic is one of the main reasons that make small babies cry a lot.
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