Baby Articles

Car Seats and Baby Sleep

Bob — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:00:30 +0000

If you’re anything like most of us, you’ve found that a car ride is often just the ticket to help a fussy baby get to sleep. The combination of the snug hold of the car seat with the noise and vibration of a ride in the car seems to help even the fussiest babies fall asleep. Additionally, the need to focus on the road can help a frustrated parent divert some of their attention from a crying infant.

Very few would find any fault with using car rides to help baby get to sleep. When you get back from the car ride, though, the question becomes whether to leave baby sleeping peacefully in the car seat, or to try to move her to the crib without waking her up. For many parents, it would seem that the obvious choice is to leave the baby where she is as long as she is comfortable and safe.

Not the Best Place

Unfortunately, a car seat is not the safest place for baby to be sleeping, especially once it’s outside of the car. Recent studies have shown that one out of five babies sleeping in car seats have a significant have lower levels of oxygen than those sleeping in a crib. It is believed that the reason for this has to do with the way a baby is positioned while in a car seat.

Young infants have little to no control of their heads. When they are in a car seat, their head can move forward in a way which constricts the airway. While this is not especially dangerous for short durations, or while the car is moving, it’s not a good idea to leave babies stationary in a car seat for too long. Even though it risks waking the baby up, it’s much better to take them out of the car seat once you arrive home and place them into the crib.

Let Baby Fall Asleep Good Before You Move Her

One thing that can help is making sure that baby is in deep sleep before you end the car trip. Babies, like adults, go through periods of light and deep sleep. If you wait until baby is really in a state of deep sleep, you will have a better chance of moving her without waking her up. You will know that your baby is in a deep sleep state when she stops making facial expressions and noises in her sleep, and her body goes completely limp.

Checking Baby’s Breathing

Bob — Tue, 01 May 2012 18:00:25 +0000

As a new parent, it’s easy to worry. It seems like every time your little one takes a tiny gasp, horrible images run through your mind of your baby suffocating and suffering long term problems because of it. At night, when you’re listening for your baby to breathe, it can seem like a few seconds are the same as several hours. You stare intently over at the crib or at the baby monitor for any sign that your baby is OK. By the time you get halfway out of bed, however, she takes another breath and you’re relieved.

Really, checking your baby’s breathing is something you can and should do as often as you feel the need. If you feel the need to check your baby’s breath every few minutes, go for it. That compulsive need to make sure he’s all right is completely normal, and a natural part of being a parent to a small baby.

You do need to realize that babies go through different sleep stages. Some stages are deep, still and quiet. Others are more active, noisy and snuffly. As the night passes, your baby will breathe louder and then softer, depending on what stage she’s in.

It’s really all right if you want to make an extra trip into your baby’s bedroom to make sure he’s all right. Some parents still do this, long after their babies have become toddlers. It’s normal and natural to want to check on your kids to make sure they’re asleep.

You don’t need to constantly check your child’s breathing, to be sure. But there’s no harm in getting up and checking. After all, it’s likely that you’re going to stay awake once you’re up, at least until you know she’s all right. Checking on her will give you a little bit of peace of mind, which should help you settle back down and get some rest yourself.

Overcoming Major Breastfeeding Challenges

Bob — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:00:33 +0000

It is a widely known and accepted fact that breastfeeding provides the best nourishment for your baby. Experts almost universally agree that it is ideal to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of your baby’s life. Before the 1930s, practically all babies around the world were breast fed. With the advent of infant formula, and the promotion of the wrong idea that we had somehow improved on nature’s design, women for the first time had a choice concerning how to feed their infants.

Now don’t misunderstand, in general, choice is a good thing. In the case of breastfeeding, however, having the choice to feed your baby a different way has led to some challenges to be seen as somehow insurmountable when they aren’t. Here are some of the challenges commonly facing breastfeeding mothers today, and how to overcome them:

Social stigma. Believe it or not, this is the number one reason why mothers give up on breastfeeding. A good deal of effort is going forward to educate the public concerning the importance of breastfeeding, but some people still view this very natural part of life as somehow socially unacceptable. In public, of course, it helps to be discreet, but there is nothing strange or unnatural about breastfeeding. Consider joining a support group such as those sponsored by La Leche League.
Inverted nipples. The best time to catch and treat this common problem is before your baby is born, but even if you don’t realize your nipples are inverted until you’re trying to breastfeed your baby, there are things you can do. Your doctor or breastfeeding coach can teach you some simple exercises that will make feeding easier.
Engorgement. If your breasts are swollen and sore, chances are they are engorged. This sometimes induces a slight fever as well. Engorgement also flattens the nipples, which can make it more difficult for baby to latch on. The best treatment, in most cases, is to empty your breasts regularly, either by feeding or by pumping. Massaging your breasts can also help reduce swelling and discomfort.
Tongue tie. This is a condition, caused by the tissues that attach the tongue to the bottom of the mouth being too short, which makes it difficult for baby to suckle. It can cause damage to nipples while breastfeeding. Fortunately, it can be treated with a short doctor’s visit. Babies are usually able to breastfeed much better immediately after the procedure.

Crib Safety Rules

Bob — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 18:00:45 +0000

One of the most important things you will get for your baby is her crib. Be careful when choosing a crib, especially if you are getting a used one. Make sure you are aware of the current safety standards and that your baby’s crib meets them. When you consider just how much time the average baby will spend in her crib, it becomes clear why it’s so important to make it the safest, most comfortable place you can. Here’s an average of how much time babies will spend in their cribs:

For the first two months, babies will average almost 16 hours of sleep per day. That’s 960 hours.
From three to six months, your baby will average about 14 ½ hours of sleep per day. That’s another 1,305 hours.
From seven months to one year, your baby will average about 14 hours of sleep. Chalk up another 2,520 hours of crib time for baby.
For the second year of baby’s life, he will average just a bit over 13 hours of sleep per day (and hopefully at least six hours of it at a single stretch). Assuming your baby uses the crib until her second birthday, which is about average, she will spend 4,745 hours in her crib during her second year.

All told, that’s 9,530 hours spent in the crib, even if you don’t have your baby in the crib while he’s awake. That’s roughly 54% of baby’s life that’s spent in the crib. Obviously, we want to make it as safe as we can for her.

Here are some tips to ensure your baby’s safety in the crib:

Mattress should be firm and fit snugly.
Slats should be no more than 2 3/8 inches apart. If a soda can passes through the slats of the crib, so can baby’s head.
No corner posts higher than 1/16 inch. Corner posts present a snag hazard with baby’s clothes and blankets.
No cutout designs on head and foot boards.
Drop side cribs should have at least two locking mechanisms to make sure older babies can’t release cribs accidentally.
When baby starts trying to climb out of crib, use a crib net or consider moving baby to a toddler bed.

The Four Things That Calm Babies Down

Bob — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:00:17 +0000

According to Dr. Sears, a renowned baby expert and proponent of attachment parenting, there are four basic things you can try to calm babies down. Of course, any frustrated parent will tell you that they’ve probably tried four hundred things, but chances are every one of them involved one or more of these four basic elements:

Close physical contact and touching. More than anything else, the average baby craves close physical contact, preferably with mom or dad. Anything that you can do to put baby closer to you for longer periods will generally result in less fussiness from baby. One of the best ways to keep baby close while still being able to do other things is to use a baby sling. This holds baby right next to you, where she feels most secure, and gives you the freedom top use your hands for something else.
Visual distractions and stimulation. If you’ve ever waved a toy or something else in front of a fussy baby, hoping to divert her attention from whatever she is fussing about, you’ve used a visual distraction. When babies are fussy this can be a great way to help them calm down, provided they’re not fussy because they’re tired. It a baby is already tired, stimulating her with more interesting things to see will only compound the problem.
Soothing sounds. We’re all familiar with the lullaby. But soothing sounds for a baby, and especially a newborn, can go beyond this. Use white noise to help calm babies. This can come in the form of actual white noise machines or CDs/mp3s that you can play for baby, or you can simply turn on a fan or the vacuum cleaner to produce the monotone noises that help babies relax.
Rhythmic motion. This is why so many babies fall asleep in swings (incidentally, not a good idea to leave them there long after they’ve fallen asleep) or on car rides. Other examples of rhythmic motion that babies respond well to are rocking and gently dancing with them.

You have to give it to the doctor on this one. He’s right. Everything we do to soothe our babies falls into one or more of these categories. And when they’re especially fussy, it isn’t unusual for us to try as many combinations as you can possibly squeeze out of four basic methods.