How to take care of babies for first time mothers

 For first-time mothers, taking care of children is still quite confusing and clumsy, especially for babies. The baby has just been exposed to the environment outside the mother's body, so there will be many surprises and must gradually adapt to self-breathing, self-feeding and resisting in the hot and cold outside weather. To protect the health and ensure the healthy development of your baby, proper newborn care is extremely important.

1. Taking care of a newborn in the first 7 days of life

For babies, the first 7 days after birth is a very important time, this is a time when the baby is at high risk of death if not cared for carefully and properly. The child mortality rate during this time due to lack of care is quite high, about 50%.

Taking care of babies needs to be very careful

1.1. Pay attention to keep children warm

During this time, the baby's cranial nerves will be inhibited, so the baby will sleep a lot and only wake up when hungry or the diaper is wet. For babies under 1 month old, the most important thing is to keep them warm. If an infant is cold, he or she may be attacked by disease-causing bacteria.

If there are no problems, the child should be left to lie with the mother, this will help the child stay warm thanks to the warmth from the mother and the child is always observed to promptly handle unexpected incidents if have.

1.2. Feed your baby often when he is hungry

When away from a warm, nutritious environment in the womb, babies are most likely to be hungry and cold because they need a lot of energy to cope with the outside environment. Parents should note that babies have a very high need to eat, so mothers need to meet them right after birth.

After that, it is also necessary to meet the baby's demand for milk whenever the baby is hungry, but it is not possible to feed the infant at a fixed time.

Newborns sleep a lot

1.3. Importance of colostrum for baby's development

Within 7 days of giving birth, the amount of IgA in breast milk is thousands of times higher than in regular milk. 1cm3 of colostrum contains up to 4,000 white blood cells, drinking colostrum will help children have good resistance to destroy harmful bacteria in the intestinal tract.

Babies fed colostrum immediately after birth have much lower rates of pneumonia and diarrhea than babies who are not breastfed. Therefore, mothers should not discard colostrum, but should make full use of this amount of colostrum for their babies.

1.4. Some normal physiological manifestations of newborns

For infants less than a month old, there are often some symptoms such as passing meconium, the stool is usually dark green, odorless or thick,... However, if the baby does not pass meconium for more than 2 days, If there are unusual symptoms such as weight loss, jaundice, choking when feeding, cyanosis, difficulty breathing, crying a lot, stiff jaw or lethargy, parents should immediately take the baby to a medical facility for examination. .

In some cases where the baby's head has a serum tumor, parents should not aspirate to avoid dangerous infection. In this case, you just need to monitor and follow the doctor's instructions.

Parents should not be too worried if their child may be underweight

Some babies can be low birth weight, premature, but if there are no abnormalities, the baby can be discharged after a few days. When bringing the child home, it is necessary to take care and monitor carefully, take the child to see a doctor as soon as there are abnormal signs.

2. Taking care of children under 1 month old

In the first 28 days, the baby is in the perinatal period, the risks to the baby will decrease if parents take care of the baby properly. Parents often read and refer to the following ways to take care of babies under 1 month old to take care of them properly.

2.1. Taking care of babies while breastfeeding

The reflexes of the newborn are still very immature, without the support of the mother, the baby is very prone to spitting up milk or vomiting very dangerously. To overcome this problem, when breastfeeding, the mother needs to perform the correct operation, standing and cupping her hands behind her back after eating so that the baby does not choke.

When sleeping, keep the baby's head slightly higher or let the baby lie on his side to avoid choking. Absolutely do not let the baby lie on his stomach because the baby can suffocate.

2.2. Taking care of children in the bath

Before taking a bath, you should prepare enough towels, diapers, clothes, bath water, eye drops, nose drops, ... to ensure that the child is kept warm immediately after bathing. The bathing place must also be airtight and should not arbitrarily use leaves to bathe children. If it's cold, there's no need to bathe your baby every day.

The navel is a part that is very susceptible to infection with babies, so parents need to take care of the baby's navel every day. After bathing, just clean the navel with physiological saline and then dry it. If you want the baby to quickly fall off the umbilical cord, it is necessary to let the umbilicus be clear, should not apply or use chemicals to wash the umbilical cord for the child.

2.3. Wrap your baby in diapers and hats

The diaper should not be wrapped too tightly as this will make the baby hot, uncomfortable and secretive. Tight swaddling the baby causes the hip joint of the child to be forced to straighten and forward, affecting later leg development.

Parents should also not wear hats for children all day and night even if it is cold. Newborns often lose heat through the scalp, wearing a hat often will make them hot, itchy and fussy. If it's hot, you just need to wear a hat to cover the baby's fontanel at night when sleeping or going out.

2.4. Skin, eye, nose, tongue care

Babies' senses are still very immature, so they need to be protected and cared for carefully. Attention should be paid to:

- Do not let babies come into contact with cosmetics and harsh soaps.

Change diapers as soon as the baby is wet.

- Use gentle products for babies to avoid causing the baby's skin to become red due to stool and urine irritation.

- Keep the young skin with the right moisture.

- Do not let children's eyes come into contact with chemicals, if children have tears or discharge, just clean them with physiological saline.

- Use a separate and clean towel to wipe your baby's face.

- Clean parts such as nose, tongue daily with physiological saline.

Breast milk is the best source of food for babies

Taking care of a newborn baby can be very difficult and confusing for many families giving birth for the first time. Early childhood care will greatly affect a child's development later in life. However, I believes that parents and their loved ones will definitely learn how to take good care of their children.