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How To Keep Your Baby Happy And Healthy

A baby is a miracle of life, but it is also a serious responsibility and a lot of hard work as well, something that people fail to prepare for. You have to deal with all the worry every time they cough or get a rash, all the crying when they want feeding or attention or need their nappy changing, then of course the actual nappy changing too. Yet it is not all bad, you get to see their first tooth, hear their first words, see them struggle to walk for the first time, see them smile as you make funny faces at them, so is it worth it in the end.

Keeping your baby safe, healthy and happy is a 24/7 job though, so below are 3 tips to help you:

Get your baby’s ears checked: It is important to know if your baby has hearing problems because it will affect how they develop and what you need to do to help them. The problem is if you don’t catch it early then you could waste years wondering why your baby does not react like other children, and why he/she is having trouble starting to talk, before you have some tests done and discover the problem. The best thing is to have them checked before you even leave the hospital.

Take time to talk and play with your baby: Lots of people think that as their baby cannot respond yet then they can just leave him or her to crawl around and play with toys while they keep an eye on them, but it is really important that you talk to your baby even when they can’t respond, because it is how they learn to speak. It will also strengthen the bond between you when they see your face and listen to you talking.

A nice way to talk to your baby is to describe what you are doing as you feed them or go about your day, and talk them through any objects you are using near them like a spoon when you are feeding them etc, also reward them when they try and make a noise with lots of attention so they keep trying. If you have a nursing rocking chair then you can talk to your baby as he/she is feeding, and also read to them as you rock them off to sleep.

Consider swaddling your baby: If you wrap your baby up in a blanket so that you stop their arms moving around then that is known as swaddling, just make sure you learn to do it properly and don’t do it too tight or you could restrict their breathing. If you do it right though then you will stop them moving around as much and waking themselves up, the East Caroline University mentions some research on their site that shows swaddled babies between 6 and 16 weeks old woke up less and slept for longer periods of time too.