The cry of an infant is a signal to the world for help. Learning to distinguish between these signals is part of the process of learning to be a parent. Most of the time babies cry because they are hungry. The golden rule for the breastfeeding mother is to put the baby to her breast… [ Continue Reading ]
While rolling over, walking and talking are important developmental landmarks for all babies, getting them to sleep through the night is a critical step forward for parents. Haven’t we all experienced this – exhausted from the tasks of the day, the moment you snuggle under covers, ready to drop off, you hear a familiar sound… [ Continue Reading ]
If you are expecting a child, you are bound to feel exhausted much sooner than you did earlier. This is a natural phenomenon, do not fight it. Weakness, lethargy and tiredness are normal symptoms in early pregnancy and are nature’s way of slowing down the pregnant woman to help in preserving the fetus. In other… [ Continue Reading ]
Your grandmother, or even your mother, may have fed the baby whenever the baby seemed hungry or cried. This is called the self demand schedule. Later, it must have become customary to feed the baby at fixed times according to the clock, three hourly for a baby below 3 kg and four hourly for a… [ Continue Reading ]
When the massage-woman started coming home after the delivery, I was a little taken aback. She was supposed to massage and bathe the baby and, hold your breath, the mother everyday. Though I didn’t mind removing bits and pieces of clothing to get massaged, which was actually quite painful, I did mind being bathed by… [ Continue Reading ]
Often, the grandmother picks up a one-week-old baby, holds him over a pot and makes hissing noises, quite convinced that the baby can be trained to pass urine in the pot! She is convinced that when she brought up her little babies, she never had wet napkins. There is no need to hustle these things… [ Continue Reading ]
The milk supply increases from about 100 ml on the second day to about 500 ml in the second week and more slowly thereafter. Some mothers get very panicky as to whether the baby is getting enough breast milk. I have known mothers who weighed the baby after every feed or at least every day…. [ Continue Reading ]
It was two-and-a-half months since the baby was born. I had not stepped out of home after childbirth. That was not because I was ill or was inept at handling the new-found responsibility of parenting. It was because I could not imagine feeding in public, let alone do it. I often wondered how women managed… [ Continue Reading ]
Children sleep more deeply and soundly than grown-ups and do not wake up with the signals from a full bladder; so they wet their beds even though they may be dry by day. Between two and three years, the sleep becomes lighter and the child wakes up and expresses the need to pass urine and… [ Continue Reading ]
I was planning to stop feeding when my son started cutting his teeth. Mainly because I used to have nightmares of running frantically to a doctor to stitch a bitten nipple back into place. Or even resigning myself to a nipple-less existence for the rest of my life. Until it happened. It was not as… [ Continue Reading ]
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