Everything You Need To Know About The First Month Of A Baby

The sight of the newborn fills the parent’s minds with a lot of joy, but at the same time his/her mind is filled with doubts regarding the baby’s first few months. Most newborns spends most of his/her life sleeping in short stretches, with him/her going through new and rewarding experiences learning a lot by looking, hearing, moving and touching.

Here are a few things a newborn can do by the first 1 month:

The baby is able to recognize and distinguish your breast milk from those of other mothers. Also the newborn hears and recognizes his/her mother’s language; babies in the womb itself know when the mother’s own language is spoken and when she speaks another language.

Most babies are funny looking puffed face with eyes shut and fine body hair called lanugo; this is due to the baby spending 9 months in the womb and being smooched in its journey through the birth canal. Soon he/she will resemble the pretty baby you imagined.

Babies at birth can focus best at 20 to 30 centimeters; the distance adults instinctively put their face to talk to the baby. He/she cannot see clearly longer than this distance.

Babies cry a lot during the first few weeks; it is their way of communicating that they are uncomfortable due to hunger, cold or a dirty diaper. Your efforts will be soon rewarded with a smile or cooing around 6 to 8 weeks when the baby will show it when he/she is being comforted or held.

Your baby will start recognizing his/her parents in about 2 weeks. This process could be strengthened by loving and responding to the baby with feeding, changing, cuddling and comforting.   

When the baby is a month and half he/she will start following slow moving objects, when it is the right time to introduce moving toys that are curvy and have high contrast. It would also help to place a black and white mobile above his cot. Faces are also ideal toys for the newborn.

High-pitch sounds and sing-song voices as most liked by babies; avoid loud sounds and use repetitive ones to soothe the baby. Sing and talk to the baby as much as possible and sing rhymes like ‘Round and round the garden’ with the same gentle stroking movements each time and sing and talk to him or her as far as possible. Your baby will enjoy being carried in a sling as you move about, especially if you talk to him as you go. All this contributes to be a valuable learning experience.

It is Ok to touch the soft spot or fontanel on the head and hair near it; the fontanel allows the baby to maneuver out of the birth canal. It may pulsate because it's directly over blood vessels covering the brain.

Lastly the doctors may offer various examinations of hearing, eyes, heart, hips testes, cataract and retinoblastoma, congenital heart disease, and developmental dysplasia of the hips just 3 days after birth. A similar examination is repeated at 6 to 8 weeks of age as some conditions can develop later.  

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