Parenting & New Baby Advice Blog

Archive for the ‘Healthcare for Baby’ Category

While your baby is busy growing taller, gaining weight and cutting teeth, he will also be learning how to interact physically with his environment. That is not to say that your baby’s physical development does not begin until after birth. No doubt you were well aware of your infant’s intra-uterine acrobatics.

During the first three months of your baby’s life, however, reflexes govern much of his behavior. As those newborn reflexes fade, they are replaced by more purposeful movements. As he gains strength and coordination in his muscles, your baby is able to explore and manipulate things in his environment. Each day, he moves more competently.

Physical development is divided into two categories: fine motor and gross motor. Fine motor skills require precise coordination of the small muscles. Acquisition of the hand-eye coordination is the focus of fine motor development. Gross motor skills are governed by larger, stronger, less exacting muscles. These skills include holding up the head, sitting, crawling, and walking.

Acquisition of developmental skills occurs in an orderly, predictable sequence. The precise timing of the mastery of any one skill, though, is subject to much normal variation-something to keep in mind when you are tempted to label your baby as “early or “late” in development.

Each baby approaches the world with his own unique style. Resist comparing your child with your friend’s children. When you hear that another child is walking at nine months, don’t despair because your child is still perfecting his crawl. Instead, focus on his special talents. For instance, your baby may be much better than another at picking up and examining small objects. No matter when it occurs, celebrate your child’s every accomplishment with him.

Physical development follows three general patterns:

1. Muscular development progresses from head to toe. In other words, your baby will learn to lift and hold up his head before his torso is strong enough to maintain a sitting posture.
2. The strength and coordination of the limbs begins close to the body and moves outward. Your baby will coordinate his arm movements at the shoulder, then the elbows, then the wrists. Skillful manipulation of the fingers comes last.
3. Motor responses are general at first. Later they become more specific. For example, if you hold a red ball before your baby when he is three months old, he may smile, wave his arms and legs, and finally make an attempt to swipe at the ball with one or both arms. A few months later, he may still swipe at the baby teddy bear, but will quickly, and deliberately grasp it with one hand.

Teething is a developmental milestone for your child but can be a stressful and painful time for your baby and you. Teething is the appearance of the first teeth through the gums; most babies will start teething around six to eight months with their last molars arriving at 20 or 30 months, however teething can begin as early as three months and continue to the child’s second or third birthday. Normally the bottom two incisors or the front teeth will come in, followed by the top four incisors.

Your baby may experience sleep disturbance, crankiness and excessive drooling and your child’s gums may appear tender and swollen. Some babies make it through teething without any pain but others aren’t so lucky and may seem cranky for weeks. Here are some tips to help you through the teething period.

• Rub your child’s gums with a clean wet finder or cold spoon, anything cold will help ease the pain.
• Chilled teething rings are very helpful but make sure that you don’t freeze them; frozen teething rings can cause chapped and sore lips and cheeks. Frozen teething rings can also be too hard and bruise already swollen gums.
• Your baby will probably be drooling more often so make sure to wipe babies face often to avoid a rash or discomfort.
• Give your baby something to chew on, for example carrot or celery sticks or a cold washcloth, as long as it is big enough for them not to choke it will work.They might have even started chewing/sucking on their newborn baby dolls. The possibilities are endless.
  
• There are some over the counter teething gels that can help ease your babies sore gums but don’t rub whiskey on your baby’s gums or place aspirin against the tooth.
• Even though the first set of teeth will fall out, tooth decay can speed up this process and leave gaps before the permanent teeth are ready to come in. This can cause permanent teeth to come in crooked. Once the teeth are in make sure to wipe them with a warm washcloth after feedings, especially if your child is eating solid foods.

It is not recommended to put your baby to bed with a bottle because milk and formula can pool in the babies mouth causing tooth decay. It may be a good idea to get a soft infant sized toothbrush and brush them but do not use toothpaste, only warm water. You can use toothpaste once your child is old enough to spit it out, usually around three years.

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends waiting to use fluoridated toothpaste until your child is 2 to 3 years old, and then using only a pea-sized amount. Keep toothpaste away from small children because an overdose of fluoride can be harmful.

Like walking and talking there is no exact age that every baby begins teething. If your baby is a little late with teething there is no need to worry. However if your baby has not shown signs of teething by one year old consult your doctor to find out what is causing the delay and rule out possibilities. In rare cases, delayed eruption may be the result of rickets, a vitamin D deficiency that has been linked to exclusive breastfeeding.

Although teething can be a stressful and uncomfortable time for your baby, it is possible for you to ease your child’s discomfort or completely eliminate it and make this transitional period easier on you and your child.

You’ll probably feel a little awkward and clumsy the first few times you diaper and dress your baby, but with a little practice, you’ll be handling him with ease and confidence. Use a waist high table of some kind even for a tiny baby so you won’t have backaches. An old dresser with a pad on top will now, but modern changing tables have built-in safety straps to hold your baby when he is old enough to squirm and resist. If you use disposables, diapering is almost automatic: lay the baby on the diaper, fold the front half of the diaper up over the baby and fasten it with the convenient attached tapes. [Those tapes sometimes tear, instead of throwing a diaper away, mend it with masking tape.] To keep wetness from soaking into outer clothing, use disposables with elasticized legs and turn the plastic top of the diaper to the inside. A cloth diaper can be given a figure eight twist at the crotch for both double thickness and a tighter fit. Pin the back of the diaper over the front, slipping one or two fingers between the cloth and the baby’s skin to keep the pin from sticking the baby. Use a pincushion or bar of soap to hold diaper pins [do not use ordinary safety pins, and keep them out of the baby’s reach] Never hold pins in your mouth. Whichever kind of diaper you use, lay an extra one over your baby boy to avoid being squirted while you change him.

The kinds of baby clothes you select for your baby will reflect your own taste and inclinations. Some parents are willing to spend the extra time necessary to iron natural-fiber, woven- fabric because they like the look of a dressed up baby; others opt for simple knit clothing that needs little care. Whichever kind of clothing you prefer, look for garments that will be easy for you to put on and take off the baby-those with few, if any buttons, necklines with large enough openings to fit easily over the baby’s head, and sturdy crotch fasteners that make diaper changing easier.

Over the years, a commonly accepted immunization schedule has evolved. Most doctors follow it, although there are some acceptable variations. The schedule is designed to give your child the maximum protection available as soon as possible. The reason some shots are not given earlier is that the child’s own defense system hasn’t matured enough to develop immunity.

For example, a number of years ago, the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine were given to infants at twelve months. It was discovered that many of these infants didn’t develop protection against these illnesses because their own defense systems weren’t able to react to the vaccine correctly. The date was changed, and now the vaccine is much more effective.

Immunization and Testing Schedule

• 2 months - DIP and TOPV
• 4 months - DIP and TOPV
• 6 months - DIP
• 9-12 months - TB test
• At least 15 months - MMR
• 18 months - DIP and TOPV
• 2 years - HiB and TB test
• 4-6 years - DIP and TOPV

DIP [diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine]: This immunization is given as a shot, usually in the thigh. Many children have no reaction to it. Some have swelling and redness at the injection site, as well as some fussiness.

TOPV [trivalent oral polio vaccine, also called the Sabin vaccine]: Your child is given a small amount of liquid to swallow. Side effects from this vaccine are very rare.

MMR [measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine]: This vaccine is given as a shot. Your child needs only one shot to have lifelong protection from all three viruses.

TB Test [tuberculosis test]: Some doctors feel that routine tuberculosis testing is necessary and do it on all children. Other doctors feel that this testing is not needed and do it only when they believe the child is at risk of exposure to this disease.

HiB [hemophilus influenza type B vaccine]: This relatively new vaccine protects children against developing several types of infections including one type of meningitis [infection of the coverings of the brain and spinal cord]. This meningitis is more common in children two to six years old who are exposed to a number of other children, such as in day care centers, or who stay with babysitters who care for four or more children. Although this type of meningitis isn’t common, if your two to six year old child is in day care or with a babysitter, you should discuss the HiB vaccine with your doctor.

Boosters: After your child has his childhood shots, he’s all set unless he is going to be traveling in certain foreign countries or until he turns twelve. The tetanus shot provides protection for five to ten years.

Smallpox: The immunization used to be routine, but it has been discontinued because the risk from the vaccine itself is greater than the risk of getting smallpox. This disease has almost been wiped out worldwide.

In case your child has gotten sick, don't worry - we have plenty of little get well gifts that will cheer them up.

Tooth buds for your baby’s first teeth begin to form at about six weeks of fetal life. Between the fourth and fifth months of fetal life, some tooth buds become evident. By about the seventh month of fetal life, the tooth buds for all of your baby’s primary [deciduous] teeth are formed. At birth, the crowns-the portions of the teeth visible above the gums-of your baby’s front  are already formed and contain most of their enamel covering. The crowns for some of the other primary teeth are partially formed, and the tooth buds for some of the permanent molars are forming. By the time your child is three years old, the crowns of some permanent teeth will be clearly fairly well formed, and the tooth buds for the last molars will have formed.

As early as three months of age, your baby may begin teething. Teething is marked by drooling, fretting, and chewing on things in an attempt to reduce the discomfort of sore, swollen gums. Some babies will exhibit these symptoms for up to four months before the first tooth finally erupts. If your baby seems uncomfortable, you can help reduce the pain and swelling in her gums by giving her firm, smooth, cool, unbreakable objects to chew. Massaging the inflamed gums with a clean fingertip may also be helpful. Medications to numb painful gums are also available.

Don’t be alarmed if your baby seems less interested in the breast or the bottle while teething; sucking increases the blood flow and hence the swelling and pain of the gums. If she’s old enough, you might try offering her fluids from a cup.

Your baby’s first tooth should appear when she is four to eight months old. It is not unusual for a child to be ten or more months old before the first tooth appears, though, and occasionally a baby is born with one or more teeth already erupted. Although most babies will have cut six to eight teeth by their first birthday, some normal babies will have just two teeth or fewer. If your baby is approaching the age of one year and no teeth are evident [you may see the outlines of teeth before they erupt], you should talk to your baby’s doctor about having a dental examination.

Even though all of your baby’s teeth may have erupted by one and a half to two years of age, you will have to exercise care in the foods that you give her. A child’s chewing ability is usually not fully developed until about the age of four years. Children younger than this should not be given such foods as popcorn, nuts [especially peanuts], raw vegetables such as carrots, whole grapes, hotdogs, round candies, or many other items that you might find in snack baskets. If these and similar food items are not properly chewed, they may lodge in a small child’s windpipe and cut off the air supply.

Because a baby’s teeth begin to form so early in fetal life, what the mother ate, or did not eat during pregnancy can have an effect on the development of the baby’s teeth. However, the nutritional needs of the teeth and their supporting bones and muscles are easily met by a well balanced diet; an ample supply of calcium is essential. After birth, the diet recommended by your baby’s doctor will contain the proper nutrients for baby’s healthy growth and development, including healthy teeth formation.