From the moment a child is born, the so-called newborn period begins, which lasts during the first month of his life. During this period, the baby adapts to new conditions: from the warm and dark space of the mother’s belly, which tightly “hugged” him in the last weeks of pregnancy, he finds himself in a world filled with bright light, sounds, smells and different sensations. Nature gives a child about three weeks to adapt to new living conditions, and this is the most difficult period in his life. Therefore, when organizing care for a newborn, it is important for parents to learn to understand and meet the needs of the baby in order to help him successfully adapt to the world around him.
In the first episode of the series “We Are Parents!” Singer, actress and mother Anna Rudneva talks about her experience raising a child from birth to one year.
At first, the baby eats very often. The best food for him is breast milk, which contains all the necessary nutrients and vitamins. In addition, breast milk is an “individual product” that the mother’s body produces only for a given child, taking into account his needs and health status. The composition of breast milk varies depending on the age of the baby. So, in the first two to three days after birth, he eats colostrum, which has a rich and valuable composition. Modern pediatricians recommend feeding a breastfed baby on demand, that is, as many times as he wants.
In the first month of life, the child sleeps a lot - 19-20 hours a day, waking up every two to three hours to eat. The periods of wakefulness of a newborn do not depend on the time of day, and sleep differs significantly from the sleep of an adult. Babies are characterized by the so-called superficial phase of sleep. If a sleeping baby is disturbed during this period, he can easily wake up.
The skin of a newborn baby has a number of features. It is quite dry and thin, easily vulnerable and prone to irritation. Whitish or yellowish “dots” may be noticeable on the wings of the nose and cheeks of the baby - the result of the accumulation of secretions from the sebaceous glands. There may also be purplish-bluish spots on the child’s forehead, back of the head and upper eyelids, which will disappear in a few weeks.
Also on the skin of healthy newborns, so-called physiological erythema can be observed - dilation of the skin capillaries, which looks like redness. This is the result of adaptation of the skin to the environment. Normally, this phenomenon goes away within ten days and does not require treatment. However, if physiological erythema does not go away after this period, parents should show the child to a doctor.
Since the life of a large family was replaced by separate living of a newly created family, young mothers have developed uncertainty and a feeling of helplessness after childbirth in the correctness and timeliness of the development of the newborn.
Without extensive experience in “babysitting” small children, a woman is stupefied by literally everything related to the physiological and mental development of her baby, especially in the first year of the child’s life.
We offer you a brief overview of the development of a child up to one year old. Let’s look at the first month of life, the most difficult in terms of how a young mother and baby adapt to each other, in more detail - week by week.
Sense organs of a newborn. The long-awaited return home. Now the baby can get to know his mother in a calm atmosphere, see, hear, smell and touch the world around him from a new perspective, already familiar to him in absentia from the muffled sounds coming from outside during intrauterine life.
A newly born child's vision is blurry; he can only distinguish large objects located nearby, which is a kind of protection against the sudden surge of colors and shapes. Hearing, smell and touch are quite developed in a newborn; these sense organs developed while still alive inside the mother.
In the first week after birth, it is very important to establish breastfeeding. Get used to the fact that the first time after birth, the baby will be in your arms almost all the time during waking moments and will constantly demand the breast.
It’s not so much a matter of hunger, but rather a need to feel the unity that is broken with the mother. Attachment to the breast at one week of age is perhaps the only and most effective way to calm a crying baby.
The first bath after birth is the most frightening procedure for new mothers and fathers. Try to do it correctly and calmly, so as not to spoil everything the first time and not cause the baby to dislike water.
Physiological characteristics of the newborn that most often cause concern:
They occur due to the immaturity of the digestive tract, immaturity of the nervous system and incorrect organization of the breastfeeding process, during which air is swallowed.
For a one-week-old baby, the norm is to regurgitate after each feeding in a volume of no more than 2 tablespoons and once a day in a “fountain”. You can check the amount of milk regurgitated by pouring 2 tablespoons of water onto the diaper and comparing the stains formed from the water and milk.
How to prevent constipation in newborns when bottle-fed
Do not use detergents; if the skin is dry, lubricate it, preferably with any vegetable oil, previously sterilized in a water bath. When walking, ensure that your baby is isolated from gusts of wind and direct sunlight. If you follow these recommendations, the peeling will soon go away.
A week has passed. For a newborn, this is a huge period of time, including a lot of new impressions, getting to know his body and the world around him. The umbilical wound is healing. The baby completely adapts to the new way of getting food. The number of intestinal bowel movements is normalized and is 3-4 times a day.
Weight gain begins. The baby becomes more and more interested in what is happening around him and begins to listen to surrounding sounds and look at objects more carefully. He can examine all the details from a distance of 20-25 cm. At this time, facial expressions begin to develop - your pet may even please you with his first smile.
Now your happiness can be overshadowed by the onset of intestinal colic, accompanied by prolonged crying and squeezing, twisting of the legs. You can start fighting them, but there is no consensus among doctors about both the cause of their occurrence and ways to alleviate the condition. There is only one piece of advice: be patient, sooner or later they will stop.
The third week marks the first achievements in your baby's life. Lying on his tummy, he tries to raise his head and examine the surrounding objects. He succeeds in this for a while. The baby's movements become more and more orderly, he makes attempts to reach the toys suspended above him.
When you address him, the baby becomes quiet, looks into the face of the speaker, reacts to the intonation of the voice and may hum and smile in response. During this period, it is more difficult to calm the baby; to relieve the tension of the nervous system overflowing with new impressions, he may cry for a long time. For some babies, crying for 20 minutes before falling asleep becomes the norm. The intonation of crying becomes more and more demanding.
The first month of life is coming to an end. The baby goes from newborn to infancy. The child’s vestibular apparatus is improving - he senses the position of his body in space, which will soon allow him to roll over and grasp objects.
The flexor muscles are still stronger than the extensor muscles and the limbs are in a semi-flexed position.
Muscle hypertonicity is a normal physiological condition for children under one month old.
A month after the birth of your child, you need to undergo a medical examination, during which doctors will evaluate physiological development and its compliance with age standards.
What should a child be able to do by the end of the fourth week of life:
Height and weight
Here are the average indicators developed by the World Health Organization. In parentheses we will indicate critical values indicating the need for a medical examination. Everything that falls within this range is a variant of the norm.
The period is characterized by the establishment of a similar pattern of sleep and wakefulness. The baby still sleeps a lot, but now mom knows when and approximately how much time he needs to rest. Now he can firmly grasp everything that falls into his hands.
What a baby should be able to do:
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If development proceeds at an average pace, then at the age of three months the child has learned to roll over from his back to his tummy and lift himself from his tummy on his arms, maintaining this position for up to several minutes.
Don't worry if your baby doesn't succeed, he will catch up by 4-5 months.
Due to the increase in subcutaneous fat deposits, the baby acquires rounded shapes, swelling with folds appears on the arms and legs. The child puts everything into his mouth and tastes it. At three months you need to undergo a second medical examination.
Skills and abilities:
Most children by this age end with problems with intestinal colic, and mothers can breathe easy, but not for long - the first teeth may soon appear. Some are destined not to receive the long-awaited respite.
Skills and abilities:
The baby's physical activity has increased so much that the best place for him now is the floor, where he can happily perform all sorts of tricks. By this time he had already become bored with the crib. Now the restless one needs vigilant supervision. Most people start teething, which is accompanied by itching, anxiety and profuse drooling.
What a child should be able to do:
The child tries to crawl, and many do it well. Attempts to sit down turn into triumph, but the spine does not yet have strength, and the little one cannot sit for a long time. He actively explores the world, showing capriciousness due to his teeth bothering him. At six months you need to have another medical examination.
Skills and abilities:
By this time, the child has learned to understand the meaning of many words and points his finger at objects of interest. He understands that the trick with missing things is just a trick, and they can be found.
Many toddlers begin to experience fear when parting with their mother, which is a high indicator of mental development.
Skills and abilities:
The importance of complementary feeding from 6 months when breastfeeding
Your baby learns to achieve her goal by being persistent and measuring the boundaries of what is permitted. He already understands the word “no” well, which greatly upsets the little man. Character traits emerge. A child may already have 4-6 teeth, but there is no clear time frame for teething; all children undergo the process individually. The level of distrust of strangers increases even more.
What can a child do:
The child is growing before our eyes. Once helpless, he now tries to do everything on his own, despite the fact that it turns out poorly. The baby is good at sitting, standing up and walking with the help of support. Speech skills are developing, some children are already pronouncing their first words.
The child can explain himself using facial expressions, gestures, syllables and words. Copies the intonation of adults well.
At 9 months, a medical examination is necessary to assess the baby's development.
What a child can do:
The skills and abilities acquired in the 9th month of life are further developed.
Baby's first days. Recently baby development was happening inside your mother, you felt its tremors and fading, and now you hold this miracle in your hands. 1 month of baby's life, and especially in the first days, a newborn may seem completely fragile and awkward-looking to you. The baby's arms and legs are not yet fully developed. The child may even appear bow-legged. Don't worry, it's only first week of baby's life: Your baby will slowly grow, stretch out, and by the age of 6 months his body will become completely straight.
Not very cute yet. The newborn's face may be swollen, bluish, and not symmetrical. Don't let this scare you, because... During the passage of the birth canal, the baby experienced quite strong physical stress. Nature has provided for this and the soft bones of the newborn will soon straighten and the swelling will subside.
While the baby is adapting to life outside the warm, cozy, safe mother’s tummy, he needs to be kept warm (as in the womb), swaddled in diapers or a light blanket. Moreover, swaddling imitates the closed space of the uterus, in which the child’s development took place for 9 whole months, and this is his entire life.
A child is born with a number of reflexes.
Fright - newborn reflex, causing the child to automatically arch his back, spread his arms and legs, and sometimes scream when he hears a sharp, loud noise or sudden movements. Newborns even react this way during sleep, but this will happen later, after several months.
Other newborn reflexes include:
- Babinski reflex(the baby’s big toe protrudes and the other toes “fan out” when the soles of the feet are firmly stroked),
- step reflex(when his feet touch a hard surface, the child raises his legs as if he is walking or dancing),
- sucking reflex(sucks with his tongue when something hits him).
Food is the most important thing in a newborn's life, followed by sleep. Most newborns will feed every two to three hours around the clock.
The sleep schedule of almost all children is the same and it is unlikely that your child will have much different. Your baby will likely sleep a total of 16 to 17 hours a day. A "sleep" is usually broken down into eight or so "dreams". To reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), make sure your baby sleeps on his back.
By the end of the first month, your newborn may have developed a consistent eating and sleeping schedule, but don't force it. At this age, the baby should be fed when he shows signs of hunger, preferably before he cries.
Your child already has a developed sense of taste. In fact, newborns seem to have a more developed sense of taste than adults. Sensitivity to sweet and bitter foods is present at birth, but a reaction to salty foods is not observed until about 5 months of age.
A newborn uses his sense of smell from the very beginning, and can detect odors: Notice how he turns his head away if he smells something unpleasant (like his dirty diapers!).
Research shows that 5-day-old newborns will turn to a cotton swab soaked in breast milk. This proves that they can smell milk, and a few days later they prefer the smell of their mother. Using his sense of smell, your baby can move towards your breast.
You are a mother! Congratulations!
This week, everything became reality - you have a baby! He is all yours, you take him home with you, and he is completely dependent on your love, care and feeding.
All the worries associated with pregnancy and childbirth are left behind, and your long-awaited baby is finally with you... But here new questions arise, for example, how a newborn child should grow and how to properly care for him. Let's take a look at how it will go 1 week of baby's life.
Of course, for the first 3–4 days (or 5–7 days if you had a cesarean section) you will be in the maternity hospital, where experienced neonatologists and a pediatric nurse will always come to your aid. During this time, try to ask them as much as possible about everything that interests you. But, unfortunately, you will not be able to find out about everything right away - many questions will arise after returning home. But don’t worry - your maternal instinct will definitely tell you what to do right!
While you are in the maternity hospital, your baby will receive the first vaccination in his life - this will be a vaccination against viral hepatitis (usually done within the first 12 hours after birth). On the eve of discharge, the child must receive a second vaccination - BCG (against tuberculosis).
If your baby loses about 10% of his birth weight during this week, don't panic! Such physiological weight loss is considered normal and is a consequence of the child’s adaptation to life outside the womb. If the baby is healthy, he will gain weight fairly quickly over the next month.
On the third or fourth day after birth, the baby’s skin should turn completely pink. If you notice that your skin begins to peel, do not panic - this is normal! Areas of peeling skin should be lubricated with baby lotion or nourishing milk.
Half of newborns develop (yellowing of the skin) during this week. This condition is associated with increased levels of bilirubin in the blood and should normally disappear within a week. But if the jaundice does not go away after a week, your baby will need medical attention.
In the first month, the baby sleeps almost around the clock (about 19 - 20 hours). Doctors identify five conditions in which a newborn baby is:
A very important point this week is caring for the umbilical wound. As a rule, by the time of discharge from the hospital, only a small percentage of children have time to fall off the remainder of the umbilical cord and the umbilical wound has completely healed. For most children, this happens on the seventh to fourteenth day.
In principle, you should not have any particular difficulties caring for your belly button. Every morning and evening (after bathing) lubricate the wound with a solution of brilliant green (brilliant green). This must be done until the wound is completely healed.
When bathing children whose navel has not yet healed, pediatricians recommend adding a decoction of St. John's wort, calendula or chamomile, or a weak solution of potassium permanganate to the water. Please note that the temperature of the water in which you will bathe your child should not exceed 37.5°C, and the duration of water procedures should be no more than 7 minutes.
If the umbilical wound has not healed within 15 days, if discharge appears from it, it is red or swollen, then you should show your child to a doctor (call him at home).
Provide your child with a constant ambient temperature (preferably 20 - 22°C), since newborn children do not cope well with body thermoregulation and are prone to overheating and hypothermia.
Long after birth, the baby's vision will be quite blurry. All children are born nearsighted, and your child can only see things when they are no further than 20 - 30 cm from his face. Therefore, your baby can only see your face when you hold him close to you.
After giving birth, 2 to 4 days later, your milk will begin to flow (before that you will). Breast engorgement leads to a feeling of “fullness” in the breasts—congestion—and can cause discomfort and fever.
Your breasts may become hot, firm, very tender, swollen, and even throb. Now the most important thing for you is not to perceive breastfeeding as something painful and not to give up on it! You definitely need to establish lactation and continue to feed your baby breast milk!
The discomfort from the flow of milk will gradually decrease, and your body will adapt to breastfeeding. While this adjustment process takes place, try the following techniques to reduce chest discomfort and tenderness:
If you have cracks in your nipples, purchase a special cream that heals cracks (for example, Bepanten) and lubricate your nipples with it after each feeding. Keep your breasts in the fresh air more often - airing helps the cracks heal.
Review your diet - if you are a nursing mother, then your diet should not contain foods that can harm your baby or upset his digestion.
The first week of a baby's life– the most responsible, next week the baby will feel more adapted to extrauterine life. Therefore, it depends only on you how comfortable your baby will feel in a world that is still foreign to him!
The first days and weeks of a child's life are difficult for both parents and baby. During the newborn period, which lasts 4 weeks after birth (28 days), mothers and fathers learn to care for the baby, and the child adapts to new living conditions. How successful these processes will be depends on many factors. And one of them is to understand exactly how newborns develop in order to respond to any problems in time and contact a pediatrician to eliminate them.
Immediately after birth, the baby needs to adapt to the world around him, and his mother is the best person to help him with this.
While still in the maternity hospital, the child begins the stage of adaptation to changed living conditions. At this stage, all organ systems of the baby adapt to new conditions:
In most cases, a newborn's skin has a reddish tint, which goes away by the end of the first week of life.
Watch the episode of the famous children's doctor E. Komarovsky's program dedicated to newborn babies below:
At the next stage of development, which begins after discharge, parents have to deal with various difficulties, for example, colic, which often bothers the baby from 2-3 weeks of life.
Also, a new mother can expect difficulties in establishing lactation, which are best dealt with by frequent feeding.
By the end of the newborn stage, babies change noticeably - their facial features become clearer, postpartum swelling disappears, and their gaze focuses on faces and objects.
The baby's muscles become stronger, allowing him to briefly raise his head and move his limbs. In addition, the baby pleases loved ones with a “revival complex” - recognition of their faces, active movements and the manifestation of positive emotions.
By the beginning of the second month, the baby’s skin becomes pink, the head is leveled, and the birth swelling on the face disappears.
Age | Skills |
1 Week(7 days) | Hold the head for a few seconds. Focusing the gaze at a distance of 5 to 15 cm. Involuntary closure of fingers and arms. Involuntary smile. Recognizing the smell of breast milk. Reacting to bright light by blinking and closing the eyes. Animation when parents approach. |
2 weeks(14 days) | Examination of an adult, involuntary winks and funny grimaces. Fixation of gaze on a bright toy with a diameter of up to 10 cm. |
3 weeks(21 day) | Hold the head for up to 5 seconds, lifting it after a short rest. Recognizing mom and dad. Looking at objects and faces at a distance of up to 50 cm. Freezing at the sight of anything new and sharp unfamiliar sounds. Grasping parents' fingers and hair with their hands. |
4 weeks(28 days) | Active movements of legs and arms. Focusing your gaze on objects and faces at a distance of up to 1 m. Expression of emotions by different screams (dissatisfied, joyful). Raising your head while lying on your tummy for up to 5 seconds. Keeping your gaze on your mother's face or a stationary object in your field of vision for a long time. Active viewing of the surrounding world from the hands of an adult. Firm grip of an adult's fingers. Hold your gaze on a moving object for up to 7 seconds. Humming. |
Calculate your vaccination schedule
In the first days of life, the baby and mother get to know each other, and The baby's main need is close contact with mommy. The best food for a toddler is colostrum, which after a few days is replaced by mature milk, adapting to the needs of the baby.
After birth, it is very important to place the baby on the mother’s breast as early as possible.
Outwardly, the child does not yet look like the babies on the pages of the magazine. After childbirth, the baby’s face is asymmetrical, swelling often appears on the head, and the head itself is flattened and slightly elongated into an oval.
The skin is often red and turns pale only by the end of the first week. Some children develop peeling skin on the chest and tummy at 3-5 days of life. Slight jaundice from the 3rd day of life is also considered normal.
In addition, in the first week the following features are noted:
To see what a baby looks like in the first days after birth, watch the video:
Skin redness, swelling and jaundice often go away this week. The baby begins to gain weight, and hypertonicity in the limbs, which is considered normal for a child in the first month of life, still persists. The baby has not yet learned to hold his head up, but The movements of the baby’s legs and arms are still involuntary and chaotic.
The following nuances are also noted:
At two weeks of age, the baby spends most of his time sleeping
The movements of the limbs of a toddler older than 2 weeks are already becoming less chaotic, and the skull of most babies in the third week of life regained its shape.
The baby's activity increases, and due to the abundance of impressions, many babies become irritable in the evening.
The baby's cry changes, acquiring intonation, for example, when the baby is worried about something, the cry will be loud and demanding.
A baby in the third week of life is characterized by the following features:
Bowel movements at this age occur from 2 to 8 times a day. When breastfeeding, yellow stools with a buttery-milky smell and the consistency of mustard . If the baby receives formula, stool occurs 1-4 times a day, and the stool is darker and harder, with an unpleasant odor and a brownish tint.
A 21-day-old baby still performs most actions and movements reflexively
The baby's development is progressing at a fast pace this week. The baby adapts better and better to the world around him, rejoices at his parents, looks after his toys and begins to coo.