The right material for baby clothes

It is all too easy to spend a lot of money on baby clothes – especially as there is a tendency for manufacturers at the cheaper end of the market to guarantee itself a profit by spending less themselves on making the clothes. This is regrettable and says a lot about the nastier end of the human condition. Although human beings have made great advances in manufacturing over time, the fact is that synthetic fabrics – though cheaper than naturally made ones – are not as kind to the human skin. If you want to be kind to your baby – who will, it is certain, have softer skin than yours – it is important to buy baby clothes made of cotton, or wool.

Synthetic fabrics are known to be harsh on the skin, and also have a tendency to be more allergenic than natural fabrics due to the chemicals used to make them. Avoid synthetic fabrics.  The processes used to turn natural ingredients into natural fabrics require a little bit more work, and less chemicals, so they will be more expensive. But set next to the medical bills which can result from a child’s reaction to cheaper fabrics, it could be said that the more natural fabrics you clothe them in are an investment.

The right mix to go for, then, is clothes in a natural fabric which are dyed in a relatively gentle way to be brightly colored. It is well known that children react well to bright colors as a visual stimulus, and consequently they will be happier in such clothes.

Getting the most out of baby clothes

A newborn baby, although one of the most incredible joys in a person’s life, can also present something of a headache. The spending that is required to keep a baby healthy, happy and well-clothed is something that can really mount up and make any parent panic a little bit. There is no doubt whatsoever that some unscrupulous individuals will try to take advantage of this by selling baby gear at extortionate prices and trying to emotionally blackmail parents into spending that kind of money – “if you really care for your baby, you’ll pay whatever it takes” being the rather grubby subtext of their sales pitch.

Paying these people no heed can be difficult, but it really is the best option in the long run. Anyone who tries to tell you that your baby needs what they are selling has run out of more inventive sales techniques and is just a money-grabbing ghoul. You can dress a baby in hand-me-down clothes and they will not be adversely affected physically or mentally. It is one of the last points at which you can observe a total absence of direct peer pressure – your baby doesn’t care a jot if their clothes are not designer and you have not spent every penny you have on them. Let your baby’s happiness be the only important factor in all of this – some shyster’s sales pitch will be no help to anyone but themselves. Giving them what they need does not necessitate spending untold sums on supposedly state-of-the-art baby clothes.

The right clothes

There is an entire industry devoted to baby clothing, and it goes without saying that it does a lot of business given the numbers of babies born to new parents every day around the world. As a new parent, you will naturally want to do everything right, so the question of how to clothe your baby in a way that benefits them will be one of the many at the forefront of your mind. That you are thinking in such a way reflects good parenting instincts on your part, so you are doing things in the right way. And usually, following your instincts will be a good idea.

There is really no way to be absolutely 100% sure about everything before you do it, but there are without doubt certain conventions which, if followed, will increase your chances of getting things right. Apart from anything else, you need to make sure that your baby’s clothes are the right size. Select the colors which look good for the baby. Too loose and they will lose out on the warmth which the clothes are designed to give. Too tight and your baby will be uncomfortable – plus you will need to change their clothes more frequently as they outgrow them. Somewhere in between is the best answer.

This is why, at an early stage, it can be highly beneficial to have the good fortune to inherit some older baby clothes. As long as they are clean, they present no health risk, and they will enable you to get a measure of what kind of clothes you will need to buy for your child when you inevitably need to do so.

Blue or Pink?

One of the most familiar traditions when it comes to a new baby is the question of what color to paint their nursery, and what color clothes to buy for them. As the old traditions have it, there are only two options, and these are dependent upon one major factor – the sex of the baby. If your baby is a boy, the tradition claims, he should be clothed in blue. If you have a daughter, then they must be clothed in pink. There is, it has to be said, absolutely no practical reason as a parent for sticking to this, although it does save a few seconds when people meet your baby for the first time and do not have to ask “Is it a little boy or a little girl?”

What can be said for certain is that children do react to colors quite early on, and for reasons best known to themselves will favor certain colors over others. Psychologists will even point to the effect that can be had by color on grown adults, and some sports teams even take it into account when choosing uniform colors. Have you ever seen a professional men’s football team wearing pink jerseys? Clothing your child in a color that they like can, without a doubt, make for a happier baby. Clothing it in the color of your favorite team may have the effect of giving them a liking for that color and therefore that team, but it is a bit underhand. If you are OK with that, go ahead.

Clothing your baby

One of the most frequent gifts given at baby showers would have to be baby clothes. This has come about through many of the guests at showers being parents themselves and knowing how much money can go on clothes for a new baby. There is a fairly obvious reason why this kind of spending becomes necessary – babies grow quickly, and that means outgrowing their old clothes. The expense that can result from this means that the new parent can often be looking at a fairly frightening addition to their monthly budget. Child benefit was designed for this very reason.

Clothing for babies is a huge industry all by itself, and as a new parent you will quickly become aware just how frequently the baby clothing manufacturers think you need to re-clothe your child. There are many reasons why you should think twice before following their wishes – not least the fact that they are exploiting a need for their own financial gain. If you can re-use clothes from a previous child, there is no reason not to. If your friends bestow new clothes on you as a gift, thank them profusely. They understand how much it can take to keep a baby in new clothes.

Asking your own parents how they managed is also never a dumb idea. Think about it – you have reached the point where you have been able to bring a child into the world, so they obviously did OK themselves. They know a lot, and although you may want to do things your way, they will want the best for their grandchild, and will be of endless help to you.

Listen to the pediatrician

Based on your baby’s health and size, the pediatrician at the hospital will generally be able to help you work out a feeding schedule for them. This is important, especially for first-time parents, as getting the hang of feeding at the right time and in the right way can be a hit and miss process, and with a lot of other things to keep track of it will make a big difference in terms of your quality of life. You can be the most devoted parent in the world, but you will need your own sleep and down time in order to really make it count. This is no criticism, just a fact of life.

As things stand, a baby normally wants to eat fairly regularly, but there are special cases that can make the usual advice a little bit less useful. In these cases, you will have to work to make things tick over in the way you want them to. For example, you may not be producing milk in quite the way that you would hope. This is not through lack of intent or effort on your part, but because the human body is a complicated organism that often does not do what you want it to. The pediatrician will be worth their weight in gold in this respect.

With your intent and good will, and the advice of experienced individuals, you will become completely au fait with the best way of doing things and, before too long, the regularity which makes any process easier will kick in, so you can get on to the enjoyable aspects of parenting.

As your baby grows…

Initially, your baby will want to feed between eight and twelve times a day. This is because it has a very small stomach and can only eat a small amount at a time and – as you will become aware very quickly – it will process the food very quickly into its diaper. As he or she grows, however, so will their stomach and the time between meals will become longer. As a parent, the most welcome effect of this is that they will begin to wake less often in the night wishing to be fed. However, real life is never so simple, so you may have a few false starts before you eventually reach the stage where your child is not waking you most nights.

Part of this process is weaning your child. There will inevitably be some resistance from the baby in this respect. They have become attuned to being fed at a certain time each night, and a change in this routine will be an unwelcome one – they are babies after all, and the concept of change is in a lot of respects a completely alien one for them. Sooner or later it has to happen, and the best way to ensure it is a success is to schedule things so that they are fed shortly before you go to bed for the night – thus hopefully encouraging them to sleep through to the morning.

As your baby grows, you will find that they can eat more at one sitting, so take advantage of this by making each meal time more thorough and letting them eat their fill each time.

Feeding a premature baby

When it comes to dealing with a premature baby, the rules change somewhat from the typical ones for dealing with a baby where everything has happened more or less on schedule. Sometimes you will find that, due to their reduced size and strength, your baby has less of an appetite if it has been born prematurely. In order to mitigate against this you may need to pay more attention and encourage him or her to feed. Even though their natural desire to feed may be reduced as compared with a stronger baby, they will still need to feed in order to gain some of the strength that they lack.

A newborn, fully healthy baby will want to feed between eight and twelve times a day. They will automatically wake up in order to do this. A premature baby may prefer naturally to sleep, as they will tire easier due to their lack of strength. This may mean that you need to wake your baby and persuade him or her to feed. After a time this will become a more natural process as they gain in strength and consequently in appetite. While you are waiting for this to happen, it may be necessary to wake without “fully waking” – an alarm clock set to a gentle chime will mean that you can wake, feed, and go back to sleep, which is much better for your own health. By keeping your baby in the same room as you, you can simplify this matter a great deal.

Read: The importance of Setting a Baby’s routine

 

 

How often should you feed a baby?

With a newborn baby in the house, especially if it is your first, there is so much to learn that you simply cannot replicate with classes, books and additional parenting aids. Every baby that is born will have its own unique traits, and although you can learn a lot from other parents, from books, from TV and a wealth of other sources, there is always the fact that what works with one baby may not necessarily work with another. However, this should not be viewed as an apocalyptic warning. As a parent, you will learn quickly how to deal with your baby, and they will form an attachment to you.

The question of how often to feed a baby is one that often arises for new parents. With regard to how often they need feeding, it seems to differ slightly but is generally between two and three hours between feeds. At this stage of their life, any baby is programmed to sleep for short periods and awaken to be fed at such intervals. This is why parents will talk about sleepless nights at the early stage of parenthood. As the child grows older, they will of course begin to go longer between meals, but at an early age, with no ability to articulate their needs nor understand what people are saying, they will find their own way to make things clear to you. This regularity of needing to be fed is why many parents keep the baby in the same bed as them in the early stages.

Why breast is best …Benefits for baby and mom

In the early days with a new baby, a new mother will often feel a bit daunted by the idea of breast feeding, and may struggle with the decision over when to use the bottle and when to use the breast. As the saying goes, “breast is best”. This is true in that there are more natural nutrients in breast milk than will ever be found in bottled formula, and it enables the baby to grow up in better health than would otherwise be possible. There is, it goes without saying, some drawback to this. But there are drawbacks to everything, and it is how you address them that is really important.

A baby will require feeding at regular intervals, and for a mother who is breast feeding this can present a few interesting challenges. For one, there is always the concern of whether the baby will need to be fed while you are out for one reason or another. Breast feeding in public is still frowned upon by many, and in some places you will be asked to leave if you do it. This limits where you can go and what you can do, and although you can express breast milk to be served from a bottle, this affects the temperature.

Additionally, some mothers feel that breast feeding causes unreasonable pain in the nipples. Expressing milk is a partial answer to this, but achieving the right temperature is only part of the problem there. Some people feel that feeding directly from the breast is the only way to establish the closeness that a mother and baby should have – anything less and you will have to deal with people asking you why you are not doing it, and regardless of your reasons they will keep doing so.

Breast feeding – Benefits

The mother has to be keen on hygiene practices and these days you get clothes that encourage breastfeeding. You can tailor few dresses to support feeding when you are out of home. This will not be embarrassing too. The kurta or tops can have zibs on both sides of the chest. A pattern to overlap the area can be well thought of.

Benefits for Baby

• Breast milk is natural and readily available. Breast milk is custom made, the perfect nutrition, and therefore the best food for your baby.  Your baby can easily digest and absorb the nutrients because of its chemical makeup.
• The antibodies found in breast milk help to fight many infections, including: respiratory, urinary tract, ear, and blood infections. Breast milk improves your child’s immune system.
• Breast milk helps to prevent food allergies and sensitivities.
• Breastfed babies are almost never constipated. They rarely have diarrhea or gas.
• Breastfeeding encourages better, jaw, tooth and palate development because nursing requires more effort than sucking on a bottle. Babies who are breastfed are less likely to get cavities later in childhood.
• Breast milk helps to prevent jaundice.
• Breastfeeding appears to increase a child’s IQ.
• Ensure you give the breast milk from the initial stage itself. It is very healthy and should not be wasted. The initial milk produced is often referred to as colostrum, which coats the gastrointestinal tract. This helps to protect the newborn until its own immune system is functioning properly, and creates a mild laxative effect, expelling meconium and helping to prevent the build-up of bilirubin (a contributory factor in jaundice).

Benefits for Mom

• Breastfeeding helps to return your uterus to its normal size and it uses up fat stores.
• Breastfeeding burns calories and helps mom to lose weight and get back into shape.
• Breastfeeding is convenient. There is no mixing, measuring, and cleaning. There is no advanced planning or packing.
• Breastfeeding is economical since there are no bottles, nipples, or formula to buy. And half-emptied bottles or opened cans of formula are never wasted.
• There is less odor in baby’s spit up and bowel movements.
• When mom breastfeeds, she experiences a decreased risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and osteoporosis.
• Breastfeeding protects iron stores because it suppresses ovulation and menstruation. But do not depend upon this factor for birth control.

Have a great bond together…

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