World of Babies

Most mothers bottle feed their baby and there is no doubt that breastfeeding can sometimes be difficult to get started, but if a mother persists, she finds that it is a lot less bother than bottle feeding. Breastfeeding is actually less stressful and less work than bottle-feeding.

Mothers who give up breastfeeding, state that it is because of the discomfort or embarrassment they feel. Both of these reasons are understandable, but they can both be overcome. All it takes is patience.

A mother can avoid the pain of sore nipples by making sure that her baby is ‘latched on’ properly. This means that the baby sucks on the breast in the correct position. The nipple should be placed well in to the baby’s mouth. It is the areola (the dark area surrounding the nipple) that the baby actually sucks on; not the nipple. Getting the baby to latch on reduces the baby's chances of becoming "gassy", and also allows the baby to control the flow of milk - something that is easier for the baby to do when breastfeeding rather than bottle feeding.

Also, the mother can take some general steps to avoid painful nipples. Nipples should be exposed to air as much as possible. If this isn’t possible, then plastic dome-shaped breast shells (not nipple shields) can be worn to protect your nipples from rubbing by your clothing. Don’t over wash the nipples; bathing once a day is more than enough.

Engorgement of the breasts usually occurs 3 to 4 days after birth but can be avoided by getting the baby to latch on correctly. However, if your breasts become engorged to the point of severe discomfort or if the baby is not able to suckle, cabbage leaves seem to help decrease the engorgement more rapidly than ice packs or other treatments. If you are unable to get the baby latched on, start cabbage leaves, start expressing your milk and give the expressed milk to the baby by spoon, cup, finger feeding or eyedropper. If it persists consult your midwife or health visitor.

Embarrassment of breastfeeding is something that Western society seems to condone. It was not always so. If you feel this way you should discuss this with your partner and family. If the support is not forthcoming, then try to educate them! Finally, use your doctor or midwife as a support. Attitudes in the medical profession have changed drastically in recent years and you should find a lot of support at your local clinic. If you don’t then change clinic, midwife or doctor.

Breastfeeding really is a lot easier than bottle feeding and it is certainly a lot better for your baby. Companies making milk formula tell us how their formula is ‘the most like breast milk it has ever been’. Maybe this is true, but it never will be as good as breast milk. If you read the ingredients on the side of the tin you will find many of the following: vegetable oils; disodium guanosine-5, monophosphate, taurine, magnesium, sodium citrate, pantothenic acid, potassium chloride, beta-carotene and biotin. What exactly is disodium guanosine-5? Companies have been making formula for only the past century; women have been making breast milk a lot longer than that. Also, formula is made for everyone’s baby, whereas a mother’s breast milk is unique; it’s made only for her child.

Getting up in the middle of the night to feed a baby is incredibly tiring. Why make it even more tiring than it already is by bottle feeding? When you bottle feed, you have to get out of bed and boil water, make the formula and then wait for it to cool before you can feed baby. When you breastfeed you don’t have to even get out of bed, if you child is in a crib beside you. You can feed your child and go back to sleep far sooner than if you bottle feed.

Some other things that make breastfeeding easier than bottle feeding;

1. It’s cheaper.
2. It’s a lot easier to clean your breasts than a whole stack of bottles.
3. Breast milk doesn’t leave permanent stains on clothes, unlike formula.
4. You can go anywhere, at anytime on the spur of the moment. You don’t have to worry about having enough formula.
5. You also travel light; no need to bring a bag full of bottles and formula

Breastfeeding may be harder to get started than bottle-feeding for a lot of mothers, but the benefits outweigh these early problems. So, if you were thinking of bottle-feeding rather than breastfeeding, think again. Breast milk is pure goodness for your child and breastfeeding makes life a lot simpler for mothers.

Infertility counseling can help most couples that are going through fertility treatment programs. There are two types of counseling that an individual or couple may be looking at for fertility assistance; emotional counseling and physical pregnancy support. Both types of counseling are an essential part of successfully navigating the world of fertility.

Physical Pregnancy Help

This type of help is given from your doctor or specialist. They are the people that do all the tests and give all the shots to assist you in your infertility grant request. It is their job to help grant you the wish of having a baby. The doctor's knowledge of their specialty is an essential part of fertility support. Without the doctor and their ability to help couples with pregnancy aid, it would be impossible for some couples to get pregnant and have a baby.

Financial Help

The infertility doctor that you use will be able to offer you information on other forms of pregnancy assistance as well as their physical assistance. There are a variety of fertility grant and pregnancy grant programs available to both men and women who are suffering infertility. Through this financial support it may be possible for a women's fertility treatments to be less expensive and even free!

Emotional Help

Another important aspect of fertility programs is their ability to successfully offer infertility assistance on an emotional level. Both men and women that are going through infertility issues can benefit from the counseling of and individual therapist or a group therapy session.

Couples can visit a therapist to discuss their concerns and worrying regarding the process of infertility. Both people in the relationship may be getting discourage about the process. The emotional support that a counselor can give is a great way for couples to deal with their emotions and concerns.

Community Help

One of the easiest ways to get support while going through infertility is to seek an infertility group. These groups are a great way for infertile couples, and those having problems getting pregnant, to express their concerns and difficulties with the fertility treatment process. Everyone in the group is going through the same emotions and physical changes and are able to help each other work through this difficult time in their life.

Most fertility clinics will have information on a fertility support group in the area. Most clinics actually run their own support groups several times during the week. So it should not be a problem finding a support program that will fit your emotional needs as you go through the fertility process.

Going through infertility is a process that is both physically and emotionally draining. To make the process more enjoyable couples should utilize all the resources that are available to them, including: financial, emotional, and community support programs. The relief that they programs will give a couple might be just what they need to try their fertility program a little longer.

You don't have to suffer through infertility alone.... Using the resources available to you will increase your odds of having a successful pregnancy.

When you have decided you want a baby, get your body ready:

* Take folic acid in supplement form, 400mcg a day, or it can be found in some foods like cornflakes.
* Cut down on your caffeine intake.
* If you've come off the pill, there's some dispute about how long you should wait before trying to conceive, but it's probably best to wait 2-3 months.
* The man should take zinc supplements to increase the strength and numbers of his sperm
* He should also increase his vitamin D intake - drink milk.
* Cut down on alcohol. Even 2 pints per day will, on average, reduce your baby's weight by 6.5 ozs.
* Stop smoking. Just one more reason to do so!
* Keep the sperm cool - ideally 2-3? cooler than the rest of the body. Avoid tight underwear and tight jeans. Try boxer shorts, they may not be the latest in designer chic, but they help the testicles to stay away from the body and stay cooler.

Have sex at the right time..
.. and frequently. To stand a chance of conceiving, live sperm has to fertilise an egg at the time of ovulation - usually around day 14 of your period. Sperm will usually live for 3 days so will hang around waiting and your timing doesn't have to be exact. You can get ovulation predictor kits from your chemist.

What's The Best Position?
It doesn't really matter, although with the woman on top you may be reducing your chances of conceiving.

Be Patient
You can be doing everything right but you won't necessarily conceive in the first month. In fact you probably won't. Success is closely related to age:

* Women aged 20-25 have a 1 in 4 chance of conceiving,
* With women aged 30-35 the chance drops to 1 in 7, and the success rate falls as they get older.

On average it will take a couple in their early to mid-twenties five cycles to conceive, and a couple in their early thirties ten cycles. One in ten couples have to wait more than a year before they succeed.

What If It's Not Working?
If you have been trying for a baby without success:

* Keep a temperature chart. After ovulation the woman's body temperature rises by about 0.2?C and maintains this higher temperature until her next period. By measuring temperature as soon as you wake and entering the reading on a chart, you can see when you ovulate. Ideally you want to have sex just before then. You can't turn the clock back of course, but the chart will tell you whether you ovulate at the same time each month and, if so, you can plan for the following month. The temperature rise is small and you may feel more confident with an ovulation kit available from your chemist.
* try to lower your stress levels. Stress can affect either partner and may reduce your chances of conceiving. Try to have a few days away from work just before ovulation is due.
* if you have been unsuccessful for a year or more it is worth talking to your physician.

Baby sickness – is always a hard trial for family, and if the matter concerns baby’s hospitalization, then you can become panic-stricken only at the thought of the fact that a baby will be estranged from his family, painful procedures expect him, and strangers will surround him.

Because of hospitalization, a baby can get the whole complex of serious psychological problems, caused by sickness, isolation from home and conditions of hospital. Even adult person experiences stress, when he needs to apply to a doctor and moreover, while necessity of long staying in hospital. Needless to say about baby’s stress! Strange atmosphere, strange people, new, constantly renewed children collective, forced separation from parents, fear of medical procedures – all this is quite enough for psychological discomfort. And all these factors accompany symptoms of disease.

However, you shouldn’t dramatize situation. Of course, disease and necessity of hospitalization - are traumatizing factors. But for majority of children staying at hospital can become an important stage in formation of personality, bring lots of new impressions and knowledge, and give possibility to try themselves in difficult life circumstances. This experience will be useful in further life of a child.

Processes of adaptation are individual for each child. This depends on many reasons: whether he had diseases earlier, stage of disease, is he staying at hospital for the first time or not, baby’s age, whether he was separated from his family before etc. Often everything passes quite smoothly, due to presence of inner reserves of a baby and correct behavior of parents.

It’s quite normal, if period of adaptation at hospital lasts during 3-5 days. There’re no reasons for anxiety, if a baby is rather careless during first days of hospitalization, asks to take him home, gets into contact with coevals not at once. Excess care and parental inclination for dramatizing situation can only damage. On the other hand, you shouldn’t leave a baby alone with his problems. He shouldn’t feel abandoned and lonely.

Quite often parents of sick children need more psychological help, then children themselves, as it is their correct behavior that influences a baby’s mood for recovery.

Here’re several recommendations of experts. Never frighten your baby with hospital. Don’t create future problems, as there’s hardly any baby, who hasn’t been at hospital for his life. During conversations with other people avoid such phrases, like: “There doctors hardly understand something, I wish only they don’t harm my child” etc.

In case of baby hospitalization do your best to reduce stress and melancholy because of coming separation from home and parents. Adults themselves should be confident in future, calm and wise, so that a baby would treat staying at hospital calmly. If hospitalization is planned and you have at least 1-2 days for preparation, involve baby in preparations, as if he would be going to health centre or camp.

Try to dispose your baby to optimism. Children have great intuition, and it’s almost impossible to persuade them in things, which you don’t believe yourself in. So, first of all you should analyze your own emotions and forget about affirmation: “Hospital – pain, fear, danger”. Replace it by “Hospital – help, relieve, recovery”. You confidence and peace of mind will be passed to your daughter and son. Talk to your child about coming hospitalization softly-softly. You can explain to schoolchild, that sickness is not a catastrophe, but a peculiar exam for courage and firmness. Tell your child that you will be thinking of him constantly and you’re always ready to help him. Think and discuss ways of your contacts.

During separation avoid touching scenes, restrain excessive emotions. Try to behave the way, so that a baby would treat hospital not as punishment, but as a place, where he will be helped to recover sooner and return to usual life. Form positive attitude, both to improvement of health and doctors’ work. Explain your child an objective necessity of medical assistance.

Don’t persuade him that he is guilty of his sickness, trauma etc. himself. By doing this, you will increase sense of guilt and fear, which can cause undesirable psychological complications. Of course, there’re situations, when it is important to discuss wrong behavior of a child, which caused disease. But it is also very important that a result of your conversation would be not a sense of guilt, but understanding of cause and effect connection between wring behavior and disease.

Discuss schedule of visiting a child with relatives for sure, to avoid situations, when there’re several visits per one day and no visits at all other day. This is very important, as excess of visitors can lead to emotional overloads of a sick baby, and their absence – to increase of longing for home and relatives.

Try not to hung up on topic of disease and treatment. Life goes on. Ask your child about his new friends, news, what he does in spare time. Keep all your doubts concerning effectiveness of treatment inside of you. Don’t overload patient with your doubts and fears. As medicine, which you doubt, will not help, as doctor, whom you don’t trust, won’t be able to help. Try to avoid unpleasant topics, wait a little with information about bad news: sick baby need not to know that his favorite doggie eats bad or that cat ate hamster. While talking to a baby, pay attention to positive moments of staying at hospital. Think about things you can compliment him for: he bears procedures with fortitude, doesn’t play about, could make friends with somebody, drew a good picture etc.

Unfilled spare time increases feeling of loneliness, longing for home. So you should definitely worry about things your child should do. Bring him an interesting book, meccano, some new game, paints, crayons etc. Bring a toy for a small baby surely. You can tell that a new “friend” came to him specially to protect him at nights (if a baby is predisposed to night fears). It will be very good, if you bring him a toy bear, elephant, lion, tiger, i.e. any big animal, which will be able to personify power and protection (size of toy is not important).

After discharge talk to your baby about time he spent at hospital. Ask him about things he learned to do, what he understood about himself and his relations with other people, help him to realize value of experience he gained.

If you’re planning to go back to work after your baby is born, child care is a major concern. Your childcare provider will be spending a lot of time with your child, so it is critical that you be comfortable with the environment and the style of care your child will be receiving. There are several alternatives, each with pros and cons. Spend some time evaluating each option, so that you can make the choice that best suits your needs.

The first option is in-home child care, meaning a sitter, or nanny who comes to your home to watch the child. This is by far the most expensive option, but it has many advantages. Your child will be at home, and will have the full attention of the nanny. In addition, your child will be exposed to fewer illnesses, and you will not have to transport her back and forth on your way to and from work. The main disadvantage is that you have no real backup if your nanny gets sick or wants to take vacation. Another thing to consider is your feelings if your child develops a very strong bond with the nanny. More than one mother has been hurt by the sense that the baby is more comfortable with the nanny than with her.

The second option is a small home daycare, meaning you find someone who will keep your child in her home, perhaps with her own children or one or two others. This is a good option if you want your child in a home atmosphere, but can’t afford the full time nanny. This option shares the same disadvantages of having a nanny in terms of no backup plan.

The third option is a traditional daycare center. Traditional daycares are affordable, and there is no need to worry about a caretaker getting sick or wanting to take vacation. A daycare might also be more of a learning environment than home care, which will become more important to you as your child gets older. The main disadvantages of daycares are that your child is exposed to all the germs of all the children. Be prepared for the both of you to be sick for a year. The other disadvantage is the numbers of children being cared for. For example, in most states, the law requires one caretaker per eight babies. Now, I don’t know about you, but I could not effectively care for eight babies alone. So, if you decide to use a daycare center, be sure to ask their caretaker to child ratio. Look for one with about five babies per caretaker.

Choosing your baby’s childcare arrangement is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. Even after you’ve chosen a care option, be diligent about ensuring that your child is receiving the best care. Drop in unannounced at odd times of day to see what’s going on. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and let the caretaker know what’s important to you. It’s critical not only to your child’s well being, but to your own piece of mind.

If you have spent any time in the brick and mortar world shopping around for clothing for your baby, you may feel discouraged. The costs associated with clothing for babies is running higher each and every month. Nevertheless, you obviously do need to find appropriate clothing for your little one.

If you have found yourself frustrated with shopping for baby clothes in the brick and mortar world, you might want to spend some time on the Internet and the World Wide Web. In regard to seeking baby clothes on the Internet you will want to pay a visit to one or another of the overstock sites that are in operation on the World Wide Web at this point in time. These sites can offer you a number of benefits in your own search for baby clothing.

Of course, one of the most significant benefits to be had by shopping for clothes for your baby at an overstock site is found in price. Generally speaking, you can save a good deal of money when shopping for baby clothes at an overstock site on the Internet. Indeed, many parents maintain that they have saved hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars by shopping for baby clothes at overstock sites on the Net over time.

In addition to price, another of the benefits to be found by shopping for baby clothes at an Internet based overstock website merchant is convenience. By shopping at these types of websites, you can make your purchases of baby clothes any time of the day or night. If you are like most parents, you simply do not have time to run out and shop around in the brick and mortar world looking for reasonably priced clothes for your baby. By using an overstock site on the Net, you need only spend a few minutes to find what you are looking for in the way of baby clothes.

Another benefit to be had by shopping at an overstock site for baby clothes is selection. In this day and age, the selection to be had at one or another of these Internet website that specialize in overstocked products is significant. Long gone are the days when an overstock site had only a measly selection.

Again, as you look for the perfect outfits for your baby, take the time to surf by and visit one or another of the overstock sites in operation on the World Wide Web.

As a parent, you want to give your child the best shot at a long, healthy life. A key to ensuring your child's well- being is on-time vaccination against devastating but avoidable diseases.

One such disease is Haemophilus influenzae type b, commonly referred to as Hib. Hib disease usually occurs in infants and preschool children and is caused by bacteria. Hib can develop into a serious, often life-threatening illness. Most children will survive a Hib infection, but they may experience a number of potentially life-long complications. A disease called bacterial meningitis, which causes swelling of the protective covering of the brain and spinal cord, is the most common Hib infection. Survivors of Hib meningitis may suffer mental retardation, deafness, learning disabilities, motor abnormalities or seizures.

Prevention Is Key

The good news is that prevention is available. "Hib vaccination in this country has been so successful that many parents and pediatricians have never even seen the disease, much less the permanent damage it can cause," said David Greenberg, M.D., Director, Scientific & Medical Affairs, sanofi pasteur. "As long as parents and health care providers continue to vaccinate infants and children on time, we can prevent the return of this disease. Even one case is too many."

Amazingly, just two short decades ago, about 20,000 people-most under the age of 5-suffered from Hib infections each year. But today, thanks to the introduction of ActHIB (Haemophilus b Conjugate Vaccine [Tetanus Toxoid Conjugate]) and other vaccines that protect against the disease, fewer than 100 cases are reported annually.

While the number of Hib cases is currently low, health experts caution parents that they shouldn't let their guard down and remind them that the best protection is through on-time immunization. Your child can get Hib by being around children and adults who may be carriers of the bacteria and not know it. Day care attendance, having school-aged siblings and living in a large household each increase the risk for disease.

On-Time Vaccination

Is The Goal

Since the late 1980s, immunization during infancy has been the most effective way to prevent Hib. Protection starts with a series of vaccinations between 2 and 6 months of age, followed by a booster dose between 12 and 18 months of age. The injections should be received at these specific ages, so no matter how busy you are, be sure to bring your child in for all scheduled vaccination visits.

Today, Hib is rare, but it is still a threat. That is why it is important that babies receive recommended immunizations on time. Talk to your health care provider or local health department about Hib vaccination, or go to www.Hibdisease.com or www.Hib.com for more information about Hib and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

Safety Information

There are risks associated with all vaccines. Local and systemic adverse reactions to ActHIB vaccine may include injection-site redness, swelling and tenderness, as well as fever, irritability and drowsiness. Other local and systemic adverse reactions may occur. ActHIB vaccine is contraindicated in children known to have experienced a severe allergic reaction to any vaccine component or following a prior dose of the vaccine, as well as in children who are less than 6 weeks of age because of the potential for development of immunologic tolerance. Because intramuscular injections can cause injection-site bruising, if it is determined that the potential benefits clearly outweigh the risk, intramuscular injections should be given with caution to persons with any bleeding disorder. Vaccination should be delayed in children with moderate or severe acute illnesses; however, minor illnesses (such as mild upper respiratory infection) are not contraindications to vaccination.