Being a good parent is not something that you’re borne with. Instead, you need to acquire proper parenting skills! How? By taking the advices from the professionals! Rather than trying to figure out the childcare issues on your own, it’s best to ask your physician for help!
A good alternative for learning tips and tricks related to childcare is enrolling on a course dedicated to new parents. That way, you will be able to get the answers to your questions first-hand. Furthermore, you can do a research on your own, which is something for which you don’t need anything other than your computer.
If that is your choice, this website can be your number 1 source of information. In fact, in order to help you out learn the basics of good childcare, here are the answers to some common questions asked by first-time parents!
1. My child doesn’t sleep as long as before. Is that normal?
The answer to this question depends on the age of your child. Newborns, for example, need to sleep more than 14 hours per day in order to develop without any problems. Usually, during the first few weeks of their life, infants sleep between 16 and 18 hours every day. However, as the babies grow older, their need for a long sleep decreases.
From four months until the first birthday, babies generally sleep between 10 and 14 hours each day. Most of the sleeping takes place at night, with only a few naps during daylight. Toddlers might not even get in a need of a daytime nap, unless they get really tired. Speaking of the naps, they usually spot before the child reaches the age of 5.
2. What if the baby is not eating enough?
Again, the right answer depends on the age of your child. Toddlers, for example, can sometimes be quite moody, especially if they don’t like the meal that you’ve made for them. The solution might be in changing the menu and/or introducing new foods into their diet.
However, the things are much more serious if a newborn stops eating. If that happens, it’s a sign that something is wrong! In order to prevent it to turn into a serious health issue, you need to get ahold of your pediatrician as quickly as possible!
3. What to do if the baby is waking you up too many times at night?
During the first few weeks of life, your baby will do nothing other than sleeping, eating, and defecating. In fact, during that period, sleeping is what takes most of their time. An infant will often sleep for more than two-thirds of a day, waking up only to eat. What this means is every time your baby gets hungry, it will cry – regardless of whether it’s night or day.
So, this means that you will have to put up with it for a couple of weeks of your baby’s life. However, sometimes the reason why the child is waking up at night is not to get food, but something else. The baby might not feel comfortable in the cradle. In order to tackle this problem, you need to make sure to get the very best possible cradle mattress.
On top of that, you also need to pay attention to the sleeping position of your baby. Newborns need to sleep on their back, which is a way of reducing the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Apart from being safe, sleeping on the back is also the most comfortable position for your baby.
Speaking of the comfort, you can improve it by swaddling the baby. By loosely wrapping your infant in soft blankets or similar cloths, you will mimic the condition the baby had in the womb.
