‘infant’

All Articles tagged ‘infant’

Helping Your Baby Sleep: Follow Your Instincts & Follow Through

Posted on February 28, 2010 in: Infant9 Comments

Video Take 1

As promised, this is my first video post. It’s 11:30pm Sunday night. It took a while to coordinate. This was take number 2. I waited for the sun (going against my previous post about when NOT to work) as that cloudy Friday light was too drab. Especially for sleep deprived parents. This afternoon it was sunny; proof that Seattle-ites really do see the sun.

This is a post about sleep. How to help your baby (and you) get more of it. What to do when you don’t know what sleep routine or method to follow. Which books to listen to and which to pass on to your friends.

There is no universal truth or method that is good for all parents. Rather, each sleep book or method caters to certain parenting styles and certain baby temperaments. The method you choose is less important than how you implement it. Consistency is essential in helping your baby sleep through the night. Pick a plan and follow through.

Read this summary of expert advice on interpreting sleep methods and talk with your pediatrician if you get confused. Or tired. Or both. And watch this video (click on full post to see it).

If It Were My Child: Infant Swimming Lessons

Posted on February 3, 2010 in: If It Were My Child, Infant, Reader's Picks9 Comments

It turns out, I don’t think you do have to be careful what you wait for when it comes to swimming. A study published a few weeks ago suggested that children under the age of 2 were at higher risk for bronchiolitis, a common pediatric lung infection, if they swam in chlorinated pools when they were babies. I’ve mulled this over and done additional reading. If it were my child, I’d sign up for infant swimming lessons. Believe me, I’m not getting off any swim/pool wait list any time soon! Yet, I do think the study offers a chance to re-frame how we think about protecting our kids around the water.

Although O will be well over 2 years old when he gets off the decade long wait list for the pools in our area, he’ll be swimming in chlorinated pools before then. From how I see it, chlorine exposure is only one side of the story when it comes to infant swimming and safety. It’s okay, maybe even wonderful if I dare say, to swim with an infant. The video we have from F swimming in the first time is hilarious. I am far more ecstatic than any normal human should be in a pool. It’s true; most babies simply love the water. So do plenty of adults (read: me).

Swimming if not only delightful, it is also dangerous. Worldwide, drowning while swimming is the 2nd most common injury that kills children under age of 14. Therefore how our infants and children come to know the water may be as important as how we think about using car seats. Read full post »

See Spot Run? Anterior Fontanelle, Part 2

Posted on January 13, 2010 in: Infant3 Comments

seespotThe soft spot feels like an epicenter in O’s landscape. As every new parent gets to know their baby, the soft spot is just one of those places and spaces we come to know that makes our baby unique. I know O’s little spot is about to go away. Just another thing for me to cry about at the two-year birthday party.

I took a phone call from the husband recently who is a pediatric radiologist and who was reading a head CT scan, inquiring when I thought the soft spot closed in infants, exactly. He knows a lot more anatomy, physiology and imaging of the skull than I do, but he had a common question: just when does it close? Like so many things in medicine, I don’t think it’s entirely clear. There is no perfect answer.  The short answer is around 1-2 year of life. But like so many things, the range of normal is expansive. Read full post »

Science Of The Soft Spot: The Anterior Fontanelle, Part 1

Posted on January 10, 2010 in: Infant, Reader's Picks, Toddler71 Comments

The soft spot on the top of my baby’s head is one of my favorite places to run my hand.  I don’t know why exactly but it seems one of those places on him that truly represents his baby-hood.  One way I know that his infancy isn’t quite gone and my baby days aren’t over yet. O recently turned a year (so, yes, technically he’s no infant) and I have felt his baby-ness slipping through my fingers. I keep saying that to my patients when they ask about him. I am hoping it will somehow prolong this period and I won’t have to wake up and find myself with two grown boys in the house.

The emotional yo-yo between pure excitement about them growing up, with the simultaneous dread of losing these baby moments, remains real and palpable. The essence of parenthood I suppose is that stew of anxiety-thrill-dread-adoration-excitement as the days unfold and you hope for new things for your little baby while lamenting the loss of precious moments of who your baby is on a Monday in January.  So the soft spot is a good place to go to calm my inner anxiety about my toddlers walking out the door to college.

Lots of new parents ask me about caring for the soft spot. As the first year unfolds, it is the soft spot (aka “fontanelle”) in the front/top portion of a baby’s head that parents ask about, the anterior fontanelle. I think we all conjure up crazy worries about an errant flying pencil landing in it. Read full post »