Ask Baby! What Can You See Newborn?

This month, we decided to ask baby some questions! Introducing our birth to 4-week-old baby, Max, and two questions about vision.

OSD: How far do you see, Max?
Max: I see just a few inches away, at most I see about 8 inches. So, when you come close to me and goo-goo, I like it! By the time I am one month old, I will see 2-3 feet ahead of my cute little face, so you can set yourself aback a bit more, and I’ll still see you.

Baby Burp Care: Support for Your Baby

Burp! Well excuse me—I just burped! Ha ha. In our last love and care post this month, in honor of our favorite valentines, we’re going to close with a nice big … BURP!

Why Do Babies Burp? 
Air gets into the tummy & the gastrointestinal tract each time a baby swallows. With the frequency of feeds a baby has during the first few months of life comes the accumulation of quite a bit of air in the tummy (stomach). It’s important to have a good seal on the breast or bottle nipple to minimize air swallowed during feeding—a small amount is normal but if there is a poor seal, extra gas can slip through and increase air in the tummy. If you think of a soda bottle, what rises to the top? You guessed it: bubbles or air. It works the same inside baby’s tummy: air rises to the top and out the mouth making that familiar (and very cute when it’s from a baby) sound.

Baby Hair Care—Washing, Combing and Caring for Baby’s Scalp

Have you seen (or do you have) a baby with a full on head of hair? A baby without any hair at all? Both extremes are completely normal. In fact, some babies with a whole lot of hair can lose it completely, and some babies lose half of a head of hair, often due to pressure from sleep positions. I’m going to spare my son from future embarrassment and not post a picture of the half head of hair he had and the comb-over his mom (aka – One Sassy Doctor) gave him. Seriously, talk about a parenting moment when mom and dad did not agree: “A hat, Jen, please, or shave it off! He looks like an old man!” vs. “Awww, comb-overs are cute. Look, Donald Trump has one!”

Do I Wash Baby Hair? 
Baby hair requires very little care and can be gently cleaned during a sponge bath using mild soap, making sure not to get the soap in baby’s eyes. Be very gentle around the soft spot, a particularly sensitive area where the four main skull bones meet.

Baby Head Care—A Little Bit About What Houses the Brain!

Your baby’s beautiful head is the house of dreams, love, intelligence, development and personality—the magical, mystical, marvelous brain! As a physician, it was one of the most amazing parts of learning, and now focusing my practice in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of child injuries related to accidents and abuse, I am particularly interested in preventing head injury. One of the best ways to help parents prevent injuries is to learn about the body, how to keep it safe & how to care for it.

In this posting, we’ll learn a bit about the head and our next post will discuss how to care for the outside. We’ve already talked about the importance of holding your baby’s head and how to do this properly. Now, let’s talk about baby care as it applies to the noggin!

Nailed It!—Caring for Baby’s Nails

Can you imagine how many fingers and toes a parent clips over a baby, toddler and school age child’s lifetime? Here are some One Sassy Doctor’s calculations:

• 10 fingers + 10 toes = 20 clips
• Multiply that by once a week, 52 weeks a year = 1,040 a year
• I still clip my 8-year-old girls’ nails, so consider you’ll do it until they are 10 or so.
• That’s = 1,040 X 10 = 10,400 nail clips.
• I have four kids = 41,600 clips over a lifetime.

OMG. Want to come get a mani/pedi with me?

Now back to the informative part of this posting.