Maternity & Kid's Care

Archive for the ‘New Born Baby’ Category

After the baby is born the cord has been separated and the first activity of the new born is crying. The birth cry establishes breathing. The baby is given its first bath the daily routine of the bay starts with the first feed between 5 am and 7am. The mother should wash her breast before and after feeding to avoid infection. After feeding, the baby must be held upright to bring up wind. The baby must be then changed to new dress and put to bed. The baby must be allowed to sleep for three to four hours.

Between 9 to 10 am the baby must be showered. Before bathing, everything should be kept ready. The water used for bathing should be Luke warm. While bathing the baby should be supported with the mothers left arm firmly. With clean cloth baby’s nostril and ear should be cleaned gently. While bathing special care should be given at the area of neck, groin, underarms and skin folds. After bathing the body should be dried with clean cloth and powdered. Soon after bath the baby should be fed and put to sleep. The baby sleeps all the time. He wets his napkins often and the wet napkin should be changed often to prevent napkin rashes.

For the first two weeks the baby is known as neo nate. From then on until he completes his second year he is referred as a baby. The child grows very fast in the first two years. It can be roughly said that there is a 200 percent increase in physical growth during the first year. A baby doubles his birth weight by five or six months and triples it by the end of the first year. During the second year, the average baby puts on about 18 inches to 34 inches in height. Changes in body proportions are very small in contrast to increase in height and weight.

Development of a child’s muscular abilities and skills is very much noticeable in postural control, locomotion and hand movements. Postural control involves the co ordination of muscles in maintaining different positions of the body like sitting, standing etc. Locomotion involves co ordination of muscles in the movements of the body. A number of motor skills are noticed in the second year like reaching, grasping, block building, eating, self-feeding and handling objects.

The baby’s hand movements are aimless at first. The baby progresses from squeezing an object and then to grasp it with his hand and finally to hold using his thumb and forefingers. By the end of sixth month, the majority of children can grasp the objects of suitable size and can hold it.