10 Mistakes New Parents Make

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/features/10-mistakes-new-parents-make?page=3

1. Panicking over anything and everything - Is he having too many bowel movements or too few? Is she spitting up too much? Is she getting enough to eat or too little? New York City psychoanalyst Leon Hoffman, MD says, "This worry gets in the way of being spontaneous and enjoying your infant's first year of life. Babies are far more resilient than we give them credit for."

2. Not letting your baby cry it out - "Babies are designed to cry,” says pediatric nurse Jennifer Walker, RN. "They can be perfectly diapered and fed and still cry like you are pulling an arm off." For the most part, crying is just part of being a baby. But if your infant is inconsolable for an hour and crying is associated with fever, rash, or persistent vomiting, call your pediatrician as soon as possible.

3. Waking baby up to breastfeed - "Breastfed babies can -- and should -- sleep through the night,” says Walker. "It is possible and beneficial for breastfed babies -- and their moms -- to sleep through the night."

4. Confusing spit up and vomit - Walker says, "The difference [between spit up and vomit] is frequency, not forcefulness. Spit up can absolutely fly across the room." Vomiting, however, is all about frequency. "If your baby is vomiting with a gastrointestinal virus,” she says, “it will come every 30 or 45 minutes regardless of feeding."

5. Not sweating a fever in a newborn - "Any fever over 100.4 rectally in the first three months of a baby's life is an emergency,” Walker says. The one exception is a fever that develops within 24 hours after an infant's first set of immunizations.

6. Not properly installing the car seat - “Once you have chosen the right seat,” Walker says, "go to your local fire station or Babies-R-Us or another chain store to make sure you have installed it correctly.” Or go to get help putting it in. "Your infant's life,” she says, “may depend on it."

7. Neglecting oral care - "Many new parents don’t think about their newborns teeth or oral health until it is too late," says Saul Pressner, a New York City-based dentist. Your baby is never too young for you to start encouraging good oral health habits. Pressner offers tips to help new parents know how to do that:

• Don't give your infant milk in bed once teeth have erupted.

• Use a wet gauze to wipe down your baby’s gums, he says. And start using a tooth brush when the baby turns 1.

• It’s also important to make sure your child is getting enough fluoride. Fluoride is found naturally in water and aids in cavity prevention. Some towns have fluoridated water through the taps. "If yours doesn’t,” Says Pressner, “ask your dentist about supplements."

8. Ignoring your marriage - "Staying connected within the marriage when you first have a child is really important and can be overlooked," says John C. Friel, PhD. Friel is a licensed psychologist. "Any weakness in that relationship will get magnified by having a child,” he says. “And while you have to focus a lot on the new baby, you must somehow maintain a sense of being a couple."

9. Fighting too much (or too little) in front of your baby - "Even a 3-month old will pick up vibes," Friel says. "Look at the intensity and frequency of your fights," he says. "Snapping every now and then is a normal part of living with another person. And when people start to suppress too much, it's just as bad as going to the other extreme."

10. Trusting unreliable sources for parenting help - Walker advises that you be careful about where you get your information. She says, "WebMD.com, the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the American Academy of Pediatrics are reputable and useful when making decisions about general medical care and immunizations."

Gestational Carriers Becoming More Common

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/tabloids/gestational-carriers-soon-future-norm-909

Gestational carriers - or surrogate mothers - are becoming more and more common. Thanks to these carriers, having babies might soon become the most painless and convenient norm in the future. Women no longer have to worry about “the clock ticking” and scary things like depression, morning sickness, getting fat or acquiring stretch marks.

Many will disagree with the concept of commercialising a womb or making pregnancy a career option, but if you think hard when the choice of having a Cesarean section was introduced many criticised it as they felt a painful, normal delivery was a must in every woman’s life. When the epidural became an option many frowned. But today they are options many girls opt for when having a baby!

Choosing a gestational carrier just requires a change in mindset according to sociologist Nandini Sardesai who says, “Many girls might not want to jeopardize their careers by getting pregnant, slowing down for nine months at work and taking maternity leave.”

And mums don’t have to ever feel guilty about not feeling maternal enough if they choose to have a gestational carrier because Sardesai says, “The bonding between mother and child will not be hampered at all. Everyone falls in love with their kids and people adore their adopted kid who is biologically not there’s too.” Fathers don’t give birth to their babies, but they love them nonetheless.

Also the best thing about gestational carriers is that they have no role to play in your baby’s DNA or genes. They just carry your baby for you. Also you don’t have to worry about a carrier ever getting emotionally involved or refusing to give up the child as Dr Roya Rozati, Head of the Department of Gynecology, Deccan College of Medical Sciences says, “Nobody proceeds without a legally abiding contract and the carriers are doing this for purely monetary reasons."

Baby Stroller Recall

http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=20110123_jogging_baby_stroller_recall_issued_model_serial_numbers_list_announced.htm

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced a voluntary recall along with Canadian officials for jogging strollers which were imported by Phil&Teds USA Inc, because fingers could get caught and seriously injured when folding and unfolding the strollers . Owners are instructed to stop using the recalled strollers and contact the company until it can be repaired.

The company had received a total of three reports of adults that have been injured when folding or unfolding these strollers. Two people had received lacerations while one had their finger tip amputated because of the stroller.

There are around 22,000 jogging strollers and 7,200 in Canada that are involved in this recall which sold between May 2008 and July 2010 at specialty stores at a cost between $350 - $450. The models are the Sport v2 and the Classic V1 model which is a single-seat jogging stroller. Both of these strollers have three wheels. There is the phil&teds logo on the harness that holds the baby in the stroller.

The serial numbers being recalled for these jogging strollers are ranging from 0308/0001 to 0510/0840 for the Sport v2 model and the ranges of 0308/0001 to 0510/0906 for the Classic v1. The serial number has the first four digits as the month and year of manufacture, while the last four digits is the individual stroller numbers. The serial number can be found inside the folding hinge.

Consumers that have the recalled jogging strollers should contact phil&ted USA to get a free hinge-cover kit along with repair instructions. You can get more information about this recall at www.philandteds.com/support or by calling the company toll-free at (877) 432-1642 between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. ET Monday through Friday.

Do Baby DVDs Help Babies Learn?

http://www.jconline.com/article/20110124/LIFE08/101240303/Do-baby-DVDs-help-babies-learn

Many parents believe that educational DVDs have helped their toddlers acquire language skills. However, a recent study says that young children do not actually learn from baby DVDs that market themselves as educational tools. The researchers also found that parents who liked the DVD tended to overestimate how much their children learned from it. The study was published recently in the journal Psychological Science.

Toddlers between the ages of 12 and 18 months participated in a month-long study. Some of the children watched a best-selling educational infant DVD several times a week. Half of them watched alone and the other half watched with a parent.

Another group of babies had no exposure to the DVD. Their parents were asked to try to teach them the words from the DVD during everyday interactions.

The results were clear. The children who had extensive exposure to the DVDs, either with a parent or alone, did not learn any more new words than children who had no exposure to the DVD, according to the study.

DeLoache said it's easy for parents to attribute a child's natural learning process or vocabulary spurt --a period of rapid word learning that occurs between 18 and 30 months -- to these DVDs. But language development occurs naturally in children as long as parents are talking to them, she said.

Although there is nothing inherently wrong with allowing children to watch the DVDs for a reasonable amount of time, parents should not use these DVDs as a babysitter in lieu of actual interaction, said Judy DeLoache, University of Virginia psychologist and study co-author.

"Children really like to watch these," she said. "(But) there are two things to worry about. One is parents having a greater expectations than can ever be fulfilled and another is the tendency to park a child in front of the TV and just leave them there."

Some Baby Formulas May Cause Faster Weight Gain

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/24/133110606/some-baby-formulas-may-cause-faster-weight-gain

Although breast milk is the best food choice for infants, most American babies are fed formula at some point. It has been shown that these babies gain weight more rapidly than breast-fed babies.

The problem is that formula-fed babies often gain too much weight. This trend can continue throughout life, according to Nicolas Stettler, a pediatrician with Children's Hospital in Philadelphia.

Stettler points to studies both in the U.S. and Europe that show rapid weight gain, including a study at his hospital, which showed infants who experienced rapid weight gain during the first four months of life were five times more likely to be obese by age 20.

And, as children, Stettler says, there are more associated health problems, including liver abnormalities along with elevated blood sugars and high cholesterol.

Scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia wanted to explore average weight gain with different formulas. They compared cow's milk-based formula to protein hydrolysate formulas, which contain predigested proteins and are typically fed to infants who cannot tolerate the intact proteins in other formulas.

Lead author and developmental psychobiologist Julie Mennella compared infants fed cow's milk formula to those fed the broken-down protein formula. After seven months, infants fed cow's milk formula had, on average, gained 2 pounds more than infants fed protein formula.

Mennella says the slower weight gain among infants on the predigested protein-based formula mimicked the average weight gain among breast-fed infants.

"There's something in cow-milk formula, or something lacking in cow-milk formula, that's resulting in babies overfeeding," she says. "I could give the same baby cow-milk formula one day and protein hydrolysate formula on the other, and that baby will satiate sooner and consume less formula on the protein hydrolysate day."

Mennella's study didn't explore the reasons for this, but she has some ideas. In adults, predigested proteins are believed to act in the intestine to initiate the end of a meal, leading to smaller meals and the intake of fewer calories. It could be these infants responded similarly, getting the full message to the brain sooner than infants fed cow's milk formula.

Stettler says the findings suggest certain formulas normalize weight gain, but says more research is needed — particularly over the long term because babies who gain weight too slowly are also at risk.

These infants "have less neurological development and attain a lower IQ during childhood and adulthood," he says, adding that parents, until further research provides conclusive answers, should work closely with their pediatricians to monitor their babys' weight and make sure they don't gain too much or too little. In this case, "average" is definitely best.

Benefits and Risks of Using a Pacifier

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/crying-colic-9/using-pacifiers

Pacifiers: They can be a source of intense debate among parents. Should they use a pacifier with baby, or banish them forever from the house?

The issue isn't so black and white. According to pediatricians, parents, therapists and dentists, there are many pros and cons of pacifier use.

Pros:

• Protection against SIDS. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends parents consider letting their child fall asleep or nap with a pacifier their first year, as it seems to have a protective effect against sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Use the pacifier when putting baby down to sleep -- don't put it back in baby's mouth once he's already asleep.

• Helping babies pacify themselves. Infants need ways to help soothe themselves, says Jennifer Shu, MD, pediatrician and co-author of Heading Home with Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality, and a pacifier can be a source of comfort for a crying or colicky baby.

• It satisfies the suck reflex. Some babies have a need to suck that exceeds the time they get on the bottle or breast, says Laura Jana, MD, pediatrician and co-author with Shu of Heading Home with Your Newborn.

• Easier weaning. When you’re ready for a child to stop, it’s much easier to wean them from a pacifier than off of their own thumb, says Shu.

Cons:

• According to a study reported in Pediatrics, pacifiers may lead to 40% more ear infections (called acute otitis media). Though researchers aren’t sure why this happens, they suspect it may be due to a change in pressure between the middle ear and upper throat. Reinforcing this, one study showed that “children who stopped using pacifiers regularly after the age of six months had more than a third fewer middle ear infections than children who use them,” writes Rod Moser, PA, PhD, in his WebMD blog “All Ears.”

• If a pacifier is introduced too early, there’s the risk of nipple confusion for a baby who’s just learning to nurse, says Shu. If you want to give your baby a pacifier, wait until after their first month before starting.

• Parents can mistakenly offer a pacifier when baby really needs nutrition-based sucking, such as a breast or bottle

Babies who are overzealous suckers may change their tooth alignment or delay speech. However, for children less zealous, pacifiers shouldn’t be a problem. They “can certainly be a godsend for fussy babies,” says dentist Kimberly A. Harms, DDS, an American Dental Association consumer advisor, and “as long as they are only used for a short period of time, they do little damage to the baby's teeth.”

One of the most important facets of successfully using a pacifier is knowing when to stop using it. Though some pediatricians suggest weaning from the pacifier at about nine to 12 months -- the same time you banish the bottle -- others believe aiming to wean by about 18 months is good, too.

Know Sex of Baby at First Ultrasound

http://thestir.cafemom.com/pregnancy/114917/know_the_sex_of_your

Finding out the gender of the baby is one of the biggest things many families look forward to during pregnancy, whether they have a preference or not.

Most average pregnancies in the United States undergo two ultrasounds -- one at the end of the first trimester, around 9-13 weeks, and another around the end of the second, around 18-22 weeks, the latter being the "gender ultrasound" most frequently.

But now researchers have found a way to find out the baby's sex at the first ultrasound with 97% accuracy. Researchers did a transvaginal ultrasound at 6 weeks on more than 5,300 women and hypothesied gender due to one marker. Then a transabdominal ultrasound (the one on your belly) at 18-20 weeks, and their method of gender determination was right 98-99 percent of the time!

The location of the placenta is what researchers used to determine the sex of the baby -- 97.2 percent of boys had their placenta on the right side of the uterus at that 6 week ultrasound, and 97.5 percent of girls had theirs on the left. According to their study, this method should be considered "highly reliable" in determining gender within the first few weeks of pregnancy.

Risk of Autism Rises With Closely Spaced Pregnancies

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40990120/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/

A new study shows that the risk of autism may go up when a second child is conceived shortly after the first is born.

Columbia University researchers found that the risk of an autism diagnosis in a second-born child rose more than three-fold when the child was conceived within 12 months of the birth of the first baby, according to the study which was published online Monday in Pediatrics.

Second-borns conceived between 12 and 23 months after a first child was born had twice the risk of being diagnosed with autism compared to babies conceived a full three years after an older sibling was born.

The findings might be a sign that that something in the uterine environment is changed in the years immediately following pregnancy — women might be deficient in certain nutrients, such as folate, for example.

The researcher, as well as outside experts, cautioned that parents should not be too alarmed by the new findings. “At this point we aren’t able to say from this research that delaying a second pregnancy would have an effect on autism risk,” said Cheslack-Postava, a post-doctoral researcher at Columbia.

While the increased three-fold risk for second-borns may sound high at first, parents need to remember that the overall risk of autism is low, said Dr. Rita Cantor, a professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“There are a lot of people who have closely spaced pregnancies who don’t go on to have children with autism,” Cantor said.