Bringing up Baby.

The best milk for Low Birth-Weight infants is breast milk, although they also need a certain amount of minerals and energy, as they require more calories than normal weight babies. At first an LBW infant may be too weak to suck and may not be able to handle large quantities of milk. You may have to feed the infant frequently with smaller quantities of milk. If the baby is unable to suck for long, express the milk and feed it with a spoon.

Breast milk has many protective properties which prevent infection in these babies. If, for some reason, breast milk is not available, then resort to formula feeding. Your doctor is the best judge of the formula necessary.

Low birth-weight infants need special care with feeds, an atmosphere free from dirt and dust(to prevent infection), and some of them even need life-support systems to maintain respiration and body temperature. As soon as the baby gets stronger, you can breast feed him and look after him. Your milk is easily diarrheal infections. You must keep the baby in a well-ventilated room, remove all articles which will accumulate dirt, and swab the room with water and soap solution at least twice a day.

Wash the baby’s soiled clothes and nappies with hot water, using a mild detergent, then rinse in plenty of water and dry in sun. If possible iron the nappies before use. The heat of iron will kill any remaining bacteria.

Always wash your hands before feeding or handling the child. Scrupulously sterilize Baby’s bottle, spoon, glass and anything else you might use before mixing his feeds. Do not allow too many visitors to handle the baby. Little children should never be allowed to carry these babies.

If you have a cold or runny nose, use a cloth mask while feeding the baby. Never cough in the baby’s face. Remember Low birth-weight babies are pron to infections and you must think of all possible ways to prevent them being infected.

These low birth-weight infants are born to mothers who have had complications as diabetes, or anemia in pregnancy, or to mothers with infections, or to under-nourished mothers.

Multiple pregnancies, such as twins, may also result in babies weighing less than the average weight. certain genetic defects, such as Down’s syndrome, may also cause babies to be born with low birth weight.

Low birth-weight infants who are born before the completion of 37 weeks of gestation are called Pre-term Infants. Children born after 37 weeks of gestation but weighing less than 2.5 kg are called dymature or SFD(small for dates) infants.

During infancy, baby learns at a faster rate than he ever will again in his life. In the first few weeks, he will learn to breathe regularly, lift his head and return a smile. It is for you to stretch his five lively senses from the day he is born. He needs to hear your voice– singing, humming, talking. He should be exposed to as much variety sights, sounds and smells as possible; They will make him happier and brighter too. A baby exposed to different environments will meet more germs, but gradually such exposure will help him tolerate them better. The more he’s kept in a sterile situation, whether restricted on activities, noise or people, the less stimulated he will be.

A child goes through many stages. The most dramatic of them occur between birth and one year. Some bring pleasure, others bring pain, but ever one of them will make your react. If you know what to expect, your adjustment to every situation will be quicker and your joy in each the greater.

When your first child is born, you will need to undergo a rebirth yourself to meet the many emotional and physical demands of motherhood. It will not take you long to realize that you cannot handle every situation yourself.

You will probably, like most mothers, cope well with the anticipated, positive pains of labor, but will then be dismayed by the unexpected, negative aches of postpartum blues. That’s when you will begin to wonder if all is well with you and your baby. There is no reason to worry. A baby on his own grows with amazing rapidity and naturalness from the moment he is born.

Three days after you’ve had the baby you should be ready to go home of no untoward complications have developed.

Such complications , in today’s nursing homes and hospitals, are few and far between.

Before you have the hospital the paediatrician will tell you that your baby is grand and in fifteen minutes or less, instruct you on how to look after and feed him. It will all seem so simple.

During pregnancy, you prepared yourself well for the problems of fitting one more person into the household and in your thought process. But you will find the people you will now have to fit in are more than you imagined. The child’s grandparents, friends, neighbors, relatives all will want to pitch in and give you some sort of advice or the other. Everyone has a favorite theory and a “right” way of handling the newborn. This can be unnerving especially if you are a first-time mother.

But remember, your baby is yours alone. Don’t let anyone bully you into doing anything you do not want to do. Rely on your instinct, a reliable knowledge from those more experienced around you.

When the baby is born he is covered with a grayish, somewhat greasy substance. Doctors call it vernix caseosa and it is secreted by the fetus’s s skin glands. This is Nature’s way of protecting the fetus’s skin from the effect of the long exposure to the liquid environment found int the uterus. It will come off by itself in a few days. It can also be removed by rubbing oil over the baby.

The new born is also covered with fine, scarcely visible hair. This too will soon disappear usually during the first month.

At birth the baby is usually pink all over. But sometimes its hands and feet may be bluish for a few hours after he is born. This is generally a case if he has been exposed to cold. Make sure the baby is kept well wrapped and covered all the time. After all, he has come from the warmest, most secure place in the whole world– your womb. Try give him in his first days as much of the same warmth outside.

Many people think one of the first things a mother asks is whether the baby is a boy or a girl. In fact, her first questions are generally whether or not the baby is normal and how much he weighs.

Even after you’ve been reassured that baby is fine and you’ve held him and counted all his ten fingers and ten toes, there may be times when you feel anxious. Is his head right size? Does he seem cross-eyed? What’s the pink patch on his nape? Are his ears shaped like cauliflowers? Is he the right weight and length? Such concern is natural. But if you know what to expect, your adjustment to motherhood will be quicker and you will he spared many an anxious moment. A good rule to remember is that babies are individuals, each different from the other, both physically and temperamentally. When a Proud friend tells you her baby weighted almost 4 kilos at birth and yours was only three, do not go into tizzy. Your baby is as normal as can be. The average newborn weighs 2.7 kg. If your baby measures a little more or less than ‘normal figures’, he is still within the normal parameters.

For nine months you have waited for this magical moment. But now it is a rush, first to the hospital, then into the delivery room where doctors and nurses are attentive to your every need. And why not? After all, you are the queen of the production, delivering, may be, the once and future king!

Sometimes it is over in minutes, at times it takes hours, but always at the end of it there is joy at seeing your baby, even if he is all covered with a waxy substance and his head seems odd-shaped from trying to push his way out of you. you are too pleased to care whether he has his father’s big ears and pointed head or your little chin and slanting eyes. To you he is the perfect marriage of genes. With great satisfaction, drowsiness and perhaps some nausea, you will fall into a deep sleep until the effects of any anesthesia you might have had are gone.