Newborn Care Tips For first-Time Parents

As first-time parents, there are a lot of questions in the minds of the parents, especially with respect to newborn care.

Firstly, irrespective of the type of delivery (vaginal or C-section) initiating breastfeeding is very important after childbirth. Women who have undergone a vaginal or normal delivery should initiate breastfeeding within 30 mins and ones who have undergone a C-section delivery have to start breastfeeding within 4 hours of delivery. The first milk or colostrum that comes post-delivery is extremely nutritious so make sure you definitely feed your baby. while feeding your baby always feed him/her from both sides.

A lot of babies overfeed or feed very fast while breastfeeding and spit some amount of milk after feeding. As parents, we need to know that this spitting of a small amount of milk is normal and that there’s nothing to worry about.  Also, babies tend to take in air while feeding and experience gas after feeding. To prevent this, make sure you make your baby sit in an upright position for 20-25 mins after feeding and try making him/her burp.

When it comes to your baby’s sleep cycle it’s normal that your baby sleeps during the day and cries at the night for the first 15-45 days. Post 15-45 days the sleep cycle starts regularizing eventually.

Additionally, mild rashes on newborn skin in the initial days are also quite normal and generally, it is self-healing and does not require any special treatment.

Also in old times, the application of kajal was quite normal but nowadays doctors do not encourage the application of kajal as the commercial kajal available is not that pure also application of kajal to your baby’s eyes can increase the risk of eye infection, blocking of eye drainage system leading to watery eyes.

Lastly, make sure that you vaccinate your baby against all the diseases on a regular basis as scheduled.