Breastfeeding Programs an Infant's Metabolism

Breastfeeding is universally recommended as the superior method for feeding infants because it's linked to long-term prevention of various illnesses including asthma, diabetes and obesity. A study released Monday puts more emphasis on breastfeeding by showing it may have a lasting impact on metabolism.

French researchers analyzed three years of data following 234 children and how they were fed after birth. One group of children received only breast milk for the first four months of life. The other two groups were randomized to receive either a low-protein formula or a high-protein formula. Both of the formula types contained protein amounts that are within recommendations.

The study showed that children who received breast milk for the first four months had a specific pattern of growth and metabolic profile that differed from the formula-fed babies. Even at 15 days of life, the breast-fed infants had blood insulin levels that were lower than the formula-fed infants.

By 3 years of age, many of the metabolic and growth differences between the breast-fed and formula-fed infants had disappeared. However, blood pressure readings were higher in the infants who had been fed the high-protein formula compared with breast-fed infants. The blood pressure rates were still within the normal range.

The study suggests that if breast-feeding is not possible, infants should be fed formula that has a metabolic profile as close to human breast milk as possible.

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Breastfeeding Linked to Better Behaviour

Babies who are breastfed for several months develop fewer behavioural problems in early childhood than those who are bottle-fed, researchers have said.

The British study which involved around 10,000 mothers and their babies found that breastfeeding for at least four months lowered the risk of behavioural problems in children aged five by one third.

Researchers say the findings, published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, add to a wealth of existing evidence on the benefits of breastfeeding.

Children raised on bottled milk formula tended to show more signs of anxiety, hyperactivity or lying and stealing, researchers found.

"We're not necessarily talking about tearaway, unmanageable five-year-old kids," said Maria Quigley from Oxford University, who led the research.

"It might be unusual anxiousness, restlessness, inability to socialise with other children or play fully in groups."

Scientists said the results could be explained either by the fatty acids in breast milk which aid brain development or the bonding between mother and child, which may affect learned behaviour.

Researchers from the Universities of Oxford, Essex, York and University College London analyzed data from a survey of 10,037 infants born in the UK between 2000 and 2001, who took part in the the wider Millennium Cohort Study.

Mothers were asked to assess the behaviour of their children by the age of five, giving scores for different behaviours, such as clinginess and restlessness.

Raw figures showed that only six percent of breastfed children were given abnormal scores indicating behavioural problems, compared with 16 percent of formula-fed children.

However, mothers who breastfed tend to be older, better educated and from a higher socio-economic background than those who don't, the study said.

Researchers therefore adjusted the figures to take those factors into account, concluding that there was a 30 percent greater risk of behavioural problems among formula-fed children.

"Our results provide even more evidence for the benefits of breastfeeding," Quigley added.

"Mothers who want to breastfeed should be given all the support they need."

Janet Fyle, from the Royal College of Midwives, agreed that the study backed evidence that breastfeeding is best for babies but warned against victimizing women who choose not to.

"We need to be careful to keep a balance when interpreting the results, so that we do not send a negative message to mothers that they have failed or make them feel guilty because they bottle-fed their babies," she said.

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Massaging your Baby

Many traditional cultures believe that massaging the new born baby is an absolute must, and even modern child rearing practices now highlight the several reasons why infants can benefit from massage:

Bonding with your new baby

The new baby’s senses are not very finely attuned; but they do love being touched.
A mother’s soothing hands and familiar voice are a source of delight for a small baby who is bewildered to be out of the embrace of his mother’s safe and warm womb and out into a world of light, noise and all manner of unfamiliar sights.

Massage is one way for a new child and mother to bond in the most basic way that there is; by touch. Looking into your baby’s eyes as you massage his lovely new skin the baby recognizes and learns to love the most important face in his tiny world.

He finds comfort in the beloved voice of his mother that he has known from before his birth and in the firm touch of her warm hands as they massage him.

It will Ease baby’s Discomfort

If a new born suffers from colic or distention of the abdomen, massage will greatly relieve his discomfort and perhaps cause him to pass gas so that his fretfulness will be eased. A restless, wakeful baby will likely be tired out by a massage and this will help him sleep better.
As the mother massages the baby she engages with him by murmuring to him, singing to him or laughing with him; thereby keeping him amused and entertained and diverting his mind from any discomfort he may be in.

Good for Baby’s soft skin and Circulation

While it is not a good idea to use aromatherapy oils that an adult would typically use, most pediatricians recommend the use of an unscented olive oil for use on a baby’s skin that will keep the baby’s skin soft and moisturized.
Olive oil is also unlikely to cause any kind of allergic reaction or rash to develop on the baby’s sensitive skin.  Massage typically aids and improves circulation even among adults and using the proper technique to massage your baby will have just such a beneficial effect on your baby’s circulation.

Improves Growth and Development

According to some studies, premature babies who are regularly massaged, have been seen to gain weight at a faster rate. They also showed better growth and development.  They also seemed more alert and active and were able to leave hospital earlier than other premature babies.

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Top Ten Worries of New Parents

You already know that worrying is part of the parenting turf. (You'll find it listed in the job description right after guilt.) What you may not realize until after your baby arrives, however, is just how many things there are to worry about-and how normal it is to drive yourself crazy by panicking about every little thing.

Believe it or not, you will probably find yourself obsessing about the very same things that your parents worried about when they were raising you-and that their parents fussed about a generation earlier. 

While child rearing philosophies and infant feeding practices have changed dramatically over the years, worrying about your new baby never quite goes out of fashion.

Here is a list of the top ten worries of new parents. 

 

1. Will my baby die?

There's no doubt about it: if there's one thing that tops the new parent worry list, it's the possibility that your baby could die. The first time he sleeps through the night on his own, you awake in a panic, wondering if he's alright.

The fear of losing a child to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome can be particularly strong for new parents, notes Dr. Tiffany McKee-Garrett, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. The good news on the SIDS front is the fact that SIDS deaths are relatively rare, occuring in just one or two of every thousand live births.

2. Will I be able to protect my baby from harm?

The world can suddenly feel like a very scary place when you're entrusted with the task of caring for a newborn. Fortunately, newborn babies aren't nearly as fragile as they look, and common sense and parental instinct enable most parents to keep their babies safe from harm.

3. Is my baby "normal"?

Something else that most new parents worry about is whether or not their baby is developing normally. McGee-Garrett spends a lot of time reassuring worried parents that their babies are well within the normal range in terms of their development. "I try to remind these parents that there is a large variability in the timing of when babies do things," she explained. "In the vast majority of cases, despite the parents' concerns, the baby is developing just fine."

4. Is my baby getting enough to eat?

While parents of formula-fed infants may also fret about whether their babies are getting enough to eat, feeding-related worries tend to be more of a concern for parents who are breastfeeding. Part of the problem, of course, is that it's impossible to measure the amount of liquid that a breastfeeding baby is consuming--other than counting the number of wet and soiled diapers that the baby produces over the course of a day. Fortunately, most new mothers grow more confident in their bodies' ability to provide for the needs of their breastfeeding babies once they and their nursing babies gain a little more experience.

5. Is my baby crying too much?

Many new parents are shocked to discover how long and how often newborns cry, and may worry that the crying could be a sign of a more serious problem. McKee-Garrett tries to reassure the parents that she works with that crying is perfectly normal infant behavior, and that as long as the baby looks well, the crying is unlikely to do him any real harm. And to parents of colicky babies, she offers these reassuring words: "This too will end. Your baby will grow out of the colic by age three months-age four months if you're really unlucky."

6. Is my baby sleeping too much-or too little?

If your baby sleeps through the night right away, you may worry that he's not eating often enough. If he's not sleeping through the night by the time he's six months, you may worry that you're setting him up for a lifetime of bad sleeping habits by failing to teach him to sleep through the night. Fortunately, most newborns settle into more adult-friendly sleep patterns by the time they reach three to six months-good news for parents who can't imagine anything more satisfying than a good night's sleep!

7. Will my other children learn to love the baby?

Parents who are expecting their second or subsequent child frequently worry about how their firstborn will adjust to the arrival or a new baby or sister. While there can be some rough spots on the road to sibling acceptance, most older children do learn to welcome-or at least accept-the new baby.

8. Will life ever be the same for my partner and I?

Another worry at the top of the list for many new parents is how they will manage to stay connected with their partner when baby makes three-or four-or more! While it's hard to find much "couple time" when you have a newborn around, most couples take solace in the fact that the exhausting newborn phase only lasts for a short time. Once the baby is sleeping through the night-or at least for a couple of hours at a time-most couples are able to find the time and energy for romance again. 9. Will I be able to provide for this child financially? Another big worry-especially for first-time fathers-is money. It's a concern that Harriet Lerner, Ph.D., bestselling author of The Mother Dance, has heard time and time again from men: "New fathers feel tremendous pressure to earn, earn, earn."

Despite what many panicked first-time fathers fear, babies don't have to cost the earth. Borrowing as much as possible from family members and friends and shopping secondhand are two excellent ways of reducing your baby's bottom line.

10. Will I be a good parent?

One of the most common worries of new parents-particularly of new mothers-is about whether they are up to the challenges of parenting.

Given society's extraordinarily high standards of mothers, new mothers have good reason to be scared, says Lerner. "Society has expectations for mothers that even a saint couldn't meet."

While this particular worry never disappears entirely, most new mothers resolve their Madonna complex by learning how to accept their imperfections on the parenting front.

While there are plenty of things for new parents to worry about during their baby's first few months of life, most parents discover that their anxiety level begins to decrease a little as time goes on.

That was the case for Laura Augustine, 31, whose son, Sam, recently turned one. "I was pretty paranoid when we first brought Sam home from the hospital," she recalled. "I can't believe how much easier it is now."

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Read To Your Children

 
Children can be read to from the moment they are born. Often, a newborn receives the benefits of hearing you read as you read aloud to an older sibling.

It's important to remember that being read to is not just about increasing vocabulary. Reading to your child can be a fun, bonding experience. An opportunity to act out dialogue, to entertain, to experience the magic of being transported to a faraway land.

Children need not be read everything on a page. If your child appears bored, you might just point to the pictures, label the objects and talk about them. Follow your child's lead - if he or she wriggles off your lap within seconds, don't assume that he's too young to be read to - try to find books that will appeal to him or imaginative ways of reading books you already have.

While it's important to teach children respect for books, there are so many books available that will appeal to children's sense of curiosity - books that have flaps and folds and pop-ups galore. A friend of mine has made a point of buying relatively inexpensive pop up and fold out books for her one-year-old to explore. While she models respect for books, she has established an environment where her child is encouraged to explore the books, even at the risk of having them torn. It's uncanny this young child's love of books - she prefers them to anything in the world - except of course, mommy!!

Talking of role modeling. Don't expect that your child will be interested in reading, books or magazines if you're not.

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Working Mom Or STAHM?

Working Mom or SAHM: Does It Really Matter for Baby's Development?

For babies whose mothers work outside the home, the positives may outweigh the negatives.

The Scoop

The latest wrinkle in the Mommy Wars? Babies raised by working mothers may receive more positive benefits than negative ones, according to data from one of the most comprehensive childcare studies to date.

As highlighted in a July 31, 2010, Washington Post piece, researchers from Columbia University followed more than 1,000 children from 10 geographic areas through first grade, tracking their development and family characteristics. The study found that infants raised by mothers with full-time jobs scored, on average, somewhat lower on cognitive tests, deficits that persisted into first grade. But this negative was offset by three strong positives. As researchers note that working mothers had higher incomes, they were more likely to seek high-quality childcare, and they displayed greater "maternal sensitivity," or responsiveness toward their children, compared to stay-at-home mothers.

"We can say now, from this study, what we couldn't say before: There's a slight risk [for cognitive delays], and here's the three things that you, Mom, can do to make a difference," says Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, the study's lead author, in an interview with the Washington Post.

According to researchers, the study also reaffirmed that part-time employment had no negative effect, nor did it seem to matter for a child's cognitive development whether a mother worked full time after the first year.

For Baby

The link between cognitive development and working outside the home? Researchers believe that mothers with full-time jobs find it more challenging to provide an infant with "the kinds of intensive interaction that babies require," says Brooks-Gunn. High-quality childcare appears to offset this, but according to Brooks-Gun, high-quality childcare, too, is hard to find for an infant.

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Baby's First Smile

Baby's First Smile

Out of all the first milestones with your baby, the first "real" smile is one of the most anticipated.

In that instant, all the work (sleepless nights, endless diaper changes) over the past several weeks seems well rewarded because your little angel finally flashes you that pink, gummy grin. And then for the next several days, we parents try our best to re-create that smile, for family, friends, the garbage man—basically anyone who will pay attention. So when can you expect this first real smile—and how can you tell it from a reflex smile?

Reflex Smiles

Babies give fleeting smiles as early as birth and even smile in their sleep. But, according to experts, this is a reflex action or survival instinct similar to other newborn reflexes like rooting and sucking. These first reflex smiles are innate and are believed to make newborns more appealing to keep them safer.

"I can't say that I remember the very first smile, because in the beginning so many of the little smirks were questionable," says Christine Schmid, an Arizona mother of 5-month-old Sydney. "We couldn't tell if she was smiling, if she had gas or if she was just uncomfortable. I was one of those moms that read too much and learned that in the early weeks of life a child smiles for survival reasons. If they can win the love of everyone in the room, they're likely to be fed and cared for. However, even knowing this, the first smiles were the greatest."

Expect these reflex smiles to start sometime around birth to 3 days and to last until approximately 2 months.

Baby's First Real Smile

Sometime around your baby's 6th to 8th week (although some parents say as early as 4 weeks), the smiles become a reaction to stimuli or a "learned" smile. The grin lasts a bit longer and you can even see expression in her eyes. Babies learn to smile because they see your reaction. The joy in your face and the smiles and laughter she gets from you makes her want to repeat it, again and again.

It's hard to distinguish between what is a real smile and a reflex smile, but generally, your baby will use her whole face, including her eyes, when she is smiling to please you or in response to your overjoyed reaction. But don't worry if you haven't seen that real smile by week 8. Babies develop at different stages, and some very happy babies will wait up to 12 weeks before flashing the first real smile.

According to Dr. Martha Heineman Pieper and Dr. William Joseph Pieper, authors of Smart Love, the first social smile could appear around 6 weeks, but is not likely to stick around on a regular basis until 12 weeks. And by 6 months, most babies smile happily and readily at the people they know best.

"Ashley smiled from the day she was born, and she was always smiling in her sleep," says Amanda Tabscott, an Indiana mother of two. "It wasn't until she was about 5 months old, when she would wake up and really smile especially for me, happy to see me in the morning."

"In the beginning, I felt like everything I was doing must be wrong," Schmid says. "Sydney wasn't sleeping and she seemed to always be crying for food. Although this is completely normal, I guess being a new mom, I didn't know it at the time. So after weeks of giving this little girl all my love, attention, and energy, she gave me smiles that told me 'Life is good, Mom! You're doing a good job, and it's going to be all right.'"

Games to Make Baby Smile

• Peek-a-boo: One of the all-time favorite games for babies, peek-a-boo can simply be played with a blanket, burp cloth, or even a napkin. Cover your face to hide from Baby and then remove the napkin and say "peek-a-boo!"
• Upsy Daisy: While your baby is on her back, let her grasp her hands around your thumbs. Slowly pull her up to sitting position and say, "upsy daisy!"
• Bubbles: Use liquid bubbles and blow them toward your baby's face or on her neck or belly. She will get a kick out of the mysterious bubbles, especially when they pop.
• Kisses: Tickle your baby by kissing her on the neck or blowing on her face or belly to make her show that toothless grin.
• This Little Piggy: Babies are infatuated with their toes, and even love to put them in their mouths! Recite the popular rhyme as you play with their toes: "This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home, this little piggy had pizza, this little piggy had none. This little piggy went WEE WEE WEE all the way home!"
  
  

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Your Child's Early Brain Development

You've probably heard how important it is to help your baby's brain develop well. You may have seen advertisements for toys to stimulate your child's brain, and CD's to give your unborn baby a start in music.

Many parents know it is important to help stimulate their child's brain, but they are not sure why.

While some of the claims are exaggerated, there is good scientific evidence that it is important to stimulate your child's brain development early in life.

What We Know About Early Brain Development 

The brain starts to develop long before your baby is born, and it continues to develop quickly through the early years (0 to 6). This early development of the brain affects health and well-being throughout your child's life.

How well a baby's brain develops during the earliest years sets the foundation for growth and development later in life including adulthood.

Wiring & Sculpting The Brain
Each baby is born with a central nervous system, made up of the brain and the spinal cord. The central nervous system has 100 billion nerve cells, called neurons. The neurons can make up to 15,000 connections with each other, which form very complex pathways in the brain. These pathways allow the neurons to communicate with each other to control the body's muscles, organs, and glands.

In newborn babies, most of these connections between neurons have not yet happened. But during the first year of a baby's life, these brain pathways start to be built very quickly. As these pathways are built, the brain begins to strengthen the pathways it uses often and eliminates pathways it doesn't use. This process is known as brain wiring or sculpting.

Although brain sculpting begins before birth and continues into the teenage years, it is most active in the early years of life. That's why its so important to provide your baby with stimulation. More than one-third of the neurons a baby is born with are eliminated in the first three years of life.

Nature & Nurture
This brain development is determined by the interaction between two powerful forces: nature and nurture.

Nature is the qualities and genetic possibilities a baby is born with. These are determined by genes, which babies get from their parents. For example, a child gets brown hair or musical talent through his (or her) genes. Nurture is the love and care that adults give to a child.

Nature and nurture work together to shape a child's developing brain. The love and care you give your child makes a big difference in his early brain development.

Stimulating Young Minds To Learn
Babies are very sensitive to their environment the physical surroundings and the people around them. This is why your child's early months are so important.

The way you respond to your children, especially in their earliest years, affects how the pathways in their brains are formed. Early pathways set a base for thinking skills and learning. Different parts of a baby's brain develop at different times. This means that there are special times when the brain is most able to absorb certain experiences, and special times when the brain is most able to build up new pathways. To make this process work, a child needs to interact with his parents or other adults.

Coping With Emotions
Children begin to learn to cope with their emotions early in life. Babies start to be able to comfort themselves as early as six months. They start to learn what makes them happy and what doesn't.

Later on, babies begin to learn how to control their behaviour, and to decide where to focus their attention. A strong emotional bond with at least one caring adult is needed for this important learning.

Learning To Speak
The ability to learn language is very strong in early childhood. By listening to sounds and copying them, most children learn to talk between 12 and 18 months. All children are naturally ready to learn to talk, but the language they learn depends on what they hear around them.

During the babbling phase, babies make lots of sounds. After they have learned their native language, they are less able to make sounds that are not used in their language. Babies need to hear language long before they learn to talk. Speak to your baby when you are nursing, feeding, changing diapers and cuddling. Lots of touching and talking stimulates the brain's pathways for using and understanding language.

Thinking Skills
Thinking skills help children build up new knowledge. Using symbols, understanding numbers, following a story, and understanding where physical objects are in relationship to each other (spatial awareness) are concepts that form the basis of abilities to think and to reason later on. All these concepts can develop during the years before school.

You can help your children's thinking skills by providing lots of different experiences and helping them understand these experiences. For example, a walk to the park to find different kinds of bugs is a stronger learning experience if you help point out the differences between ants and ladybugs.

Make-Believe Play (Pretending)
Make-believe play (pretending) begins about the time that children start using language and walking around. Children may dress up or use props to act out their world. Pretend play helps children practise new thinking skills that help with learning to read and solving problems in the early school years.

Learning To Count
At about age four, children usually know how to count. They also understand ideas such as more and less, and big and small. But they don't know that seven is greater than five. Children usually begin to understand number and quantity between the ages of four and six. Between the ages of six and 10, children develop a better understanding of how numbers work.

They start to understand the concept of space at around age six, when they put together their ideas of how objects look with the relationships between them. For example, they might draw pictures of a tree connected to the ground with the sky above it and a person beside it. Some of the most important learning in a child's life happens long before he gets to school.

Love Protects Against Stress
Like all animals, our bodies are genetically programmed to react to stress to get away from danger or to fight danger. Within minutes of something stressful happening, the brain releases stress hormones which help a person cope. If we live with constant stress for a long time, however, some neurons in the brain die.

Over time, constant stress can affect the whole body. Thats because stress suppresses or weakens the immune system, which protects a person against disease. People with high levels of stress tend to get sick more often. Babies and young children are very sensitive to stress. Research has shown that babies who feel secure and who get enough care and stimulation can deal with stress better. This is why good, loving care for your baby can help throughout his life for coping well and for good health.

Giving your children care and stimulation in the early years helps them develop in a healthy way. Most parents want to hold and cuddle their children, talk to them, and give them toys and other things to play with. This does more than make children smile. It builds their capacity to learn and cope emotionally with life. It also helps them develop their ability to think and make sense of their worlds. Early Brain Development - A 

Foundation For Life
Children's early experiences make a big difference in their lives. Good care in the first few years of life helps children develop physically, emotionally and intellectually. Like a good solid foundation for a house, early brain development is a foundation for your child's health, well-being, behaviour and learning.

Healthy brain development in the early years lasts a lifetime.

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Bonding With Your Baby

Bonding is the intense attachment that develops between parents and their baby. It makes parents want to shower their baby with love and affection and to protect and nourish their little one. Bonding gets parents up in the middle of the night to feed their hungry baby and makes them attentive to the baby's wide range of cries.

Scientists are still learning a lot about bonding. They know that the strong ties between parents and their child provide the baby's first model for intimate relationships and foster a sense of security and positive self-esteem. And parents' responsiveness to an infant's signals can affect the child's social and cognitive development.

Why Is Bonding Important?

Bonding is essential for a baby. Studies of newborn monkeys who were given mannequin mothers at birth showed that, even when the mannequins were made of soft material and provided formula to the baby monkeys, the babies were better socialized when they had live mothers to interact with. The baby monkeys with mannequin mothers were more likely to suffer from despair, as well as failure to thrive. Scientists suspect that lack of bonding in human babies can cause similar problems.

Most infants are ready to bond immediately. Parents, on the other hand, may have a mixture of feelings about it. Some parents feel an intense attachment within the first minutes or days after their baby's birth. For others — especially if the baby is adopted or has been placed in intensive care — it may take a bit longer.

But bonding is a process, not something that takes place within minutes and not something that has to be limited to happening within a certain time period after birth. For many parents, bonding is a byproduct of everyday caregiving. You may not even know it's happening until you observe your baby's first smile and suddenly realize that you're filled with love and joy.

The Ways Babies Bond

When you're a new parent, it often takes a while to understand your newborn's true capabilities and all the ways you can interact:

• Touch becomes an early language as babies respond to skin-to-skin contact. It's soothing for both you and your baby while promoting your baby's healthy growth and development.
• Eye-to-eye contact provides meaningful communication at close range.
• Babies can follow moving objects with their eyes.
• Your baby tries — early on — to imitate your facial expressions and gestures.
• Babies prefer human voices and enjoy vocalizing in their first efforts at communication. Babies often enjoy just listening to your conversations, as well as your descriptions of their activities and environments.

Making an Attachment

Bonding with your baby is probably one of the most pleasurable aspects of infant care. You can begin by cradling your baby and gently stroking him or her in different patterns. If you and your partner both hold and touch your infant frequently, your little one will soon come to know the difference between your touches. Each of you should also take the opportunity to be "skin to skin" with your newborn by holding him or her against your own skin when feeding or cradling.

Babies, especially premature babies and those with medical problems, may respond to infant massage. Because babies aren't as strong as adults, you'll need to massage your baby gently. Before trying out infant massage, be sure to educate yourself on proper techniques by checking out the many books, videos, and websites on the subject. You can also contact your local hospital to find out if there are classes in infant massage in your area.

Bonding also often occurs naturally almost immediately for a breastfeeding or bottle-feeding mother. Infants respond to the smell and touch of their mothers, as well as the responsiveness of the parents to their needs. In an uncomplicated birth, caregivers try to take advantage of the infant's alert period immediately after birth and encourage feeding and holding of the baby. However, this isn't always possible and, though ideal, immediate contact isn't necessary for the future bonding of the child and parent.

Adoptive parents may be concerned about bonding with their baby. Although it might happen sooner for some than others, adopted babies and their parents have the opportunity to bond just as well as biological parents and their children.

Bonding With Daddy

Men these days spend more time with their infants than dads of past generations did. Although dads frequently yearn for closer contact with their babies, bonding frequently occurs on a different timetable, partially because they don't have the early contact of breastfeeding that many moms have.

But dads should realize, early on, that bonding with their child isn't a matter of being another mom. In many cases, dads share special activities with their infants. And both parents benefit greatly when they can support and encourage one another.

Early bonding activities that both mom and dad can experience together include:

• participating together in labor and delivery
• feeding (breast or bottle); sometimes dad forms a special bond with baby when handling a middle-of-the-night feeding and diaper change
• reading or singing to baby
• sharing a bath with baby
• mirroring baby's movements
• mimicking baby's cooing and other vocalizations — the first efforts at communication
• using a front baby carrier during routine activities
• letting baby feel the different textures of dad's face

Building a Support System

Of course, it's easier to bond with your baby if the people around you are supportive and help you develop confidence in your parenting abilities. That's one reason experts recommend having your baby stay in your room at the hospital. While taking care of a baby is overwhelming at first, you can benefit from the emotional support provided by the staff and start becoming more confident in your abilities as a parent. Although rooming-in often is not possible for parents of premature babies or babies with special needs, the support from the hospital staff can make bonding with the infant easier.

At first, caring for a newborn can take nearly all of your attention and energy — especially for a breastfeeding mom. Bonding will be much easier if you aren't exhausted by all of the other things going on at home, such as housework, meals, and laundry. It's helpful if dads can give an extra boost with these everyday chores, as well as offer plenty of general emotional support.

And it's OK to ask family members and friends for help in the days — even weeks — after you bring your baby home. But because having others around during such a transitional period can be uncomfortable, overwhelming, or stressful, you might want to ask people to drop off meals, walk the dog, or watch any of the new baby's siblings outside the home.

Factors That May Affect Bonding

Bonding may be delayed for various reasons. Parents-to-be may form a picture of their baby having certain physical and emotional traits. When, at birth or after an adoption, you meet your baby, reality might make you adjust your mental picture. Because a baby's face is the primary tool of communication, it plays a critical role in bonding and attachment.

Hormones can also significantly affect bonding. While nursing a baby in the first hours of life can help with bonding, it also causes the outpouring of many different hormones in mothers. Sometimes mothers have difficulty bonding with their babies if their hormones are raging or they have postpartum depression. Bonding can also be delayed if a mom's exhausted and in pain following a prolonged, difficult delivery.

If your baby spends some time in intensive care, you may initially be put off by the amount and complexity of equipment. But bonding with your baby is still important. The hospital staff can help you hold and handle your baby through openings in the isolette (a special nursery bassinet) and will encourage you to spend time watching, touching, and talking with your baby. Soon, your baby will recognize you and respond to your voice and touch.

Nurses will help you learn to bathe and feed your baby. If you're using breast milk you've pumped, the staff, including a lactation consultant, can help you make the transition to breastfeeding before your baby goes home. Some intensive care units also offer rooming-in before you take your baby home to ease the transition.

Is There a Problem?

If you don't feel that you're bonding by the time you take your baby to the first office visit with your child's doctor, discuss your concerns at that appointment. It may be a sign of postpartum depression. Or bonding can be delayed if your baby has had significant, unexpected health issues. It may just be because you feel exhausted and overwhelmed by your child's arrival.

In any event, the sooner a problem is identified, the better. Health care providers are accustomed to dealing with these issues and can help you be better prepared to form a bond with your child.

Also, it often helps to share your feelings about bonding with other new parents. Ask your childbirth educator about parenting classes for parents of newborns.

Bonding is a complex, personal experience that takes time. There's no magic formula and it can't be forced. A baby whose basic needs are being met won't suffer if the bond isn't strong at first. As you become more comfortable with your baby and your new routine becomes more predictable, both you and your partner will likely feel more confident about all of the amazing aspects of raising your little one.

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Benefits of Breastfeeding



Breast Feeding

What are the benefits of breastfeeding?

Breastfeeding has many benefits for both you and your baby. It's a lovely way for you to feel close to each other. Best of all, though, your breastmilk gives your baby everything she needs to thrive for the first six months of her life.

And once your baby starts solids at around six months, you can carry on breastfeeding her. Breastmilk is full of nutrients that will continue to do your baby good.

Breastfeeding also helps your baby to fight infections in the first few months of her life. Breastmilk contains antibodies which help protect your baby against illnesses such as tummy bugs (gastroenteritis), colds, urinary infections and ear infections.

Breastmilk also reduces the risk of your baby getting allergic conditions such as asthma and eczema. It can even help to protect your baby against serious illnesses, such as childhood diabetes and leukemia.

As well as antibodies already in your breastmilk, your body will make new antibodies as soon as you are exposed to an infection. These antibodies then transfer to your milk, ready for your baby to receive as soon as she next has a breastfeed.

Breastmilk has long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are essential for helping your baby's brain develop. Exclusively breastfeeding for the first few months can improve your baby's cognitive development. In theory, this means breastfeeding your baby could make her more intelligent.

Breastfeeding is the healthiest choice for you, too. It reduces your risk later in life of pre-menopausal breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and bone fractures from osteoporosis.

On the practical side, a big benefit of breastfeeding is how convenient it is. You have nothing to wash, sterilise or prepare. You and your baby will enjoy it, and you will feel a real sense of achievement to see her growing and developing. And it's all your own work!

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