Good Baby TipsTips for keeping your baby happy and healthy

by Ron Sombilon Gallery

Question by Betwixt and Between: What are some of the benefits of teaching baby sign language…?
…if no one in your family is deaf? I know this is an increasingly common practice in families where there is no one with hearing impairmnent.

Besides the obvious benefit of being able to communicate in a different way, what are some other reasons people do it?

If you practice this with your own baby, could you please tell me a little about the learning process, for both you and baby?

Best answer:

Answer by Jill P
Babies are able to understand and form thoughts before they develop the capacity for verbal speech. Sign language gives them a way to communicate their thoughts before they develop speech habits. For example, they might know they want more milk but can’t tell you because they haven’t learned to speak yet — sign language allows them to sign for it. The downside is that if they are able to get what they need without speaking, they make take their time learning to speak.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Restful, relaxed babies are one all parents hope to have. When a baby finally gets through the night, life becomes easier for everyone involved. However, getting to that point could be difficult for baby and the parents. Many babies cry for months before they learn to fall asleep by themselves. Some seemingly take forever. There is a simple, enjoyable way to help a child get through the night. Baby massages are a pleasant, endearing and thoughtful way to help mother and baby.

Besides calming and comforting a baby, massages can help with a baby’s stomach and gas pains as well as colic. This is a natural way to help relieve your baby of many ailments. Gently rub the abdominal area in a circular motion. Don’t push to hard, just gently enough to the touch of your skin. There are other physical benefits of a baby massage. It improves circulation, helps with digestion and stimulates the baby’s neurological system. Your baby will not only enjoy a sweet massage from you but profit from it as well.

It does more than just relieve pain. There are emotional benefits to massaging a baby as well. It helps parents bond with their children. It relieves stress from both parent and baby. Even if the parent is away all day at work, they can come home, massage the baby and the two will bond instantly. The baby massage can be part of the baby’s daily nighttime routine. This provides calming to both and relieves stress. A parent will find joy and relaxation in providing a sweet, tender baby massage.

The calming baby massage also helps when routines change. Perhaps you are away for the night in a strange room and your baby can’t fall asleep. Or your baby didn’t get its daily nap and has been cranky all day long. You could give your baby a massage, which will help calm the child. This makes soothing the baby easier and could get rid of the strange elements your baby is noticing.

A baby massage helps you learn about your baby. You will pick up cues as to what your baby needs while giving the baby a massage. If your child is every sick, you will be able to notice differences during the massage. This deepens the bond and emotional connection between parent and baby.

To learn ways to massage a baby, check out books on the subject or you can get instruction from the International Association of Infant Massage. You could also become a certified baby masseuse. Follow the right technique, but most importantly give your baby a loving touch. You will be happy that you learned this natural way to soothe and comfort your child.

Breast milk is the best food for new-born babies packed with all the essential nutrients required for their growth and overall development. No wonder doctors all over the globe vouch for the benefits of breast milk, both for the mothers and for their dear babies.

Mother’s milk consists of all the essential elements and in the right proportions that are required by young ones for adequate growth. Breast milk consists of lactoferrin that helps babies absorb the right quantities of iron and protects them from infections. It also contains certain hormones that help fight allergies and increase metabolism leading to proper digestion.

Goodness Of Breast Milk

The goodness of breast milk and its benefits are outlined as below:

Breast Milk Provides The Ultimate Nutrition

Mother’s milk can never be a substitute for artificial feeds as it contains all the essential nutrients – fat, sugar, protein, vitamins, minerals and water – in adequate quantities as required for the growth of new born babies. The breast milk’s composition also changes according to the child’s nutritional requirements, helping the child garner an all round development, both mentally and physically.

Breast Milk Results In The Child’s Overall Growth

Babies fed with breast milk for 6 months or more are exposed to fewer ailments, as opposed to their counterparts. Breast milk provides a complete solution to all the nutritional requirements of a growing infant, helping him become stronger, more active, and intelligent. Breast milk contains ingredients like DHA (docosohexaenoic acid) and AA (arachidonic acid), which contributes to speedier brain and retinal development.

Breast Milk Augments The Child’s Immunity

Mother’s milk is packed with all the essential nutrients that a child requires for his development during his growing stage. Breast milk contains certain essential enzymes and antibodies that help immunize the young ones and helps keep infections at bay. In addition, breast-fed children run lesser risk of obesity in the future, as compared to the ones fed with bottled milk. In addition, babies fed with breast milk run lesser risk of sudden Infant death syndrome (SIDS), high cholesterol, and asthma in the first year of their life.

Benefits For Nursing Mothers

Breast-feeding requires burning of extra calories, helping the nursing mother shed pounds of weight they put on during pregnancy. It also helps the uterus get back in shape similar to prior to pregnancy. It lowers the risk of breast and ovarian cancers.

Breastfeeding Helps Strengthen Emotional Bond

As breast-feeding requires close mother-child skin-to-skin contact and demands exclusive time to be spent by the mother, it helps strengthen her bond with her child, leading to the child feeling secure and comfortable.

Breastfeeding Benefits All

Breastfeeding is a simple and easy-to-do task, requiring no elaborate preparation. As breastfed babies are less prone to ailments, it helps reduce the society’s medical costs. In addition more babies being breastfed means lesser use of artificial feeds, thereby requiring lesser containers. This would, in turn lead to lesser garbage and a healthier environment.

Thus, breastfeeding is essential for both the development of the growing child as well as for the wellness of her mother. With goodness galore, breastfeeding is advisable to all mothers for the benefit of her child and self!

Many cultures have used massage as part of baby care for centuries, and research shows it can have many benefits. Not only does massage enable you to learn about and respond to your baby’s body language. But it is also a wonderful way to make your baby feel safe and secure by showing that he or she is loved and cared for. There are no hard and fast rules for baby massage, other than to ensure you are doing it safely. Your baby and you will discover together what works best for you both.

Please bear in mind that massage is something you do with your infant, not to your infant.  It is strongly suggested you seek guidance and education on massage techniques from a qualified baby massage therapist, midwife, or other healthcare professional to ensure you are doing it safely. A ten minute massage, two or three times a week assists in strengthening the parent-infant relationship, babies love it and it can assist in alleviating baby ailments too.

In today’s society, parents have heavy workloads and both their jobs and at home which can directly affect quality time spent with children.  Infant massage, an age old tradition, is simple, free, can be administered almost anywhere and has a host of emotional and physical benefits for both parents and baby. A child with a strong sense of attachment is more likely to grow up confident, assured and happy.

The parent-infant attachment is rooted in the very early months of life, so by its very definition infant massage has a deep effect on the emotional well-being of the infant and can be used to attain a sense of security for the growing child. The emotional benefits of infant massage, such as quality, one-to-one loving touch, can also be experienced by fathers.

For centuries, baby massage has been used by many cultures routinely in baby care. By massaging your baby you can learn to respond to their body language and get to know them better. Massage is beneficial for baby, making them feel safe and secure, in the knowledge that they are love and care for them. There are no real rules to baby massage, only that you learn to do it safely. You and your baby will soon get to know what works best. You need to bear in mind that massage is what you do with your baby, and not to them. A health care professional or your midwife,or a therapist in baby massage can educate you and give you guidance on how to massage your child properly and safely. A ten minute massage, two or three times on a weekly basis, is all that is needed to develop and strenghten the parent-baby bonding. Your baby will love and enjoy it and it will alleviate a lot of baby ailments at the same time.

Modern society today, sees both parents working juggling their jobs and their home life, which affect how much quality time they can spend with their children. The age old tradition of baby massage, doesn’t cost a thing, it is simple to administer anywhere and brings a whole host of emotional and physical benefits for baby, mother and father. This attachment helps with the bonding process of both parents and baby, ensuring that they grow up confident, happy and healthy. Infant baby massage is a great contribution to that early bonding session very early on in a child’s first few months of their life. This can affect their sense of well being and their emotional behaviour towards their sense of security as they are growing up. Baby massage gives great emotional benefits, as quality time is spent on one-to-one loving touch which can also be experienced by the father and mother alike.

Hi. I was just hoping someone could give me some info about not letting your baby cry by always picking them up. I know there’s something out there about them crying less in the long run etc. My baby’s 1 month old and I just can’t stand to hear him cry, so I do something about it(hold him). Any information would be great, just so that I don’t feel like I’m doing myself or him a disservice.

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Studies have shown that many children are exposed to dangerous quantities of harmful chemicals at a very young age. Children, especially toddlers, are exposed to a lot of carcinogenic material such as pesticides and herbicides very early in their life. This is also the time when the children are most susceptible due to their very weak immune systems. As a result, parents should focus their efforts on making sure their children are being the fed only the most safe and beneficial foods to avoid harmful long-term effect.

Why Organic Baby Food?

Organic baby food is prepared from organically grown materials and prepared in a very safe and sterile environment, to ensure that your child has no chance of any exposure to harmful chemical substances. Organic baby food contains all the ingredients that are needed by your baby to grow up healthily. In fact, you can even choose to make your own food. Doing so helps you sleep safe and sound as you know exactly what your baby ate today, where it came from, and if it indeed is beneficial to your child’s body since you can chose the ingredients with care.

Organic Baby Food for Growing Babies…

Breast milk is the ideal food for your baby until six months of age. After six months, you can start your baby on single foods instead of any mixtures. Feed your baby similar kinds of food to ensure that the food is safe and doesn’t result in allergic reactions. As with starting any organic regimen, you’ll need to experiment slowly until you find what foods your child likes.

Some Ideal Foods

Some of the foods you can try for growing babies include apples, pears, bananas or avocados. With fruits and veggies, you’ll need to peel off the skin since your child’s body is not yet able to process this. You also have the ability to steam vegetables or mash the food into a soft and smooth paste. This should make the food easier to digest.

Other foods you can try include carrots, sweet potatoes and winter squash. Green beans are also used by many mothers and so is barley. Take care to ensure no protein or dairy is fed when the baby is younger than six months.

For a list of highly recommended organic baby foods, don’t forget to check out our Organic Baby Foods section.

Mixtures

Once you have successfully fed your baby a certain organic food and there has been no reaction, you can choose to mix and match different fruits and vegetables. You can also add breast milk into this mixture as well.

Likewise, you could mix sweet potatoes and apples or you could try mixing brown rice and bananas into your baby’s diet. Some mothers even try pears, oatmeal, peaches, and acorn squash too. The possibilities are endless when it comes to providing your baby with organic meals.