Archive for the 'Infants' Category

According to the new study, Infants cared for by caregivers other than their parents tend to gain more weight than children cared for by their parents.

The researchers found that children receiving regular care[child care centers] from people other than their parents are also less likely to be breast-fed and more likely to be introduced to solid foods early.

“The current study suggests this risk is greater among children sent to child care early than among children kept under parental supervision,” said Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University School of Medicine Prevention Research Center, who was not involved in the study.

More and more evidence suggests that the threat of excess weight gain and obesity is taking hold in America’s nurseries, Katz said. “Studies show obesity emerging as a problem even in the first year of life. This, in turn, results in a higher risk of diabetes in youth, and lifelong obesity and its many consequences.”

For the new study, Juhee Kim, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Karen E. Peterson, of the Harvard School of Public Health, collected data on more than 8,100 nine-month-old infants.

Infant growth chart is usually used by the doctor to know the health conditions and whether your child is growing normally or not.

There are some infant growth chart facts and how they are related to your infant’s health.

The infant growth chart is used by the doctor as standard part for check ups and how your child is growing compared to other children of same gender and age.

This is also helpful in knowing whether the children are developing proportionately or not.

For example, if a child is growing in the same pattern for the 2 years and suddenly if there is any change in his growth, it means that there is some health problem. This can be known by looking at the growth chart.

The factors that affect the infant growth chart are gender, genetics, health problems, physical activity, nutrition, hormones and environment.

There might not be any problem if the growth patterns are different in your child. Your child will be interpreted by the doctor at their overall genetic background, environment, well-being or other developmental milestones met by your child.

It is important to assess the newborn health for detecting any problems that are treatable in early stages.

It is advantageous to have health check for your newborn before you leave the hospital that includes the hearing check.

These tests could be daunting on your baby but it will give you peace of mind. Very often, the newborn health issues that are in early stages are treated better.

Health care center checks:

You can find free health care center nearer to your house, where you can get the free checks ups for your infants up to eight weeks.

During your visits, you can ask what every doubts you have about your child (rashes to crying to vomiting). In some cases, you can write a list of questions that you want to ask the health care provider before you visit the center.

Immunization is the essential protection that should be given to your baby. The newborns can be immunized at the health care center or by a GP at the time of:

• Birth
• Two months and
• Four months.

Illness signs:

Parenting infants is a hard and challengening thing now-a-days. You have to meet the needs of your infants with proper care.

Some of the positive tips on parenting infants are given here. You can follow them for better development of your young ones.

Positive parenting infant tips:

• It will be soothing to your babies to hear your voice when you talk to them.
• You can sing for your baby.
• Answer back to the sounds made by your baby by adding words or repeating the same sounds. This makes it possible for your baby to learn the language.
• Reading helps to understand and develop the sounds and language of your baby.
• Play the music for your infant, which can improve their love for music.
• Spend the time in holding or cuddling your infant through which your baby can feel secured and cared for.
• Give your baby the loving affection by praising him/her.
• You can play with your baby when they are relaxed or alert. You can take break when you observe that your baby is fussy or tired.
• You have to take care emotionally, physically and mentally as parenting infants is a very hard job.

It will be awesome, exhilarating and exciting experience for you, just a few hours after the child’s birth.

All your hopes, plans and dreams come together when you are close to your baby.

Caring new born involves drying the baby with warm towel such that no heat is lost. You have to learn the safety of child and caring new born at home to maintain child-friendly home.

The time spent with your baby will make your baby feel secure. The baby can feel comfortable, safe and rests as the new born recognizes their mother’s smell and voice.

Caring the crying baby:

The babies usually cry for no reason at about the age of two weeks. You may worry about the colic. It can be difficult for you to comfort your baby and you can try to find out what is wrong with the baby.

But, your efforts can end when your baby cries continuously. Some easy and effective suggestions are there for caring new born.

Some new positions:

• Your baby should be held in such a way that his head is at your elbow; face the baby down on your forearm and wrap around the thigh with your fingers and thumb.

Weight of your infant must be observed keenly from his date of birth. Infant weight gain must be maintained correctly according to his age.

Both over weight and under weight are not good for infant, several health problems can develop if he weighs less or more.

The energy and growth levels of your infants can be maintained correctly by giving the right foods necessary for them.

Perfect infant weight gain can be achieved if you follow the nutrition table properly.

The nutrition or food tables to attain perfect infant weight gain:

Food table for the infants who are aged between 0 to 3 months:

Food table for the infants who are aged between 4 to 8 months:

Feeding newborn baby in the perfect manner makes him to stay fit and fine with good nutritional values.

Your newborn baby will be small enough, so he can’t take all the foods which have good nutritional value.

The one and only source for him to obtain good nutrition is milk i.e., breast milk or bottle milk.

But, the nutritional values that are present in the breast milk will be more when compared to the bottle milk.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is more concerned on the care required for feeding newborn and supports to give breast milk.

Feeding is more recommended for the infants who are aged less than 6 months because they will be too small and they require proper nutrition in order to attain growth or development in their body.

Here are some advantages for infants with breast feeding:

• The digestive track of your infant will be fine without any problems.
• The essential vitamins, minerals, fats and proteins which are required for your newborn will be attained from mother’s milk.
• Breast milk will have all the components which are essential for the growth of your newborn like lactose, casein, whey protein, and fat. These things will be digested easily in your newborn’s immature digestive system.

As a parent you will be observing the day by day development of your infant. At different age levels, he/she will perform different tasks.

If he/she is two months old:

• You can expect noises, laughing and smiling from them.

If he/she is four months old, you can observe some infant developments in them like:

• Sitting with support
• Holding up their head
• Trying to bear their whole body weight on their legs
• Giving some sounds
• Recognizing people who spend sometime with him/her more often, etc

If your child is six months old, you will observe little more infant developments in them like:

• The weight of him/her will be doubled
• They are more likely to perform some imitating sound speeches
• They try to crawl from one place to another place to reach the objects which impresses them a lot
• Try to sit without support and roll over

If your child is nine months old, then you can observe little more infant developments in them like:

• He/she can be able to sit alone by themselves
• They try to stand on their own with the support of certain things

Baby growth and development in a healthy manner is the main objective of parenting.

Understanding about baby growth and monitoring growth chart helps maintain your new born baby’s health in a good condition.

The new born baby growth will be more rapid in the first few months after birth. The most rapid baby growth occurs between two to twenty-four weeks of age.

As babies born with some extra fluid, it is common for a newborn to lose a few ounces of weight in the first few days when the extra fluid is lost.

It is found that healthy newborn babies lose nearly seven to ten percent of their birth weight. However, the baby regains the lost weight within the first two weeks of birth.

Mostly, babies increase their birth weight by fifty percent within four months. By the end of the first year, the infant triples their birth weight and by the end of two years, the weight increases approximately four times.

On the other hand, the baby also increases his/her length by fifty percent within the first year and attains half of their basic adult height by two years.

Infant, a newborn, during the first days of life spends most of the time only in sleep. It means sleep plays a vital role for the child during first three years.

Sleep is important for many functions of the body.

Every parent will face a lot of problems with infant sleep during first year of life, which includes irregular sleep patterns, trouble getting sleep, and waking up in the middle of the night.

If your infant sleep is less or not getting enough sleep, it will be difficult for you to manage your infant as poor sleep is characterized by complicated temperament.

Every parent should know about infant sleep patterns, when do they sleep, why do they wake up at the midnight, how to help your infant sleep, and many more.

First of all, you should know the facts of infant sleep. Infants usually wakes up three to four times in the middle of the night for the first six months, from there they usually wakes one to two times up to one year, and then may be once a night from one to two years. Generally, infants will have shorter sleep cycles than the adults.