Most small babies love to be carried and cuddled, but some do not. If yours is an uncuddly baby, he may seem to resent the physical restriction of being held. • Instead of molding himself to the curves of your body, he probably wriggles and fights. He may hurt your feelings; you may have to […]
Sometimes a baby seems to come out of her mother’s womb and into her arms and heart in a single move. Parents sometimes describe a feeling of instant recognition, so that all the waiting and wanting of pregnancy and labor culminate not just in a baby, but in this baby. But that kind of instant
Many six to nine month old babies won’t sit on a lap at all. They grab for clothes or hair and haul themselves to use the adult’s knee for a trampoline. It’s another couple of months before your baby is able to support his full weight, though. But once he can, it won’t be long
Babies can’t be immunized against every kind of infectious illness, but they can and should be protected against the killer diseases like diphtheria, whooping cough or pertussis, tetanus, and polio, and then against the common illnesses like measles, mumps, and rubella which can be serious in themselves or dangerous to certain groups (as rubella is
New babies don’t need to be kept nearly as clean as most parents keep them. It’s adults who like them to smell of baby powder. If you and your baby enjoy the ritual of daily baths and shampoos from the beginning, fine. But if yours is one of the newborns who hates being undressed and
The home that’s safe and comfortable for you can be a literal deathtrap for your crawling or newly-walking baby. Don’t leave childproofing your home until the day she gets moving, you could be one day too late. • Try to see the environment through a crawling baby’s eyes – that means getting down on the
Coping with a baby who can’t be comforted is definitely the downside of parenting. When you’ve tried everything and your baby still cries, he can come to be seen as a baby who won’t be comforted, a baby who’s rejecting you on purpose. If you feel yourself getting angry, try to hand him to somebody
There’s always air in your baby’s stomach. He doesn’t only swallow it when feeding, but also when he’s crying, or just breathing. Don’t be fanatical about getting wet air out – you can’t, and you don’t need to. All you have to do is help your baby be comfortable. Some babies swallow enough air to
Your baby’s first smiles are for anyone, but a month or two later, his smiliest smiles are just for you, and he’s starting the first and most important love affair of his life, a love that will keep on building to give him the foundation for all the later loving of his life. Every baby
Conventional crawling means progressing across the floor on hands and knees, but babies aren’t concerned with convention — only with getting across the room to see something on the far side! Crawling can mean different kinds of progress. Some babies never really crawl at all – they develop rolling over to a point where they
