Infant Care Tips

Infant care is not something that was taught in school. Many of us mothers only have the first hand experience on infant care when we have our own child. This makes the time when we have our first newborn baby particularly challenging. This article provides some tips on infant care that will help mothers overcome these challenges.

  1. Breastfeeding baby. When I had my first child, I was already determined to breastfeed my baby while I was pregnant, even though I didn't have the faintest idea how I would do it. Thank God I had a baby that could latch on easily, so that part was quite easy for me. However, she cried more frequently than the other bottle fed babies, and I had to ward off all the doctors' and nurses' persuasion to bottle feed my baby (they obviously were not happy that my breastfed baby was giving them more work compared to other bottle fed babies). It was not easy for a first time mom, because even though I was very determined to breastfeed my baby, I had to consciously kill the doubt of 'is my baby having enough milk?' The solution: In actual fact, babies will definitely latch and feed when they are hungry. There is really no need to worry about the baby not having enough food the first 2 to 3 days. Sit back, relax and enjoy your baby before you go home.
  2. Infant sleep. When we got home from the hospital after delivery, it was so chaotic. We had to get used to a routine and my baby. I was tired and uncomfortable, and the people around me didn't seem to understand that. I was also not used to waking up so many times a night. Then my baby wouldn't sleep at night, and we didn't know why, neither did we know how to solve the problem. We eventually did a lot of reading and found out the problem. The solution: I found out that my diet has caused the baby to not sleep well, since I breastfed her. Foods or drinks such as seafood, alcohol, etc can cause the baby to feel uncomfortable and hence not sleep well.
  3. Crying baby. After that, we had another problem where my baby cried non-stop every evening for a few hours. That was really stressful indeed. When we talked to our relatives and friends, we found out that my baby had colic. But before they provided a solution, we received this statement 'you mean you didn't know this?' The solution: I have found that activated charcoal is quite useful to solve this problem.
  4. Baby with jaundice. When my baby was a week old or so, she started to develop jaundice. I didn't really want to go back to stay in the hospital, and wanted very much to deal things in a natural way. I sun my baby every morning and evening, but she was still quite yellow. The nurses started to haunt me every day to say that I should take her to the hospital; otherwise my baby's brains would be damaged. I knew that once I step into the hospital, my breastfeeding would be at risk again. The nurses also said that my baby developed jaundice because I breastfed her, as though I had done a sinful thing to breastfeed my baby and cause her to develop jaundice, and implying that I should stop breastfeeding. I just couldn't comprehend why breastfeeding my baby could make her be in such a risk. After all, it is a natural process. I was worried to death and started to search for an alternative solution. I later found out that what my baby had was called breastmilk jaundice. It is something normal, and there was nothing to worry about. The solution: I have found out that activated charcoal, again, is able to remove/prevent jaundice.