A newborn child is a child who has not reached the age of 1 month. The baby's newborn period for the parents usually flies like one minute. It seems that they just took my mother and baby from the hospital, accepted congratulations, bought everything necessary, met my visiting sister and a doctor - and now the crumb turns a month old. But how many new young parents should learn this month, how many necessary and useful skills to learn. So, in importance and richness, the first month of a child's life is perhaps the most significant, both for him and for his mother and father.
Development of a month-old baby
During the first month of a child's life, his body adapts to existence outside a warm and cozy maternal womb. Especially in the first week after birth, the children's body spends a lot of effort on this adaptation, so in the early days the child, as a rule, loses about 400 grams (up to 10% of the body weight). By the beginning of the second week the baby starts to gain weight. Normally, the daily increment is 20-30 g, i.e. for the first month of life the child should add about 500 g. Well, if you have a special baby scales at home for control. However, by the end of the first month you will have to visit the clinic with the baby, and there the child will be weighed by a pediatrician. He also measures the baby (for the first month the baby should grow by 3 cm, and the circumference of the chest and head should increase by 1.5-2 cm).
The newborn child has the following basic reflexes:
- sucking - if you touch the baby's lips with a finger or a pacifier, he begins to make sucking movements;
- search - when you touch the cheek the child turns the head in this direction;
- grasping - if you put the tip of your finger in the palm of your child, he will tightly squeeze it;
- Moro reflex - throwing up handles and legs in response to a loud and sudden sound;
- reflex walking - if you hold the kid under the handle vertically above a solid surface, when touching the feet of this surface, he will make foot movements that mimic walking.
The availability of these and some other reflexes in your newborn baby will be checked by the health visitor and the pediatrician who must come to your home every week for the entire first month of the child's life. This is necessary to control its development.
What can a month-old baby know?
- the newborn does not know how to hold the head for a long time, but lying on his stomach, many babies already from the birth try to raise the head for a fraction of a second or even a few seconds;
- by the middle of the second week, many newborns can see the slowly moving bright object, located at a distance of 40-50 cm from the eyes, and by the end of the third week the child can already fix a sight on a large familiar object (of course, this is primarily the face of a mother or father );
- during the first month of the child's life, his hearing develops intensively: the first week the baby hears not so well, reacting only to loud and sharp sounds, and by the end of the month he can already turn the head to the sound of my mother's voice or even the TV;
- by the end of the first month, many parents are watching their babies first, still involuntary smiles (to control facial expressions the baby will only start closer to the 2nd month).
Nutrition for a month old baby
In the first 3-4 days the baby feeds on colostrum - a dense nutrient fluid that is released from the maternal breast and precedes the actual milk. Then the best food for crumbs is Mom's breast milk, if, of course, it is produced in sufficient quantity. Otherwise it is necessary to pick up the infant an artificial milk formula. During the day the newborn can absorb 600-700 ml of milk or a mixture. Feedings should be frequent enough, with an interval from 2 to 4 hours. However, the kid himself will tell mom when it's time to feed him. The main thing that you should remember breastfeeding mother - you need to monitor your own nutrition, so that a child with milk received a maximum of useful substances. Be careful with the products that cause allergies and fermentation in the intestines - babies of the first month of life already do not do without colic in the tummy and skin problems.
In the first three months of the child's life, bloating and colic are, unfortunately, a common thing: what can you do, the baby's digestive system is just learning to work. The mother will be able to see the first "results" of her work on the second or third day, when the original feces (dark green viscous meconium) will depart and the child's chair will become more liquid, yellow, mushy, resembling cottage cheese with an acidic odor. Take care that it is not too rare or too frequent (the norm is 6-8 times a day, for artificial persons 3-4) and foamy, and the suffering from colic will be alleviated by special means, folk (dill and fennel water for mother and baby) and pharmacy (espumizan, bobotik, plankteks, etc.).
Rash in a month old baby
Often the tender skin of a newborn, not yet accustomed to new conditions, becomes covered with a rash. Possible causes of rash:
- normal physiological process - this refers to the whitish rash on the baby's nose with which the baby is born, and also to the yellowish-white with pink areola pimples on the tummy that occurs in the first week of life: these rashes are the adaptive reactions of the skin and pass by themselves, without treatment and special care;
- malnutrition, allergies - the baby's skin with eruptions signals that the body has got substances that are not digested or cause allergies: remember if your mother did not use any potential allergens in the last 3 days, and whether allergies cause children's cosmetics and bed linen child;
- sweets - often found on the back of the neck, behind the ears, on the neck, in the axillary and groin folds, on the cheeks and chin of the child: such problems are helped by the right choice of diapers and clothes (it should be light and free), frequent changing of children's bed linens, own hygiene of the mother and hygienic procedures for the baby: bathing in herbal decoctions, treatment of problem areas with special creams and ointments (beepantene, etc.).
Care for a month old child
- Bathing a month-old baby is an obligatory daily procedure, pursuing not only hygienic, but also developmental goals. As a rule, they bathe the baby in the evening, not earlier than an hour after feeding. In the water (water temperature of about 37 ° C) in the early days, add a weak solution of potassium permanganate, after the second week you can go on the broths of herbs (turn, chamomile, calendula). With soap or shampoo, you can bathe the newborn no more often than 2 times a week. After bathing, you need to gently pat the baby's skin with a soft towel and treat all the wrinkles on the body of the crumbs with baby cream or butter. Soaked in boiled water with cotton swabs, cleanse the baby's eyes. If necessary, gently brush with a cotton bud and spout (for a spout, moisten turundas with breast milk or saline solution, turunts for the ears - dry, they should only absorb the water that has got during the bathing in the ears).
- Care of the umbilical wound. Within 2 weeks after discharge from the maternity hospital once a day, after bathing, treat the umbilical wound with a cotton swab dipped in hydrogen peroxide solution, then with greenery.
- Morning toilet. After a night's sleep, wipe the face and body of the baby with a damp cloth or a soft towel soaked in warm water.
- Air baths. Several times a day, let the baby lie 1-2 minutes naked. It is convenient to timed this procedure to changing clothes. Make sure that the room is comfortable for this temperature (20-22 °).
How to develop and how to entertain a month-old child?
In fact, the answer to these two questions will be common, because young children develop, having fun, that is, exactly when they are interested.
For entertainment and training of vision, a child of up to a month is enough to hang over a crib, at the chest and abdomen, a pair
Necessarily from the first days of singing baby lullabies and just songs - it calms the child and develops his hearing.
A good developing activity and entertainment for kids is gymnastics. Gymnastics for newborns up to 1 month is very simple and consists in easy accurate folding and extension of handles and legs, as well as in laying alternately on the tummy and back, on the back. Both the mother and the baby receive a lot of pleasure from such a physical contact, the growing muscles become stronger, and also the feeling of one's own body and touch develops in the crumb.