Once the baby comes to your home, you need to welcome it properly. This means that you need to learn all about newborn care, even while the baby is still in your belly. At the beginning, dealing with an infant can be a very stressful thing, especially for first-time parents.
The newborns seem so small and fragile, which can be rather intimidating for the parents. That is why it’s essential to learn everything you can about newborn nourishment. In order to help you out, here are a couple of valuable advices, starting with how to handle your baby.
Handling an Infant Properly
Before you take your baby into your arms, it is important to watch your hands properly. Babies have a fragile immune system, which is why you must to keep them protected from germs and bacteria. Because of that, using hand sanitizer before handling a baby is a very important thing to do.
The next thing to pay attention to is the way you handle the head and neck of your baby. You need to make sure that you cradle the baby’s head while moving the infant from one place to another. If you want to lay the baby down, you need to pay attention to support the head properly.
The next thing goes without saying – you must never shake your newborn. Moving the baby vigorously can have serious consequences. Shaking the baby’s head can cause bleeding in the brain, which is one of the most common causes of death among infants. So, if you want to wake up your baby, rather than shaking the head, it’s much better to tickle them by the cheek.
Basically, you need to ensure that your baby is handled gently, as, in the first few months of their life, babies are very fragile. So, whether you’re carrying your baby in your hands or placing it in a stroller, you need to make sure that all the movements you make are gentle.
How to Swaddle a Baby?
Handling the baby might be the most important thing new parents need to learn. A similar case is with swaddling the baby. By doing it properly, you will help the baby get nice rest, while taking away the risk of certain health issues. In fact, if the baby isn’t properly swaddled, the risk of suffocation grows.
So, here’s how to do it properly! The first thing you got to do is spread out the blanket in which you want to swaddle the baby. Fold over one corner of the blanket slightly. Place the baby on the blanket, face-up. The head of the baby should be laid over the folded corner of the blanket.
Now it’s time to wrap the left corner of the blanket and tuck it beneath the baby’s back. The next step is to take the baby’s feet and pull them slightly upwards, while simultaneously folding the blanket down. Take the right corner of the blanket and tuck it under the baby’s back, thus covering the whole baby. In fact, only the head and the neck of the baby need to stay exposed.
While doing this, you need to make sure that the blanket is not too tight, yet also not too loose. If it’s too tight, it can cause hip dysplasia. But, if the blanket is too loose, the baby will not feel safe and comfy, which can have a negative effect on the sleep, thus affecting the infant’s development. The baby needs to feel comfortable in the blanket. Actually, the whole point of swaddling the baby is to simulate the conditions the baby had in the womb
