Caring For Infants

The infancy of child lasts for the first one year of a baby’s life. First time parents often take parenting classes to help prepare for the transition to parenthood.

Holding New Infants

Newborn babies are quite fragile. Parents should always wash their hands before holding any infants. Babies need to have their head and neck supported at all times. New babies aren’t ready for rough play, and they spend the majority of their time sleeping and eating. New infants also thrive on gentle cradling and skin-to-skin contact to develop a bond with their parents.

Traveling with Infants

Car seats for younger babies should be in the back seat, since many cars are equipped with a passenger side airbags. Parents should buy a good quality car seat, and make sure it hasn’t been recalled for safety issues. By law, parents are required to have a properly installed infant car seat before leaving the hospital with baby.

Feeding Infants

For the first 4 months, babies don’t eat any solid food but only breast milk or formula. However, infants will eventually eat semi-solid and then solid food later. However, infants need to be able to sit upright and chew. Parents should consult their pediatrician to find out the exact age to start feeding semi solid foods. New foods can include baby cereals, pureed fruits and vegetables.

For babies aged 8 to 11 months, parents can slowly add meat and finger foods to the feeding schedule. Infants will still need breast milk or formula every day, but they will want to eat different foods. Parents also add more fruits, vegetables, soft pasta, and more liquids like water and apple juice.

Sleeping

Parents should make sure their crib has not been recalled for any safety issues. The crib mattress sheet should be well fitted. All excess pillows, low hanging crib mobiles, blankets, plush animals should be removed from the crib. To reduce the risk of SIDS, infants should be put to sleep on their backs.

Bathing

Many parents must wait until the umbilical cord is healed to give their babies a tub bath, usually up to 4 weeks. Until that time, parents should give infants a sponge bath. Parents should use gentle baby soap and washcloth. When bathing infants, parents should always watch the baby carefully. Parents can later use a baby tub with a drain for a more extended bath time.