There are nurses and nursing specialists in the hospital ready to assist, advise and guide you on how to breastfeed your newborn. You will likely need their guidance because most new mothers will find breastfeeding for the first time difficult and challenging.

Experienced mothers make breast feeding look effortless and easy. Do not let that fool you into thinking breast feeding for the first time comes easily and naturally. Remember both your baby and yourself are new at this so do not expect your first attempt at breastfeeding to be successful. Instead, give yourself and your baby some time to learn breastfeeding. Soon with enough patience and practise, you will find breast feeding a natural, easy and effortless process.

With that in mind, try to remain calm, relax, be patient and do not let frustration build up as tension tends to make breast feeding more difficult. It prevents milk let-down even if your breast is full.

Your baby too will struggle as much as you do during the first few tries at breast feeding. He or she will have to learn how to latch on to your nipple properly. Your newborn may show cry or fuss being unable to suck your milk during the first few attempts. You’ll find your patience and persistence tested. Again, you should remain calm and relax despite all the fuss.

Some mothers have inverted nipples and wonder if it complicates breastfeeding. Inverted nipples require preparation before breastfeeding sessions to make them protude. Your doctor or nursing specialist will advice you to try severals methods which may include the use of breast pump, breast shield and manually massaging your nipple area with Hoffman technique to help your nipple protude fully.

Any concerns about your newborn baby not getting enough milk in those first few breastfeeding sessions is unnecessary. Newborn babies do not need much milk. In fact, babies aren’t born hungry at least not until third or fourth day of life. The seemingly tiny amount of colostrum your breast is producing for your newborn’s initial feedings is nourishing and satisfying enough. In fact, colostrum is extremely nourishing for your newborn and provides needed antibodies not yet produced by your newborn baby.

Breastfeeding mothers should maintain a healthy and adequate intake of fluids daily. Drinking more water is not shown to increase milk production. Just make sure you drink water when you’re thirsty to avoid dehydration.

Get yourself positioned comfortably before you start breastfeeding your baby. A pillow may be necessary to provide support because you’re likely to cradle your baby for a long period of time while nursing.

It is more comfortable to bring your baby closer to your breast than you leaning towards him especially when you’re breastfeeding in a sitting position. That way your back is well supported and you won’t get tired easily. Place a pillow on your lap and rest your cradling arm on it to raise your baby towards your breast.

Hold the part of your breast near the areola using your thumb and forefinger. Guide the tip of your breast towards your baby and tease her lips with it. Your baby’s natural instinct will guide her to the direction of the tickling sensation so rubbing your nipple gently up and down your baby’s lips encourage her to open her mouth and start nursing.

When your baby opens her mouth, place your nipple into her mouth to latch on. Newborns nursing for the first time needs time to practise latching onto your nipple, especially the areola securely. The areola is the area behind your nipple and it needs to be stimulated for your breast to excrete milk. If your baby fails to latch on to the areola, the milk glands under the areola may not receive enough pressure to release breast milk. You could end up with sore nipples if your baby sucks only the nipple area. Break your baby’s suction and try inserting the tip of your breast again until your baby can latch on as close to the areola as possible.

Observe your baby’s nose at all times, making sure your breast is not blocking her nose. Using your fingers, press the part of your breast that is blocking your baby’s nose to give her adequate breathing space.

Here are signs to look for to know if your baby is suckling properly. Your baby’s cheeks is showing constant movements of suckling breast milk. You may even be able to hear sounds of her swallowing.

Some mothers may find that the amount of breast milk excreted during feeding is so plentiful that their baby is choking. If and when that happens, stop breastfeeding and express some of your milk by using a pump or your hands.

Another situation where you should consider expressing your breast milk is when your baby is lazy at nursing. Some babies would latch on, nurse for less than a few minutes and doze off. You can consider pumping out remaining breast milk into a plastic container and refridgerate it up to 48 hours ready for supplementary feeds later.. When stored in the freezer, expressed breast milk can be stored much longer up to two weeks.

To avoid your child having any those of the nightmares or night terrors, make sure the period before bedtime is a peaceful, quiet and restful time for everyone. But if your child cry and awake after a nightmare, do help to comfort him. Say something pleasant to soothe and assure him that mommy or daddy is always by their side and here for them.

Before you put your child to bed, you can do something to make your him feel calm and peaceful. Babies feel the voices of their parents is very soothing, so talk softly to your child before he goes to sleep, maybe you could try by softly singing a lullaby or telling a short story.  This will also help after the child wakes.  As a parents it’s important to remain calm.  If you’re tense up, your baby will feel that and it will make it even harder to get him calmed down again.

Make sure you can clearly hear your child if he cries out in the night.  That’s one situation where you’ll find baby monitors are such useful devices.  It’s important to response to your little one as soon as possible in order to soothe and reassure him.  If you should hear him cry out, don’t wake him if he has not woken up on his own.  Stay with him to until he goes back to sleep peacefully.  Keep in mind that you try not to let him sleep with you after a nightmare, either.  This may end up having a negative effect and giving the effect that he should be afraid of his own room and bed. If it becomes habit, it could become a difficult one to break.

Newborns generally sleep approximately 16-17 hours in a 24-hour period. Most babies will not sleep through the night until they’re at least 3 months old. There are several reasons why. First of all, their stomachs are very small and they will easily get hungry, especially if you’re breastfeeding your baby. Breast milk is much more easily digested than formula, and your baby will need to feed more often, especially in the beginning.

Babies also have shorter sleep cycles than adults do and have shorter dream cycles. Generally, a newborn baby should sleep around 8 or 9 hours during the day and approximately 8 hours at night. Well, these usually will not be in 8-hour cycles. In the early stage, those sleep times will be very short.

When the baby gets older, up to around 2 years of age, she will still be sleeping 13-14 hours, but the duration of daytime sleep will getting less month-by-month. Your baby should be sleeping through the night by the age of 2 and a 2-hour nap during the day is needed. Again, every child have different sleeping pattern.  As for baby Clarisse, the total hours she sleep each day is between 12-13 hours.  During day time, baby Clarisse will take around 1 to 2 hours of nap depending how early she wake up in the morning.  Well, usually your child might need a slightly longer nap or two short naps and very much depend how early they wake up in the morning. At this age though, try to discourage naps too late in the afternoon, as this can cause it more difficult to make them to sleep a few hours later at bed time.

Once a baby begins to regularly sleep through the night, parents are often disappointed when he/she starts to awake in the night again. This commonly happens at about 6 months of age and is usually a normal part of growing called separation anxiety, when a baby does not understand that separations are just temporary.

There is no doubt that parents should connect and get involved with their children. A child who gets to spend time with their parents would feel more confident, secure and have a higher level of self esteem. That leads to them to outstanding achievements in school and perform well in extracurricular activities and with their spare-time activities.

But the question you may have in your mind, is there such a thing as too much involvement? It’s imperative when you’re getting involved with your school-aged child’s activities and academics that you know the line of what being too involved can be.

Keep in mind that you are getting involved in your child’s life. It is important that you don’t intrude too much upon it. Children want their space and privacy too, beside that they need to be able to build up their own skills, talents and abilities. Most parents are eager to help their child succeed, therefore parents always want to step in and start arranging things for them to the path of successful. Parents are doing so because they feel their children are doing it wrongly or inadequately. But do remember, as parents we have to learn too, and this is an opportunity for your children to learn on their own.

It is highly advisable for you, as parents, to always be there to encourage and support your child. Praise them when they do well in a task. Parents must also know when to step back and allow your child to learn from their own errors, and to build up their own method of doing things. Everyone have their own life experience and usually have more than a way to do somehthing, but just because your child is doing it differently than you and does not mean it is incorrect. Who knows, it could present a wonderful opportunity for you to learn from your child as well.

Besides that, try not to become overly dictatorial or prying when it concerns their social life. Always make yourself available whenever they want to talk and encourage them to share their problems with you so that you can assist them to sort out a problem. But if they refuse to talk about it or they just need some time to sort things out for themselves, respect their decision by letting them know you’re available whenever they need you. This is an important part of growing up and allowing a child to figure out his own way through things.

These days, fast food is a big part of modern life. It might seem to be a losing battle as fast food joints come up with all sorts of gimmicks and marketing ploys to attract our kid’s attention. Even baby Clarisse, now twenty months old, recognises the golden arches and associate McDonalds as a fun place. She’d make a fuss while pointing her finger whenever we drive by a McDonald outlet. If you let your child the alternative between healthy food and junk food, you usually will not like the answer. As parents we have to stick to guns and hopefully our kids adopt a healthy eating lifestyle.

Although it is not possible to make a child to like all healthy foods, there are many methods to make your child taste them and hopefully like some of them. Try to be as creative as you can.

• Sneak the healthy food in. Even though it would be good if your kid realised the importance of fruits and vegetables, this isn’t always workable. If you can not make them to consume good food willingly, there are methods to sneak them in, such as making muffins out of pears or bananas, or pizza with spinach on it.
• Give fruits and vegetables a funny names. For example you can refer cauliflower as “little flower”, make your child having more fun to eat. You can use many different funny names on fruits and vegetables. In this way, most kids choose to eat
  foods that sound amusing.
• Cook foods with better taste. Ranch dressing is great for broccoli, while peanut butter is a great topping for celery. There are various combinations for vegetables that can get them taste better. Try let your child pick a topping for a vegetable, even if it’s something you would not usually like yourself.
• Make the vegetable look nice with some decoration. Just as much as calling them names help kids eat healthy foods, making them look funny also helps. You can do this by creating humorous designs on the plate, or marking them up to look like people. Although some parents do not like their kids playing with their food, but sometimes it work to get them to eat healthier.

There are few methods to make your kids eat more healthy, but the key to effectiveness is for it to be fun so that they will enjoy it. This definately is not an easy task, I grant you, because kids usually do not like healthy food but it can be done with a bit of creativity. Good luck!

It may simply be her sudden discovery of a new physical sensation by grinding her teeth. I have even asked the paeditrician why Clarisse is doing it and would it be advisable to bring her to a dentist. According to her experience, dentists have yet to determine what cause toddlers to grind their teeth. At least the mental and emotional side of it. But I was also told that teeth grinding, as horrible as it can sound, would never be severe enough to cause much worry. Baby teeth are only meant to last for a span of few years so long lasting problems are negligible. Even so, it would take much more severe grinding to wear out their teeth.

What to do

Dehydration may be linked to teeth grinding. Make sure your toddler drinks lots of water to prevent dehydration.

Massage and stretching exercises tend to relax their muscles. Stress in children of school going age may cause teeth grinding.

With the case of preschool toddlers, bear with the annoying sound of teeth grinding no matter how horrible it can sound. I am lucky Clarisse is barely 15 months old and with her tiny set of teeth, doesn’t make such an unbearable scratching noise. It was the thought of her teeth exposed to the damage of grinding that worries and annoys me more than the sound.

Does your child’s teeth gnashing indicates tension or anxiety? Rarely because of their young age. What you should be worried about is evidence of significant jaw discrepancy that is the cause of toddler’s teeth grinding. In this case, a dentist’s help and monitoring is required. A dentist’s intervention is usually required for school going age children if teeth grinding becomes a pro longed occurance.

1, Constantly keep the baby tidy and clean.

2, Trim the nails properly with extreme caution.

3, Damp nappy should be changed and parts should be cleaned with soap.

4, Pay more attention of the genitals because fungal infection is commons in that area. Parts should be kept dry.

5,Take care of the scalp is really crucial.Fungal infections, dermatitis ect can be avoided by proper cleanup.

6,Close-fitting dress can cause discomfort, therefore apparel should be loose-fitting and should allow entry of air.

7,Room should have enough light and ventilation.It should be free from dust and insects.

8,Seperate bed preferably water proof is essential for kids .It should be placed close to mother’s bed.

9, Constantly keep on some musical toys close to baby.

10, Support the baby’s head while carrying the baby with hand.Since the neck muscles are weak, sudden drop of head can be serious.

11, Young babies obtain all the nourishment they need from their mother’s milk and its also gives emotional attachment. Breast milk should be given whenever the baby is  needed,  preferably in mother sitting position. It’s also important to clean your nipple correctly and mother should eat healthy and  nutritious food throughout breastfeeding period.

12, If there is some contraindication for breast feeding,  cows milk can be given. Rinse the milk bottle with hot water and should be kept dry till next use.

13, Cows milk should be boiled and cooled. Many diseases like bovine tuberculosis,brucellosis ect spread through raw milk.

14, Some children are prone to allergy from some substances like food,milk,dress,cosmetics ect. Determine the material which induce allergy and avoid such things.

15, Install mosquito nets all around the house in order to avoid diseases like malaria,dengue ,filariasis,yellow fever and ect which spread through mosquito bites. Mosquito bite can also evolve skin eruptions with some allergic reactions and it also affect sound sleep.

16, A calm and quiet atmosphere should be kept for a good sleep. Infants need more sleep than adults because their growth hormone secretion is activated during sleep.

17, Growth developement,behavioral developement,motor developement,personal social developement,language developement and some other development should be marked down in relation to age.  However parents do not have to be over worried because slight variations are seen from individual to individual.

18,Assessment of growth by measuring height and weight is essential.

19, In the early months of life infant may defecate after every feed. The right way of toilet training should be given when the infant grows.The infant can be placed on the toilet seat by the age of ten months.

20, The toilet seat (potty seat) should be cleaned with disinfectant before and after use. It’s not advisable to share with other children.

21, If  the baby shows any signs of distress like excessive crying, fits, high fever,stiff neck, vomiting and diarrhoea, bluish discolouration of the body,difficult breathing with grunting and ect,  take note of all these symptoms and consult your doctor immediately.

22,A first aid box should be kept in the room ,which should contain sterile cotton,dressing materials,antiseptic lotion and ointment and forceps. It’s important to keep a book inside the box with all the numbers of doctors, ambulance and police.

23,Child’s medicines should be kept in seperate box. Information regarding dose and way of administration should be jot down on a paper and pasted  on the box.

24, While driving make sure your baby’s seat belt is securely fastened.

25, Put an identity card with your phone number and address inside his pocket whenever you go out with your baby.

26,  When your infant know how to walk, make sure you accompany him wherever he go in order to prevent a fall and injuries.

Choking :–The baby may swallow some solid objects and cause obstruction.  You should straightaway make the baby lie on the abdomen in head low position and press the abdomen backwards and towards the chest.  Stroking the upper back is also useful. If still no result call a trained person immediately to take the object with the help of forceps.

Accidental poisoning:–  Try to remove the poisonous subatance and induce vomiting (except kerosine & acids).  Wash the body with water to reduce absorption through skin. Name the poison and take the victim to the hospital.

Burns:–Firstly take off  the source of heat and put clean cold water. Do not remove burned cloaths instantly.  Cover the wound with antiseptic cotton and take to nearby hospital.

Wounds :– Clean the wound with clean water and stop the bleeding by compressing and lift the wound above the level of heart or use a tourniquet to compress blood vessels.  Then dress the wound with antiseptic cotton and bandage, then consult a doctor.

Drowning in bath tub:– Take the baby up immediately and keep his head in low position, press the abdomen sofly or give a mouth to mouth sucking till the air way is clear.  Give mouth to mouth breathing and cardiac massage and take the victim to the hospital.

Electric shock:– Stop the source of current.  Then observe the victim, if no breathing give mouth to mouth breath along with cardiac massage and take to the hospital.

28, And finally, give your child maximum care, love and support to make him grow healthy and happy forever.

What we should not do?
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1, Don’t shake the baby because it can cause brain damage.

2, Never keep any small object close to baby .

3,Sharp pointed object like pen, pencil, fork and ect should not be given to kids.

4,Becareful not to let water enter the ear while giving a bath.

5,Do not feed the baby forcibly when the baby is crying or coughing continuously.

6,Never overfeed the baby.

7,Keep away articles like mosquito repellents ,moth balls,ink,gum,medicines and ect from the baby.b

8,Avoid tbight cloathings.

9,Do not put the baby near the edge of the bed.

10,Never give the baby to unkown people and avoid close contact with others.

11,Do not arranged your baby’s bed near electrical sockets and wires. Keep away all the electrical instruments from your child.

12,Kitchen is a dangerous place for children.Don’t let them run around or keep them alone in the kitchen.

13,Water level in the bath tub should be minimal and supervise your baby when he is still in the bath tub. Never go for any other works like attend phone call or calling bell.

14,Avoid smoking inside the house and do not let your child hang around when someone is smoking.

15,Do not let pet animals to be in very close contact with the kids.

16,When the child know how to walk, do not let the child be alone upstairs and disallow them to climb the steps.

17,Powerful light should be avoided in the room.  Children should not sleep with the lights switched on.

18,Do not let your baby sleep in a dark room.  Put on a little dim light for the baby to sleep.

19,Don not let the baby crawl on the soil.

20,Do keep away from the baby if you are sick or someone else is sick.

21,Baby shoud not be taken to hospital wards,crowded market places and polluted areas.

22,Consult your doctor before giving medicine to the children.

23,Expired medicine should not be used.

And when she’s in the mood to run about, we have to run along looking out for her as every aisle or corner is a hidden danger. A trolly could be coming straight at her, knock her down and the person who’s pushing the trolly won’t even know what hit them. There’s never a second we could afford to take our eyes off her as it only takes only a turn or corner to get her out of sight.

We’ve tried many times to explain to her she must always stay by our side, don’t run and hold our hands but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears. We also reminded her always that wandering away from us, she’d risk getting lost but I guess she’s still too young to realise the gravity of it.

Here’s what I usually do to bring back some peace and quiet into the room :

1) Children like to imitate what they saw, they can learn it very fast no matter it’s bad or good. One thing I’ve noticed, is that whenever my husband and I disagrees or argue and raises our voice, baby Clarisse would start shouting too. Seeing that, we would now try not to argue in front of her. Besides that, remember not to switch on your tlevision or radio loudly. This may help to discourage your toddler from screaming or screeching.

2) When you see your child starts screaming or screeching, look at your child straight in the eyes and whisper to him. I bet your child will stop making noises because by seeing your lip move and can’t get to hear what you are saying may make him curious enough to stop screaming. Then she will make full attention on what you are saying. I’ve tried this many times on baby Clarisse and it works. She will quickly stop screaming and put her ear near me.

3) Whenever baby Clarisse started to scream or screech, I’ll sing a song, humming along with simple single syllable “la..la..la” and encourage her to sing along. Surprisingly she follows what I do. Again this proves again that babies naturally imitates what we do. Sometimes I make some sound like barking like a doggy, mooing like a cow, meawing like a kitty cat. Don’t be surprised she will imitate and learn.

When I saw her she was within arm’s reach of the puppy. I did not carry her away from the dog but stopped her from walking even closer to the puppy. I did not want to create fear of dogs in her.

Do you know why most kids like dogs so much? Well, it might actually be that they have a lot in common They are frisky, energetic, volatile, impulsive, unpredictable and not easy to control them. (If out them together, you’ve got either the stuff photo opportunities are made of or a disaster waiting to happen.)

At their age, toddlers have no idea what dangerous is. Therefore, it is important for parents to start instilling a little caution. If your toddler runs up to a strange dog or a familiar one, stop her before she gets too close but never put her in fears. We do not want to make our child turn into fearful on anything. I always explain to baby Clarise that she cannot simply pet a dog without Daddy and Mummy with her. Let your child know that she can do it when daddy and Mummy says it’s OK.

Well, of course it’s never an overnight accomplishment for a toddler to learn but when you keep telling her, she will get it fairly quickly.