Newborn

0 TO 3 MONTHS
`It's a boy!'
`It's a girl!'
Once that's been established and fingers and toes have been counted, what's the next thing you'll find out about your newborn? Probably weight and length. When sending out your birth announcements, you'll probably include both of these measurements. Why all this interest in your baby's size? Because it's a concrete way to begin tracking your baby's growth from the first day forward.
HOW MUCH SHOULD MY BABY WEIGH?
Just like adults, newborns come in all shapes and sizes. The majority of babies born full-term (40 weeks) weigh from just over 3.41 kg to almost 5.02kg, and they are between 47.5cm and 52.5cm long. At one time we used to put a premium on `big' babies, but within this wide range of newborn weights and lengths, it's the baby's overall health that matters most.
Your newborn will most likely gain weight at an average of 200gm per week, and grow about 2.5cm to 3.75cm during his first month. Most newborns go through a period of rapid growth (a growth 'spurt') when they are seven to 10 days old, and again between three and six weeks.
Don't be worried if your full-term baby goes home weighing slightly less than he did when he was born. While it's disappointing for parents to see their newborns' weight drop, it's perfectly normal. Nearly all newborns lose a portion of their birth weight because of fluid loss and because they do not need much milk during the first few days of life.
By day 14 or before, your baby should be back to his birth weight. If you are concerned about what seems to be an excessive weight loss after the first few days of your baby's life, check with your paediatrician.
MOVEMENT AND COORDINATIONAlthough it may seem to the parents and siblings of a newborn baby that his activities are limited to sleeping, eating, and crying, that little body is capable of a myriad of movements. Research has shown that babies can not only make associations between sound and other senses, but can also be taught to respond in different ways to the same sound and, if permitted, will exert some control in choosing sounds they want to hear. One of your newborn's most important movements is his rooting reflex. Newborns get hungry, but they don't yet have the ability to look actively for food. The rooting reflex prompts a baby to turn in the direction of his mother's nipple. If you gently stroke the cheek of a newborn with your hand, he will turn in that direction, mouth open, ready to suck. This reflex generally lasts a few months, until the baby becomes proficient at simply turning his mouth to where his next meal is coming from. Your newborn's sucking is also a survival reflex. When his mother's nipple is placed in his mouth, he will automatically suck. The purpose of the rooting and sucking reflexes is obvious: they help your newborn get the nourishment he needs. These reflexes soon become voluntary or directed movements, and in a few months you may even find your infant trying to console himself by sucking his own hand.
Although it may seem to the parents and siblings of a newborn baby that his activities are limited to sleeping, eating, and crying, that little body is capable of a myriad of movements. Research has shown that babies can not only make associations between sound and other senses, but can also be taught to respond in different ways to the same sound and, if permitted, will exert some control in choosing sounds they want to hear.
One of your newborn's most important movements is his rooting reflex. Newborns get hungry, but they don't yet have the ability to look actively for food. The rooting reflex prompts a baby to turn in the direction of his mother's nipple. If you gently stroke the cheek of a newborn with your hand, he will turn in that direction, mouth open, ready to suck. This reflex generally lasts a few months, until the baby becomes proficient at simply turning his mouth to where his next meal is coming from.
Your newborn's sucking is also a survival reflex. When his mother's nipple is placed in his mouth, he will automatically suck. The purpose of the rooting and sucking reflexes is obvious: they help your newborn get the nourishment he needs. These reflexes soon become voluntary or directed movements, and in a few months you may even find your infant trying to console himself by sucking his own hand.
The Moro reflex shows itself when your newborn is startled by a loud noise or feels he is about to fall or be dropped. Sometimes new parents notice this reflex if they place their baby in the bassinet or crib too quickly. Your newborn will react by throwing out his arms and legs, arching his neck, then curling in again with a cry. This reflex quickly disappears, usually by the third month.
You may be able to see the tonic neck reflex at work in your infant. If you turn your baby's head to one side, you may notice him straightening the arm and leg on that side of his body, while curling the opposite arm and leg. This reflex will probably disappear by the middle of his first year.
Stroking your newborn's palms and feet, also called the grasp reflex, may elicit other reflexes. Put your finger directly in your baby's hand, and he may grasp it quite tightly - tightly enough perhaps to support his full body weight in the first days after birth. Touch the sole of your newborn's foot and look for a similar response: a flexing of the foot, with tightly clenched or flared toes. These reflexes also slowly disappear over the course of the first year of your baby's life.
WHAT CAN I DO?
Motor skills develop naturally under most circumstances. Your job during this stage is to make your baby feel safe and secure. Make sure that his head and neck are supported. Never leave him unattended, especially on high surfaces such as a changing table or bed. You can encourage movement through play by gently 'cycling' his arms or legs as he lies on his back, or you can let him kick at your hands or a toy that squeaks. The movement your newborn like best is YOUR movement, so hold him often.
THE SENSES
Your newborn may seem to do little more during the first weeks of life than eat, sleep and cry. But in reality, all of his senses are functioning already, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of this new world he's entered. It's hard for us to know exactly what a newborn is feeling, but if you pay close attention to his responses to light, noise, and touch, you can see his complex senses begin to come alive.
THE SENSES: SIGHT
A newborn's sight is perfectly set to see the most important things in the world to him - his parents' faces. New babies can see best at a distance of only 20cm to 35cm, bringing his eyes in focus when he's gazing up from the arms of Mom or Dad. Your newborn can see things further away, but it is harder for him to focus on distant objects. Still, the light shining in from a faraway window may catch his eye, and he may stare at another family member moving around the room.
His colour preference is black, white and red in contrast to bright colours.
After human faces, brightness and movement are the things he likes to look at best. Even a crude line drawing of two eyes, a nose, and a mouth may keep his attention if held close enough. Although his sight is functioning, it still needs some fine-tuning, especially when it comes to focusing far off. His eyes may even seem to cross or diverge (go 'wail-eyed') briefly. This is usually just a sign that your newborn's eye muscles need to strengthen and mature a bit during the next few months.
THE SENSES: TASTE AND SMELL
We assume newborns can smell because we know they can taste, and these are the two most closely related of the human senses. Research with new babies shows they prefer sweet tastes from birth and will choose to suck on bottles of heavily sweetened water, but will turn away or cry if given something bitter or sour to taste.
Think of the world of smells an ordinary day affords your newborn: your clothes, dinner cooking on the stove, flowers in the yard. At least you don't have to worry too much about your baby's taste buds at this point. Breast milk will satisfy him completely!
THE SENSES: TOUCH
As it is to most humans, touch is extremely important to your newborn. Through touch, he learns a lot about the world around him. At first, he is looking only for comfort. Having come from a warm and enveloping fluid before birth, he'll be faced with feeling cold for the first time, brushing up against the hardness of the crib, feeling the scratch of a rough seam inside his clothes. He'll be looking to his parents to provide the soft touch he needs: silky blankets, comforting hugs, and loving caresses upon his head. With almost every touch your newborn is learning about life, so provide him with lots of tender kisses and he'll find the world a soothing place to be.
HOW DOES MY BABY COMMUNICATE?
Your baby is born with the ability to cry, which is how he will do most of his communicating for a while. Your baby's cries generally tell you that something is wrong in his world: his belly is empty, his bottom is wet, his feet are cold, he's tired, he needs to be held and cuddled. Soon you will be able to recognise which need your baby is expressing and respond accordingly. In fact, sometimes what a baby needs can be identified by his cry - for example, the 'I'm hungry' cry may be short and low-pitched, while 'I'm upset' may sound choppy.
Your baby may also cry when he is overwhelmed by all of the sights and sounds of the world. Sometimes he may cry for no apparent reason at all. Don't be too upset when your baby cries and you aren't able to console him immediately: crying is one of his ways of shutting out stimuli when he's overloaded.
A newborn can differentiate between the sound of a human voice and other sounds. Try to pay attention to how he responds to your voice. He already associates your voice with care: food, warmth, touch. If he's crying in his bassinet, see how quickly your approaching voice quiets him. See how closely he listens when you are talking to him in loving tones. He may not yet coordinate looking and listening, but even if he stares into the distance, he Il be paying close attention to your voice as you speak. He may subtly adjust his body position or facial expression, or even move his arms and legs in time with your speech.
Sometime during your newborn's first month, you may get a glimpse of his first smile and perhaps hear his first laugh or giggle. What welcome additions these are to his communication repertoire!
SLEEP
`Does your baby sleep through the night?' is one of the questions new parents faces the most. And the bleary-eyed mums and dads of newborns almost always answer: 'No'
Newborn babies don't know the difference between day and night yet - and their tiny stomachs don't hold enough breast milk or formula to keep them satisfied for very long. They need food every few hours, no matter what time of day or night it is.
A newborn may sleep as much as 16 hours a day (or even more), often in stretches of three to four hours at a time. And like the sleep all of us experience, babies have different phases of sleep: drowsiness, REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, light sleep, deep sleep, and very deep sleep. As babies grow, their periods of wakefulness increase.
At first, these short stretches of three to four hours of sleep may be frustrating for you as they interfere with your sleep pattern. Have patience - this will change as your baby grows and begins to adapt to the rhythms of life outside the womb. At first, though, the need to feed will outweigh the need to sleep. Many paediatricians recommend that a parent shouldn't let a newborn sleep too long without feeding. In practical terms, that means offering a feeding to your baby every 2 to 3 hours or so.
SLEEP SAFETY
Keep sleep safety in mind. Do not place anything in the crib or bassinet that may interfere with baby's breathing; this includes plush toys. Avoid objects with cords or ties and objects with any kind of sharp edge or corner. Make sure the crib you are using is up to today's safety standards.
The American Academy of Paediatrics recommends that healthy infants be placed on their backs or sides to sleep, not on their stomachs. Recent studies suggest that the back or side position for sleep might be safer. These studies noted that babies sleeping on their backs or sides have a somewhat lower risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) than babies who sleep on their stomachs do. The thought is that babies sleeping on their stomachs may have a greater tendency toward sleep obstruction and rebreathing their own carbon dioxide.
There are some exceptions to this recommendation, including: those with certain deformities of the head that make them more likely; to develop airway blockage when lying on their backs; Your paediatrician can best advise you on the right sleep position for your new baby.