Newborn Care: 5 Tips For Starting Life Right
“What happens now?” I asked. “Let’s get through day one,” my husband responded. Bringing our first baby home was as intimidating as it was joyful. After the frenzy of birth and a harrowing NICU stay, we were left wondering “What comes next?”
It’s common to feel uncertain about one’s parenting abilities, especially with your first. This post will bring an evidence-based perspective to some essential topics surrounding newborn care. Keep reading to get the best research on tummy time, crying and consoling, sleep training, bathing, cord and circumcision care.
Tummy Time
Because the bones of a newborn are soft, they will gradually conform to the pressure of a crib, car seat, or carrier. While babies should sleep on their backs to prevent SIDS, this position will gradually flatten their heads. Tummy time is a simple solution that will not only prevent head flattening, but also aid your little one’s muscular development.
Tummy time can begin right after birth. Place the baby on his stomach while positioning his mouth and nose for air breathing. You can lay him on your lap or chest, a playmat, or even an exercise ball (be sure to hold him steady while you guide the ball back and forth!). If he protests this positioning, don’t push it. A few minutes per day is enough at first. Over time he will build up his strength and learn to enjoy the activity.
Speaking of strength-building, tummy time works your baby’s back, neck, and shoulder muscles, all of which are necessary for crawling and walking. This practice is an important developmental milestone for his future mobility.
Crying
New babies don’t have wants, they have needs. Every cry signals a very real need for affection, food, or something else. Lacking independence and unable to communicate themselves, crying is their lifeline. Contrary to popular belief, a new baby cannot be spoiled by too much attention. In fact it is essential for her emotional development. Consistent attendance to your baby’s cries forms a foundation of trust. It tells her “I am here, and you are not alone.” Remember that the poor thing cannot move, see, or speak effectively. The world is a scary place, and you are her only source of safety.
Try to respond before the baby grows so upset that she does not calm easily. Speak gently while rocking her back and forth. You can try feeding, swaddling, a bath, a walk, or a gentle massage.
Sleep Training
I say this without a hint of exaggeration: sleep training is one of the most severe forms of emotional pain one could inflict on a child, with terrifying long term effects. Let me explain.
A self-soothing infant does not exist. There is no neurological evidence to prove that an infant is able to comfort himself to sleep. It’s true that an unattended baby eventually stops crying, but the reason for this is appalling. A child separated from his mother releases somatostatin which counteracts the growth hormone, and the stress hormone cortisol. Now in a “fight or flight” state, the newborn will kick and scream for some assurance of safety. All of this uses the caloric resources that should be applied towards growth. The baby’s gut decreases food absorption, he burns much-needed calories, and even after being returned to his mother, stress hormones will continue to circulate in his system for 30-60 minutes. This explains why an unattended infant can grow so hysterical that it takes hours to soothe him.
Oh, but it gets worse. If the baby’s cries are unheeded, he will eventually go into an energy-conserving defense mode where crying stops, his heart rate lowers, and he appears “tuned out.” Some say the child has “self-soothed”, but neuroscience research tells us that the baby has activated avoidance pathways in the brain. He has dissociated himself with the “dangerous world where nobody loves me” as a means of self-preservation. Over time his brain will condition itself to abandonment, leading to relationship and emotional problems later in life.
A longitudinal study compared the brains of healthy and depressed preschool-age children. It found that kids who received early maternal support had better development of the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for emotional health, memory, and learning. Whereas the children with less attentive mothers exhibited symptoms of stress and depression at just 2-3 years old.
The best possible gift you can give to your baby is yourself. With consistent care and affection, you will foster the confidence your child needs to not only self-soothe, but form strong relationships, a quick memory, and impressive cognitive abilities.
Cord Care
It’s important to prevent infection while waiting for the umbilical cord to fall off. Follow these safe handling tips until then:
Keep the cord dry and clean.
If it gets dirty, gently clean with a cotton ball and warm sterile water. Let it dry completely.
Wash your hands before touching the site.
Fasten your baby’s diaper below the cord.
When it falls off, know that some dark brown, red, or yellow fluid will likely appear. This is completely normal.
If the cord grows red, leaks puss, bleeds heavily, or emits a stench, contact the baby’s care provider immediately.
Bathing
Tub baths are easier and far more pleasant for new babies than sponge baths. Furthermore, it is perfectly safe to submerge the cord or circumcision site in warm soapy water. Newborns should not be bathed for at least 24 hours after birth, but a week is ideal. This is to allow the vernix to completely absorb, prevent hypothermia, and improve breastfeeding (yep, studies show delayed bathing helps with all of this!).
But how to do it exactly? Fill a sink or baby tub with warm water. Gently position your baby so that the water covers her body, but does not reach her face and neck. Using only water, clean her eyes, mouth, cheeks, and forehead with your fingers or a sponge. Add a mild soap as you move to the hair, neck, shoulders, etc. Massage gently as you go.
Some parents prefer to keep their babies in a clean diaper to prevent soiling. If this is you, your last step is to gently remove the diaper to wash your baby’s private parts. Rinse her off thoroughly before wrapping in a clean towel. Make sure that she is completely dry before diapering and dressing.
Circumcision
Obviously inapplicable to some, circumcision is a very personal parenting decision. It’s not my place to comment on the religious or cultural significance of this procedure, but I do believe that everyone should know about the risks, benefits, and best care practices.
BENEFITS - The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) states that the preventive health benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks. The procedure reduces the likelihood of contracting HIV, genital herpes, urinary tract infections, and HPV.
RISKS - About 1.5% of circumcised baby boys will experience serious complications. These could include infection, painful urination, bleeding, scarring of the urinary outlet, penile cancer, and irritation of the glans. Furthermore, the procedure itself is painful, even with anesthetics, and babies exhibit signs of serious distress while it takes place.
CARE FOR THE CIRCUMCISION SITE – If you opted to have your baby circumcised, it’s important to properly care for the wound. A gauze will be placed around his circumcision site after the procedure. This should fall off on its own within 24 hours. After which, to prevent irritation, apply ointment or cream to the diaper wherever the penis will make contact. Handle the Plastibell (a plastic ring around the penis, tying the foreskin with a suture string) carefully and wait for it and the foreskin to fall off, usually within 7-10 days. If you see bleeding, swelling, or discharge, contact the baby’s healthcare professional immediately.
Well that’s a wrap! The newborn period is a time of mixed emotions. Joy, confusion, love, frustration…you’ll go through the whole spectrum before the end. It’s totally worth it, of course, but I hope that this article helps you maximize the highs and minimize the lows. Enjoy those baby snuggles and don’t forget to share your parenting journey with the Ecco community!
SOURCES
Pregnancy, childbirth, and the newborn. (Simkin, Whalley, Keppler, Durham, Bolding. 2016.)
"Baby sleep training: Mistakes 'experts' and parents make." Psychology Today. (Narvaez. 2013.)
"Nurturing your child’s development from birth to 2 months." Zero to Three. (2003.)
"The importance of skin to skin contact for every newborn." Kangaroo Mother Care. (Bergman. 2011.)
Middlemiss W, Granger DA, Goldberg WA, Nathans L. Asynchrony of mother-infant hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity following extinction of infant crying responses induced during the transition to sleep. Early Hum Dev. 2012 Apr;88(4):227-32. doi: 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2011.08.010. Epub 2011 Sep 23. PMID: 21945361
