Reading your baby’s cues: Babies can express their feelings and needs in many ways. Learning to read your baby is very important, especially for parents who want to respond to their baby’s needs appropriately. Crying is a major source of communication that the newborn baby has. So in one way, it’s a very healthy sign that your baby can cry and let you know that he needs you. The bond between the parents and baby may be deepened if parents are sensitive to their baby’s cries, gestures, and behavior in general.

I feel that it is very important to learn to listen to your children. You can learn to listen to your baby even at its very early age. Listening means focusing your attention, not in a worried way, but in an observing manner. You want to learn what your baby wants and need. You can read books and articles but the main way you will learn about your baby is to be observant in a meaningful way. That means spending time looking and listening to your baby, not just feeding and cleaning him, and putting him to sleep, but also keenly focusing your undivided attention to him. And then trusting yourself. Because you do know more than you think you do.

Crying: An Early Form of Communication with Parents

The first signal you’ll get from your baby may be a cry. In the early weeks this will probably come when the baby is hungry and later will include not only being hungry, but also being wet, or uncomfortable. If your baby cries during the first few weeks, then you can respond by feeding her without a fear of spoiling her. She may be hungry before her feeding time, but that’s okay. In the early weeks, the baby will need to feed often and may or may not go by any set schedule. Let your baby be the guide as to how often she needs to feed.

She may also cry if she is uncomfortable and needs to burp after a feeding. You can gently pat her on her back as you put her over your shoulder to see if she can burp up any air she may have swallowed during feeding. You should trust your own instincts, and watch for a pattern in the baby’s crying. You will soon learn to “read” your baby’s cry, and distinguish a cry of hunger from a cry of pain.

Some babies cry more during the day, others at night, and some cry without regard for the time of the day or night. Patterns of crying among individual babies often reflect the baby’s own “temperament”, her emotional reaction to a new situation, her activity level and attention to people and things around her. Many of her emotional responses are a reflection of the way her unique brain has been “wired” to response to different situations. I have found that many parents learn to respond to their baby with greater comfort when they know about different patterns of crying.

Baby Colic

When a baby cries regularly in the late afternoon, or evening, and cries about the same time everyday, we call it colic. Most colicky babies cry for over three hours in each twenty-four hour period. The colicky baby appears to be in pain with a distended tummy and gas. Colic usually starts at about two or four weeks of age and will last during the first three months, then will go away. The crying in some colicky babies begins after the feeding when they may have been either overfed or underfed. Extended crying before the feeding is seen with a hungry baby. A baby with colic gains weight at the expected rate and has a normal examination. Colic can occur in both breast-fed and bottle fed babies.

Most parents feel very guilty and think they are doing something wrong. When your baby’s clinician has examined your colicky infant and found nothing abnormal, you can be assured that your baby is healthy.

Changing the formula rarely helps. Use of caffeine or lots of chocolate by a nursing mother may cause excessive crying; eliminating these foods decreases the crying. Occasionally, the colic may be sensitivity to proteins from cow’s milk consumed by a nursing mother; before eliminating milk in their diet, nursing mothers should consult their baby’s clinician. In many cases, offering a pacifier will be helpful. And you may find that the baby is more comfortable on her stomach. Other colicky babies seem to be comfortable being picked up, held, rocked calmly and quietly, or being placed in a crib with a light blanket wrapped comfortably around the body. Some babies are colicky as a result of too much stimulation in the home. Less noise, quite soothing music and being careful not to over stimulate your body will be helpful. The soothing noise of a hair dryer or vacuum cleaner placed near the crib will settle some colicky babies.

Remember, you don’t have to be afraid of spoiling the baby by picking her up at this age. An older child may become demanding at a later age, and use crying as a way to manipulate his parents to get what he wants. But a young baby during the first three months of age is not spoiled when he cries. He is crying because he needs something, not because he wants to control his parents. (That comes at a later age). You can take a baby’s early cries as a genuine cry of distress and discomfort, and respond without any fear that you might be spoiling him.

Periodic Irritable Baby

A baby who regularly cries at a certain time of day (usually late afternoon or evening), and is not distended (as is the colicky baby), is called a periodic irritable baby. Usually this crying will correct itself after three months of age. The baby does not seem to be in pain, and her cries are usually less painful than with colic, but still at a regular time.

You may find that the periodic irritable baby can benefit from being held, or walked, or rocked. She may benefit from being held, or walking, or rocked. She may be comforted by another feeding. Or simply a pacifier in her mouth will give her comfort.

Fretful Baby

A fretful baby is one which is fussy off and on during the day or night. She doesn’t cry at any regular hour, she doesn’t seem to be in pain, and usually her tummy is not distended. Your fretful baby may have a harder time adjusting to a schedule. Usually they fuss the first three months, but soon become adjusted to the outside world and calm down later. It seems their nervous system as well as young digestive system have a period of adjustment the first three months.

Cries of Hunger

Hunger is the most common cause of crying in the early months. The baby has no other way to communicate his needs to eat except to cry. He may be hungry if he nursed at only one breast or took only half of his formula during the last feeding. He may wake up crying if he has outgrown his formula or his mother’s milk and needs more to eat as he grows. He may want to be fed more often during certain hours.

You may be on a regular four-hour schedule or you may be feeding according to his desires. In any case, you should not try to feed the baby every time he cries. Try to wait a few minutes, or use a pacifier, if it’s been long than two hours, or if the last feeding was incomplete, then you may want to feed sooner.

Hypertonic Baby

A hypertonic baby is very jumpy and doesn’t relax well. This baby is bothered by sudden movements, loud noises, and sometimes is very uncomfortable in a tub bath. She may also have symptoms of colic or periodic irritable crying. If you suspect your baby is a hypertonic one, then she may be comforted by swaddling her in a receiving blanket. She will enjoy a sponge bath more than a tub bath. And you will want to keep the noise down. And have few visitors and the least amount of sudden movement for her.

Crying Associated with Diaper Rash and Teething

Some babies with more sensitive skin will cry when they are wet, especially if they have a sore bottom or a rash. If you think that your baby’s crying starts up when she is wet, the diaper may be changed as soon as the baby wets it. Even disposable diapers, although they are more absorbent than cloth diapers, should be changed to prevent skin irritation if you discover that your baby settles after a change.

When fretfulness and crying are associated with drooling and biting, your baby is communicating signs of teething. The behaviors associated with the eruption of baby teeth may take place from the age of three or four months until two and one-half years of age. The baby will want to put things in his mouth: his fist, his toys, or anything he can put his hands on.

It’s good to recognize the signs of teething because it goes on for several years. Healthy babies respond to teething in dramatically different ways. Some babies manage teething without much fretfulness. Others may be very wakeful during teething.

You might want to provide some safe chewable objects such as rubber teething rings. (Be careful that the toys you provide aren’t thin brittle plastic which can break off and be swallowed.) You may find that rubbing the baby’s gums is soothing. Some teething can also cause loss of appetite and crying during night. A brief nursing can sometimes put the baby back to sleep.

Babies develop rhythms for sleeping , and these rhythms are connected to each other. After the first few days  of life, babies develop a predicable cycle of activity: wake up, nurse or take a bottle, look around and socialize, fall asleep, repeat. As sleep begins to occur more and more at night, feeding switch more and more to the day. As I mentioned earlier, by about four months, most babies are physically able to go eight or more hours at night without eating.

The coordination of hunger and sleep is an example of how baby’s behavior becomes organized over time. Early on, parents play a crucial role in supporting this organization, feeding their babies and putting them down to sleep on a regular schedule (although not an overly rigid one). In time, though, the babies take over the organizing for themselves, and eventually, regular cycles of sleep and hunger become automatic.

Some babies are by their nature more regular in their rhythms than others. Regularity is an aspect of temperament, a baby’s inborn behavior style. If your baby is one who becomes hungry every four hours like clockwork, then it will be easy for you to plan your day around her feeding and sleep periods. But if your child has an underlying biological rhythm that is less regular- going now two hours between feedings, now five- it will be harder fro you and your baby to get on the same schedule. As a result, she is bound to be hungry sometimes when you aren’t ready to feed her, and may not be hungry at other times when you are.

You can help a baby to be more regular by setting up routines and sticking to them. But some babies have a very hard time fitting their biological rhythms into a schedule. This may be especially true of babies who are premature or who were sick a lot when they were newborns. With these babies, it’s important that parent be flexible enough to meet their needs. Otherwise, the babies are bound to be unhappy a lot of the time- either hungry or overstuffed, too sleepy to interact with their parents, or too active when the parents need to sleep.

PRACTICAL TIPS
-Spend as much time as possible holding your baby. Contact, especially skin to skin contact with your infant right up on your chest, has a calming effect that may improve his alertness, feeding and sleeping. During the day, a cloth baby carrier gives your little one the warmth and security of being held while letting you have your hands free.

-Nurse or offer a bottle when your baby is hungry. While your ultimate goal is to get your baby  on a reasonable schedule, at first it is even more important for him to be comfortable and develop good feeding skills. Remember, comfortable babies sleep better. Babies who fuss longer before getting fed into a vicious cycle of irritability, poor feeding and poor sleeping.

-Get to know your baby’s stress signals. Every baby does things that lets parents know when he ah s has too much excitement and needs a rest. These signals include yawning, turning away, and jitteriness of the lower jaw, turning pale around the mouth, spitting up or closing his eyes. If you’ve been talking or playing with your baby and you see these signals, he probably needs sleep or simply a bit of quite time. Premature and small babies or those who have been ill, often can stand only a little bit of stimulation before they require some peace and quite.

-Wake your newborn after four hours or so. Even though you’d think that more sleep is better, the goal is for your baby to have a regular sleep-eat pattern. New babies need to eat roughly every four hours, if not more often. A one or two week old infant who sleeps six or eight hours at stretch is too sleepy. After about four hours, try to wake up your baby and offer a feed.

-Be more interesting and playful during the day, and more businesslike and boring at night. As I explained above, this is the best way to help babies sort out night from day.

-Give your baby time to settle down in his own. If you rush in the minute he starts fussing, he won’t learn this important skill. I f your newborn is sleepy in another room and you’ve installed a baby monitor, consider turning it down at night so that you don’t hear every little gurgle and rustle coming from your baby’s room; chance are, if he really needs you, h can cry loud enough to get your attention. (Infant monitors are solid as safety equipment, but careful research has failed to show that they actually make babies safer.)

- Help your newborn find his own thumb. Sucking a thumb or fist is one way little babies can themselves down. When they get older, such techniques allow them to sleep through the night. And, unlike a dummy, a thumb never gets lost. Parents often view thumb sucking as a negative habit, but it’s really a natural and powerful way that babies soothe themselves, and most give it up naturally when they learn  other self comforting techniques as toddlers or preschoolers.

- Get as much rest as you can, napping when your baby naps. Even though the goal is for your baby to eventually stay  awake more during the night and sleep more at night, in the beginning you will have to be awake a lot at night. If you are exhausted, you’ll feel miserable and you are won’t be able to be as comforting to your baby as you’d like.

- Don’t be shy about asking for help from other family members, especially your spouse or partner. Taking care of a new baby is hard work. Let others in the family assume some of your chores and responsibilities, such as cleaning or cooking, so that you can focus in your baby and keep up your own energy.

- And remember: Always put your newborn to sleep on his back to reduce the risk of SIDS.

From learning to tell day from night to dealing with nightmares, young children often need a little help from their parents when it comes to sleeping. Here is some essential information about common problems and the developmental issues that might affect your child’s sleep habits at different ages.

In the past doctors routinely told parents that babies should sleep face down. That way the theory went, the babies would not choke if they happened to spit up while asleep. It turns out that this was simply wrong. Babies sit up. All right, but they are actually less likely to choke when lying face up. Even more important, babies who sleep on their backs are much less likely to die of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS, also called as cot death). SIDS is diagnosed when an an infant one month or older dies suddenly with no apparent cause, usually in his sleep. SIDS is a problem of the little babies. Once a child reaches six months of age, the risk goes down substantially.

The amazing thing about SIDS is that it is largely preventable. The scientific evidence is overwhelming. All around the world, the rate of SIDS dropped off sharply as parents learned to put their babies to sleep on their backs. Since the back to sleep campaign began in the United Kingdom in 1991, there has been a 71 percent drop in the number of babies whose lives have been saved by the simple advice.

A Few points to keep in mind:

- Some babies with special medical conditions do need to sleep on their fronts or sides. Your babies doctor will tell you if this is the case. For almost all babies, though, Back to sleep should be the rule.

-Sleeping on the back is safer than on the sides . Babies put to sleep on their sides often end up face down, as they move about during the night.

-A firm cot mattress is critical. Soft , fluffy mattress, fleeces and waterbeds are not safe. They increase the risk of suffocation.

-Babies shouldn’t be overly warm when they sleep.  A blanket sleeper or soft onesie may be all your child needs. If you use a blanket, tuck it in firmly under the edges of the mattress, so that it cannot ride up by mistake and cover your baby’s face.

- If your newborn sleeps in your bed, make sure that you observe the same safety standards as above: Baby on his back, firm bedding, no waterbed, no fluffy or loose blankets  or pillows.

-Protect your baby from second hand cigarette smoke. It is not enough to refrain from smoking in the baby’s room, because smoke drifts all through the air in your home. It’s safest to make the rule that nobody smokes inside. Period, Alone if you still smoke, it’s best to put on a jacket while you smoke outside, then take it off before picking up your baby. Smoke clings to fabric.

Are there any draw backs to ‘Back to Sleep’?

Yes. Babies who spend a lot of time lying on their backs sometimes develop flat spots on their heads. These are not dangerous in any way, and a flat spot I something when compared with SIDS! Also, there are things you can do to prevent flat spots:  give your baby plenty of time to play on his tummy while he is awake and you are watching him. (This tummy time also helps him develop the strength in his arms and back that he needs to crawl.) Also, get in the routine of switching your child’s orientation in his cot every coupe of days (in other words, alternate where you place his head and feet). Babies tend to turn their head to the side so that they can see into the room. Changing their position in this way keeps equal pressure on both sides of the head, reducing flat spots.
New born confuse day and night

If it seems that your newborn is sleepy during the day and turns into a live wire at night, you’re right. Most babies are born with night and day reverse. Expert’s don’t know exactly why this is so. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that babies in the uterus tend to be the most active when their mothers are resting and quietest when their mothers are active. This day-night reversal usually begins to change around six weeks of age, and between three and four months, most babies flip their schedules, sleeping much more at night and much less during the day.
Don’t expect a newborn to sleep all night

Although I’ve heard parents swear that their healthy new baby slept all through the night from the start, I have to admit that I’m always skeptical about such claims. Newborns just aren’t equipped to sleep all night long- their immature digestive systems require them to eat every few hours and to soil their nappies frequently. No wonder they typically waken several times at night, crying to alert their parent to attend to their very real needs. If your newborn baby actually sleep for six or more hours at a stretch, be sure to mention this to your pediatrician or family, particularly if you are breastfeeding; there’s chance that so much sleeping is actually a sign of illness.

From learning to tell day from night to dealing with nightmares, young children often need a little help from their parents when it comes to sleeping. Here is some essential information about common problems and the developmental issues that might affect your child's sleep habits at different ages.

In the past doctors routinely told parents that babies should sleep face down. That way the theory went, the babies would not choke if they happened to spit up while asleep. It turns out that this was simply wrong. Babies sit up. All right, but they are actually less likely to choke when lying face up. Even more important, babies who sleep on their backs are much less likely to die of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS, also called as cot death). SIDS is diagnosed when an an infant one month or older dies suddenly with no apparent cause, usually in his sleep. SIDS is a problem of the little babies. Once a child reaches six months of age, the risk goes down substantially.

The amazing thing about SIDS is that it is largely preventable. The scientific evidence is overwhelming. All around the world, the rate of SIDS dropped off sharply as parents learned to put their babies to sleep on their backs. Since the back to sleep campaign began in the United Kingdom in 1991, there has been a 71 percent drop in the number of babies whose lives have been saved by the simple advice.

A Few points to keep in mind:

- Some babies with special medical conditions do need to sleep on their fronts or sides. Your babies doctor will tell you if this is the case. For almost all babies, though, Back to sleep should be the rule.

- Sleeping on the back is safer than on the sides . Babies put to sleep on their sides often end up face down, as they move about during the night.

- A firm cot mattress is critical. Soft , fluffy mattress, fleeces and water beds are not safe. They increase the risk of suffocation.

- Babies shouldn't be overly warm when they sleep.  A blanket sleeper or soft onesie may be all your child needs. If you use a blanket, tuck it in firmly under the edges of the mattress, so that it cannot ride up by mistake and cover your baby's face.

- If your newborn sleeps in your bed, make sure that you observe the same safety standards as above: Baby on his back, firm bedding, no waterbed, no fluffy or loose blankets  or pillows.

- Protect your baby from second hand cigarette smoke. It is not enough to refrain from smoking in the baby's room, because smoke drifts all through the air in your home. It's safest to make the rule that nobody smokes inside. Period, Alone if you still smoke, it's best to put on a jacket while you smoke outside, then take it off before picking up your baby. Smoke clings to fabric.

Parents are concerned about itsy bitsy problems babies’ encounter in their life of growing period. One such problem is teething. Most babies start getting their first tooth usually around 6 months, but it varies depending upon their health or when their parents sprouted their teeth.

The initial teething process is quite painful in most babies and there are various symptoms that arise where one can make out that the baby is teething .Usually the teething process extends for about 2 years, but once the first few teeth are out, other teeth come out more comfortably than the initial ones.

When babies are teething there are few things that they do out of ordinary:

Babies get irritated and are very fussy over every thing especially at night, because the activity of teeth eruption takes place more at night than at the day time, so babies can’t sleep well due to the pain and due their short sleep they are irritated even at day time.

Babies who are teething are seen with red and swollen gums and that’s the reason they want to chew on every thing they have in hand because the pressure of chewing helps them ease the pain that is causing due to tooth eruption. Few of them would like to chew on the bottle nipples or particular teething toys made especially for the babies who are teething.
Babies also pull their ear because the pain in their jaw due to erupting teeth comes up to the ear and they fell like pulling their ear. Ear pulling can also be a cause of ear infection, so consulting a doctor would be a good idea.
Babies are seen drooling all over at a certain age, this is not necessary a symptom of teething.

Babies also get very fussy over eating at this time. Few would like to go on liquids because chewing bottle nipples sooths them or some would like to be on solid food again because chewing helps them. Their is a misconception that teething causes fewer but usually fewer is caused by some other problems like some infection in body ,it can be ear infection ,so it is better to rush to doctor if fewer rises up to 101F because u don’t want to risk life of your baby.

Also its seen that your baby gets diarrhea usually at the time of teething ,but teething is not the cause of diarrhea it is usually because babies take everything in mouth irrespective of how clean they are and also because babies are introduced to new food ,but again if diarrhea gets worse and last for more than two days than its better rushing to doctor.

Babies can feel better when teething if parents try few things like

1. Freezing the teething toy before giving it to their babies.

2. Applying gels available in market which helps numb babies gums and they don’t feel pain for some period of time.

3. If the pain gets too worse, giving acetaminophen or pain killer helps them.

4. Finally the magic of touch helps a lot at any time when babies are fussy.

It’s easy for a baby of age 6 to 7 months to fall into a certain pattern, like for example you kiss the baby good night and leave the room. She or he wails. You reappear, cuddle and kiss her or him, say good night, and leave the room. She wails. And so on. Both you and the baby are trapped in a vicious cycle that in the end leaves everyone frustrated and overtired.

The standard advice is to “let your child cry it out”. Once children learn that crying doesn’t make their parents appear, they stop crying. A more positive way to think about this process is that you are allowing your child to learn the skills she or he needs to fall asleep on her or his own.

Most babies who are healthy certainly can calm themselves down and drift off to sleep. But if parents always do the soothing for them, they never have a chance to develop these important abilities themselves.

Letting a baby cry at bedtime usually works, and it is almost certainly the fastest solution. But it is not for everybody. Many parents simply cannot bear the thought of walking out of the room while their baby is wailing. Some worry that it is physically or psychologically harmful to let a baby go on crying, especially if the crying lasts for 30 minutes or longer.

The reality is, it is not true. There is just no reason to believe that crying at bedtime is dangerous or harmful if a baby is not hungry or wet and is well loved and responded to at other times.

Still, if you feel terribly uncomfortable letting your baby cry, then you should listen to your heart. There are also other gentle ways that you can adopt to self calm a baby at bedtime, which we will discuss in some upcoming posts.