What To Teach A Newborn

When Will You Hear Baby’s First Words

The first “baby talk” is nonverbal and happens soon after birth. Your baby grimaces, cries, and squirms to express a range of emotions and physical needs, from fear and hunger to frustration and sensory overload. Good parents learn to listen and interpret their baby’s different cries.

Just when your baby will say those magical first words varies greatly from individual baby to individual baby. But if your baby misses any of the following milestones in speech development, talk to your pediatrician or family doctor about your concerns.

Baby Talk Milestones

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What Are The Different Methods Of Crawling

Most babies dont go straight from immobile to crawling on hands and knees. In fact, some babies never learn the classic crawl of alternating the right hand and left foot with the left hand and right foot while on their hands and knees.

Instead, many babies get creative with different types of movement. For example, your baby might start getting around with an army crawl, by lying on their belly and pulling themselves forward with their arms. They might also use their legs more than their arms, raising their body by straightening their legs and then propelling forward.

They might try sitting up and scooting forward on their bum, using their arms and legs to move forward. Or they might even skip crawling and go straight from rolling to sitting to walking.

How To Play It Helps Their Vision And Motor Skills

Play all day, it is the only job of a baby, and it is never too early to start. In the first few weeks you may want to introduce some simple, age-appropriate toys that appeal to the senses of sight, hearing, and touch, such as: rattles, textured toys, musical toys, unbreakable crib mirrors. Try toys and mobiles with contrasting colors and patterns. Strong contrasts , curves, and symmetry stimulate an infant’s developing vision. As vision improves and babies gain more control over their movements, they’ll interact more and more with their environment, suggests KidsHealth.org.

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Use Proper Soothing Toys

Crib safety guidelines recommend that you choose soothing and harmless toys to put in your childs crib. For babies below eight months old, it is suggested to tie the toy to their crib, which they can feel, smell, and sense, but cant pull closer or get entangled. For babies above eight months, you can just drop the toy in their crib.

Laying Your Baby Down Before Sleep

This is a critical step to take when teaching your baby to sleep alone. The whole idea is for your baby to learn to fall asleep without you there.

Dont allow your baby to fall asleep in your arms, or during a feed. Instead, lay your baby down into their crib while they are still awake.

Now, just to be difficult, there is yet more debate on when to do this.

Some advice says to put your baby down when they appear to be drowsy. That would be when your babys eyes are drooping and they appear to be almost asleep.

Other advice says they are too close to falling asleep at this stage, and should be laid down to sleep when they are relaxed, but still fully awake.

The only way to find out what works for you is to try. Some will take to laying down while fairly wide awake, while others will need to be sleepier.

My best advice would be that hitting the right stage of relaxation or sleepiness can become stressful. Instead, think of it as finding the stage where your baby is no longer showing an active interest in their surroundings.

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Asleep Active Or Alert

During the first month of life, your newborn will spend much of the day sleeping or seeming drowsy. Over the next several weeks to months, your baby will be awake and alert for longer periods of time. You’ll learn to recognize when your baby ready to learn and play:

• A baby who is quiet and alert will be attentive and responsive and interested in surroundings.
• A baby who is awake but active or fussing is less able to focus on you. The baby may seem upset or cry when you try to get his or her attention. These are signs that your baby may be getting hungry, tired, or overstimulated.

How To Use Their Reflexes

All babies are born with reflexes, but they don’t always know you to use them smoothly. For example, rooting is a reflex babies have to tell them when food is near. If you gently rub your baby’s cheek, they will turn their head that way. At first, they might jerk or frantically search for something to suck once they’ve turned that direction. You can help your baby learn to use their reflex by repeatedly rewarding their search for food with breastmilk or formula. Eventually, your baby will become a pro at eating and their need for the reflex will diminish, and in turn, they will grow out of it. Helping your baby to use their reflexes will encourage them to use their little muscles and learn all they need to know about their growing bodies.

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Emotional Bonding: They Have To Learn To Trust

Perhaps the most important thing you can start teaching your baby from day one is the importance of emotional bonding. This is critical in the newborn stage for both parents and baby. Bonding plays a critical role in your babys emotional development, which in turn is the basis for all future relationships. One cannot underestimate the importance of attachment and bonding.

Bonding is more than a warm fuzzy feeling it is a critical, deep emotional involvement with and trust in another person. It is a journey of getting to know, trust and rely on another person.There is a misconception that bonding occurs like love at first sight. The reality is that it is a process that develops over time. Bonding may begin in pregnancy or even before conception it may occur like a flash at birth or may in fact take months to develop, reports MegFaure.com. So snuggle that baby, hold them close, rock them to sleep and sing them a story. Youre doing so much more good than you realize.

Give Your Baby Adequate Tummy Time

While babies should always sleep on their backs, it is good to give them some tummy time every day while they are awake. When your baby spends time lying on their belly, they practice raising their head off the ground, which strengthens their trunk and back and gets their limbs moving freely. Both of these activities help build the muscles theyll need for crawling.

Some babies dont enjoy tummy time, especially at first. If your little one screams or protests, try doing it only in short bursts and for just a few minutes at a time. You can also make floor playtime more fun by giving them a few minutes in different positions, including sides, back, and tummy. And finally, try a bonding tummy time by lying down on your back and putting baby on your tummy, so you can look at their face while they practice lifting their head.

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Safety First: Lower Sids Risk

Every time you put your baby down to sleep, whether it’s at night or for a nap during the day, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that you do the following to lower the chances of SIDS :

• Always put your baby down to sleep on their back.
• Always use a firm sleep surface. Car seats and other sitting devices are not recommended for routine sleep.
• If you baby falls asleep in a stroller car seat or swing, try to remove them and lay them down on a flat surface.
• Your baby should sleep in the same room as you, but not in the same bed as you.
• Keep soft objects or loose bedding out of the crib. This includes pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, and bumper pads.
• Dont rely on devices which claim to prevent SIDS.
• Do not use wedges and positioners.
• Offer your baby a pacifier at nap time and bedtime.
• Avoid covering your baby’s head or overheating.
• Do not use home monitors or commercial devices marketed to reduce the risk of SIDS.
• Make sure your baby gets all recommended vaccinations.
• Get some skin-to-skin contact time with them.
• Give your baby supervised, awake tummy time every day.
• Don’t smoke.
• Breastfeedyour baby.
• If you are tired, dont breastfeed while in a chair or on a couch in case you fall asleep.
• If you’re pregnant, get regular prenatal care.

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How Do I Teach My Baby To Read

Our reading program is not a first-grade curriculum imposed upon an 18-month-old. Instead, it is a carefully designed program with the frequency, intensity, and duration that is appropriate for the brain growth and development of the baby or young child.

• This is a relaxed, joyous process where parents learn to be sensitive to how the baby learns and how to feed that happy hunger.
• Mother learns what her child enjoys and creates a unique reading pathway just for her child. This brings mother and child closer together.
• Teaching a baby begins with understanding why babies and young children learn the way they do.
• When parents understand the philosophy, the techniques are simply common sense.
• Parents who skip the why often do not succeed.

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Before Birth: Play Music For Them

If you cant get used to the idea of reading out loud to your belly, then let your baby listen to some music! The benefits are similar to that of reading to your baby. BabyMed.com recommends the following, The best type of music to play for baby is classical music because it tends to offer a range of notes and tends to repeat, creating an almost lullaby style sound in utero. However, any musical selection will work as long as the music is not harsh. You also dont actually need to hold headphones up to your belly, just play some music at a normal volume, it will help you and baby relax!

How To Teach Your Baby Swimming

Introducing your little one to water gives him an amazing sense of calm. If you know how to teach baby swimming, then you can make him learn a life-saving lesson. This is not only a preventive measure, but it offers them great enjoyment too. You need to plan your babys first pool dip carefully and make him feel comfortable.

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Let Your Baby Cry It Out

One crying-it-out type of sleep training is the well-known Ferber Method, also known as “Progressive Watching” or “Graduated Extinction.” The goal is to teach your baby how to sleep on their own and put themselves back to sleep if they wake up during the night. Richard Ferber, MD, director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Children’s Hospital Boston, developed this method. He advises parents not to start this training until their baby is at least 5 or 6 months old. Heres an overview of how its done:

• Put your baby in their crib — drowsy, but awake. Once you’ve finished their bedtime routine, leave the room.
• If your baby cries, wait a few minutes before you check on them. The amount of time you wait depends on you and your baby. You might start waiting somewhere between 1 and 5 minutes.
• When you re-enter your babys room, try to console them. But do not pick them up and do not stay for more than 2 or 3 minutes, even if they are still crying when you leave. Seeing your face will be enough to assure your baby that you are close by so they can eventually fall asleep on their own.
• If they continue crying, gradually increase the amount of time you wait before going in to check on them again. For instance, if you wait 3 minutes the first time, wait 5 minutes the second time, and 10 minutes each time after that.
• The next night, wait 5 minutes the first time, 10 minutes the second time, and 12 minutes each time after that.

Teaching Your Child Everyday Skills

When children play, they’re learning what they want to learn. Often these will be things you want them to learn, too.

Sometimes, though, your child may need some extra help from you to learn the necessary skills they’ll need throughout their lives.

For example, these skills can be learning to use a potty, how to wash and dress themselves, what not to touch, and where it’s not safe to run.

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Touch Instead Of Holding In Her Bed

Eventually, you will be able to put your baby in the crib and hold her there while she falls asleep, because she will not need rocking any more. Then you move to touching, but not holding, your baby, while she falls asleep in the crib. Eventually, she will be able to fall asleep with you simply holding her hand. Keep doing this until she accepts it as your new routine — getting sleepy rocking, but then being put into her bed lying on her back and falling asleep there, holding your hand. At some point, you can substitute a toy instead of your finger.

Guess what? You now have a baby who can be put down in the crib awake, and who will fall asleep on her own!

Stop And Smell The Roses

Babies are born with a heightened sense of smell. In fact, babies can recognize the smell of their mothers immediately after birth.

Stimulate your babys senses by passing pleasant scents beneath your babys nose. She wont be able to voluntarily sniff yet, but shell enjoy noticing the new smells.

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Don’t Make It Into A Big Deal

Your child might learn to eat with a spoon very quickly, but they may still want to be fed when they’re tired.

They might use the potty a few times and then want to go back to nappies.

Try not to worry this doesn’t mean you have failed. It won’t take them long to realise they want to learn to be grown up and independent.

How To Soothe Your Baby

Soothing your baby can take many forms.

You may choose to stand out of sight, but gently talk in a soothing voice to reassure your baby you are still there. Or you might opt to go into your babys room and:

• Lay them back down in their crib.
• Talk to them in a soothing voice.
• Rub their back, arms, legs, or feet.
• Turn on a night light.

Choose what works for you. Many people find that beginning with a more hands-on approach, progressing to hands-off, and then out of the room works well.

However you choose to soothe, to be sure to do so with as little stimulation or interaction as possible. Keep sound, light, and movement to a minimum and avoid eye contact whenever you can. Only pick your child up as a last resort, or if they are obviously upset beyond what is reasonable for you both .

Watch Those Feedings

If you are happy with feeding your baby off to sleep, thats fine. You should continue to do so. However, that also means that now is not the time to teach your baby to sleep alone.

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