Seeing and Looking

Seeing and looking
Babies learn by looking long before they can use their hand or bodies to do anything about what they see. Faces, or face-like shapes interest them most and your baby will study your face intently as you feed and cuddle him. Your faces are about 8-10O apart     than and that’s his best focusing distance. Making his eyes focus on things that are further away is still an effort and only gradually gets easier during his first two or three months. When you want to give him other things to look at, hang them close and in his line of sight. A mobile on the ceiling is just a blur and anyway his head is always turned to one side or the other.
Wrapping your baby up
A lot of babies relax if they are encased in a warm, soft, slightly stretchy fabric in such a way that they feel “held” in their preferred position and when they move they do so as a
Complete bundle rather than feeling their own limbs jerking inside the wrapping. Do it right, or loose will make things worse.        
Wrap your baby in his natural position, legs flexed and arms bent at the elbow and hands near his mouth in case he can-and wants to –suck them. Wrap as closely as the holding-power of his own weight allows. Don’t make him too hot. A cellular crib blanket or shawl may be ideal in winter or a soft gauzy fabric if it’s hot.
Becoming your baby’s special people
A new baby is much more interested in people than he is in anything else (except milk!)
The more you hold him, talk to him and smile at him, the happier he will be. He is beginning to discover that you are the one who is almost always there: the one he is going to fall in love with.
He needs you to fall in love with him and to keep on loving him, because his survival depend on your care. So one day soon, you’ll be smiling and talking to your baby while he looks at you and quite suddenly you will see his whole face flower into a magical first smile. When that happens you won’t have any doubt that your baby is a person. His smiles reward you for all the caring you have done so far and they’ll go on reminding you that you do it because you love him.
Feeding patterns
Blissful feeding
Sucking milk is as important to your baby’s pleasure as to her healthy growth. Once you have both settled into breast feeding you will probably find that you can do it anywhere, anytime so that she never has to wait. That’s important because although she’ll tend to suck less often as she gets older she does have to ensure that you make more milk as she gets heavier.
Don’t hurry to impose rigid routines. You may have masses of milk in the early morning but much less as your busy day progresses so that by late afternoon your baby wants to sock more often. If you try to make her wait she will fuss and the stress of a bad evening will diminish your supply still further. So never be afraid to give her a feeding earlier then usual. If she hungry, feed her. That way there’ll be plenty of milk and peace for you both.
Babies get everything they need for at last the first four or five months from breast milk or carefully made formula (see Bottle feeding booklet ) the only extras that are worth giving are:
Babies’ multivitamin drops
Witch most doctors and clinics recommend for all babies just in case of an unusual shortage.
Water
Because since milk is food and drink, a baby who is thirsty but not hungry faces an uncomfortable dilemma. Offer cooled boiled water regularly if you like; always if the weather is hot, and urgently while you are waiting to see the doctor because your baby is feverish or having diarrhea.
Coping a scarcity of breast milk
If your baby’s behavior and a reduction in her weight gain suggest that you aren’t making quite enough milk you can make more, within a day or two, but it may be an effort.
Encourage the baby to empty your breasts whenever she will.
Express any surplus she leaves at feeding for which your supply is copious.
Rest and relax as much as you possibly can make your milk your priority.
Giving a bottle as well as the breast
Of course you can ensure that you baby doesn’t go hungry be offering formula from a bottle the end of each breast feeding (so she can take some or none, just as pleases) or instead of some breast feedings. But face the fact that giving a bottle at all may mean a gradual end to breastfeeding.
Because formula will satisfy your baby’s hunger, she won’t suck from the breast as often
Or as hard as hard as she wold otherwise have done. That means that your milk supply will dwindle and that means that the baby will take more and more from the bottle and less and less from you. It probably will not be long before you decide that the double system is not worthwhile.
A gradual shift from breast to bottle will not hurt your baby, especially once she has had the benefit of early breast milk. It may hurt you, though, if you had been planing to breast feed for months to come.
 Bottle-feeding
Whether you bottle feed your baby from birth, introduce a bottle as will as the breast, or changeover from breast to bottle after a few weeks or months, it’s important to take trouble over choosing and preparing the milk mixture and over sterilizing bottles and feeding for equipment.
Your health professional will advise you, and it’s important to follow the mixing instruction on your chosen baby milk. You will find useful re minders in the booklet.

  

Bottle-feeding
Gating it right
If your baby is to have a bottle instead of the breast, make sure that the milk and the experience are as close to breast-feeding as you can make them.
That means choosing the right milk; mixing hygienically and the correct strength and then feeding your baby in your arms and whenever she were having your own milk…
Choosing a baby milk
Modern baby milks are based on cow’s milk but manufacturers modify them so that the proteins, the kinds of fat and the amounts of minerals and vitamins they contain com- close to breast milk. Feed your baby only with special baby milk.
Don’t use ordinary cows’ milk or any powdered or evaporated milk from the supermarket.
Choose a babymilk with help from your doctor and a thought for your own convenience and budget. Some formulas come only in powder form to be shaken up with boiled water. Some come as liquid concentrate to be diluted: easy to do but heavy to carry home and needing refrigerator space once opened. A few come ready -to- feed: no trouble, but even bulkier. There are even ready – sterilized formulas in disposable bottles.
Making up your baby’s milk
If you add exactly the stated amount of powder or concentrate to exactly the correct amount of boiled water, the resulting feeding will be as close to the composition of breast milk as it is possible to get with that particular formula.

         Make sure you understand the instructions on the package and follow themexactly.