Today’s Tip - Pay attention to the volume of your voice when you’re holding your baby

If you carry your baby upright on your shoulder, you’ve got to worry about more than supporting his neck. Chances are, your mouth is right by his ear, so essentially everything you say is right in his ear. So if you yell at the dog, the other kids, your spouse (not recommended) you could do some serious damage to his tender eardrums. Not to mention you might scare the crap out of him.

Even talking in a raised voice or a normal voice could be harmful depending on how you hold him or how loud your voice is. I try to turn as far away from his head as possible when I’m speaking, and if I need to yell at the dog, I switch positions first. The dog loves it because she gets away with murder.

Parenting, Ear, Hearing, Damage, Noise

Today’s Tip - If your baby is gassy all the time, try altering your diet if he’s breastfed, or talk to your pediatrician if he eats formula

All babies have gas, there’s just no way around it. But if you notice your baby belching or passing gas constantly or waking themselves out of naps, it could be something in their diet. Breastfed babies might have an issue with something in mom’s diet. Try eliminating one thing every few days to see if you can find the offensive food. Dairy, citrus fruits and juices, nuts, cabbage, onions, and broccoli are likely culprits.

If your baby is formula fed, they could have a problem with cow’s milk or soy, depending on what you’ve got them eating. Talk to your pediatrician about what formula is right for your infant.

You should also call your pediatrician if the gas continues past their first birthday, or if there’s vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, bloody stools, or rash along with the gas. They could be symptoms of serious intestinal problems.

In the meantime, the most likely solution is to let it pass, burp your baby to lessen the air bubbles in their stomach, and hold them on their stomach if they seem uncomfortable.

Parenting, Breastfeeding, Formula, Feeding, Gas, Intestinal, Problem

Today’s Tip - Keep your house around 72 at night during the summer to keep your baby from overheating

Michigan summers are hot and sticky…we were reminded of this over Memorial Day weekend when temps got up into the 90s. Since our house has plaster walls, lots of windows on the west side and no air conditioning, it gets pretty toasty upstairs in the evening, and its pretty much impossible to cool it off.

Not good nes for the baby. Overheating is one of the probable causes of SIDS, so we were faced with a dillema. Here are some ideas for keeping your kid cool in a hot house.

• Set the A/C for 72F. (For those of us lucky enough to have it)
• Have a fan circulate the air in the baby’s room
• Let your baby sleep in just his diaper
• Move the crib to a cooler room in the house, like the basement
• Stay at a friends with air conditioning
• Don’t use any blankets
• Use sheets made of a thin, flame retardant material

Parenting, Overheating, Temperature, Heat

Today’s Tip - Keep a handle on what size diapers your baby should be in…or face the consequences

Our son seems to be growing way too fast for us to keep up. How do we know? Once he gets too big for his diapers all his bowel movements seem to find a way to leak out the sides and on to us. It’d be nice if we could rely on the pediatrician visits to montitor his weight, but alas, we’ve got to be more vigilant.

The easiest way to see how much your baby weighs is to step on a scale with him, note the weight and then weigh yourself without him. Then take a look at the diaper package and see if he’s too big or two small for it. And, in our case, another big indicator he needs to jump up in size is leaky bowel movements or a diaper that seems to fit awkwardly when you put it on.

Parenting, Diaper, Size, Weight

Today’s Tip - If your baby has a fever, onitor his under arm temp once every hour or so

Our son had his first fever in the middle of the night last night. It came after his first week in day care…big surprise. When I took his temp it was 99.6, just abit above normal. I called the registered nurse at the children’s hospital and she told me not to give him children’s tylenol, but to strip him down to a t-shirt and a diaper, keep the house around 72 and don’t put a blanket on him. She also told us to keep an eye on his under-arm temperature about once an hour and to make sure it didn’t break 101 F. If he did, a trip to the pediatrician might be necessary at his young age of 3 months.

We did that, kept him in light clothing today and monitored his temp once an hour. He never got above a 100 F and tonight he was back in the 98 degree range.

If you do give your baby children’s tylenol, call a registered nurse or your pediatrician to get the correct dosage if your baby is under 2 years old. They base the dosage on weight.

Parenting, Fever, Treat, Sick, Newborn

Today’s Tip - Say your baby’s name rather than “you” when you talk to him

Baby’s start to develop a sense of self around 4-8 months, and chances are they’ll start to recognize their own name and respond to it before they begin to understand the concept of “you”. So whenever you’re doing your running commentary or talking with your baby (and you should be doing it lots by this point) try to inject their name in the conversation as much as possible. You may feel silly doing it, but chances are you’ll be helping his development.

Parenting, Verbal, Language, Development, Learning

Today’s Tip - Lose that extra baby weight by making small, manageable lifestyle changes

One of the big things my wife wanted to do after she had our baby was to get back to her original weight. That can be extremely tough, since you can’t really go back to the lifestyle you had pre-baby. There’s more sitting and holding the baby. You’re more likely to be worn out and not feel like exercising. Maybe you’re eating easier, higher fat meals because you have less time to cook.

It seems that the best way to get rid of those extra pounds is to do a few little things to make the weight loss manageable rather than getting discouraged that you can’t spend an hour or two at the gym three times a week.

Here are some quick tips to help you get back to looking svelte:

• Cut back on calories. Drink one less soda. Say no to one dessert. Go for a salad instead of a burger. Make some healthier tweaks to your diet without completely changing the way you eat
• Park farther away whenever you can
• Take the baby out for a walk. He’ll love being outside and you’ll burn calories pushing that cute baby weight around
• Eat breakfast. Eating smaller meals more often helps your metabolism
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator
• Breastfeed. It burns up to 500 calories
• Switch to whole wheats
• Join an exercise class you can do with your baby like Mommy and Me Yoga
• I watch the baby twice a week so my wife can play soccer. If you’ve got a spouse who’ll help you, you’re already ahead of the game.
• Eat more fruits and veggies
• Buy a cheap pedometer and walk an extra 1,000 steps a day

Pick a few small things you can do and stick to them. As your lifestyle changes, add a few more once they become second nature. Before you know it, you’ll have lost a few pounds, and you’ll probably be healthier too.

Parenting, Health, Pregnancy, Weight , Loss

Today’s Tip - Don’t freak out if your baby has a birthmark, they don’t hurt and may go away later in life

My son was born with a huge birthmark on his right calf. And when I say huge, I mean it takes up a good 50% of his lower leg. It looks a like he fell off a bike and skidded his skin across some pavement. People who have held him and then noticed the mark afterword have exclaimed “Oh my gosh! What did I do to hurt him!”

The type my son has is a strawberry hemangioma. It’s bright red and sticks out of the skin, which is where it gets the strawberry in its name from. Sometimes the birthmark will vanish by the time the child is 5 years old. Nearly all of them will disappear after the nine year mark.

There are other types of hemangiomas, which make up a vast majority of birthmarks.

Cavernous - This means the mark is deep in the skin and it has more of a bluish-red color. A cavernous hemangioma doesn’t usually go away on its own.

Regular hemangioma - It’s a cluster of blood vessells that cause the skin to look red. The most common of these is found on the back of the neck. I know a few people that have these still as adults, but they’re usually hidden behind hair and are completely invisible.

Port-wine stain - these are usually deep maroon or purple and are on the outer level of skin. They don’t usually go away on their own, but they can be taken care of with surgery.

All birthmarks are cosmetic features and aren’t bad things at all. I think they give people character. They don’t hurt, and you might want to leave it up to the child to decide if he wants his birthmark removed when he’s older.

Parenting, Birthmark, Skin, Flaw

Today’s Tip - When your baby is attempting to roll over, give them a little help

When babies are discovering new things they can do, a lot of the time they’re alllllmost there, and you just want to give them that extra nudge to help. Don’t feel bad at all about doing it. You’re actually showing them what its like to have success, and it’ll make it easier for them to figure out how to tuck that arm underneath or push off extra hard with their foot.

Parenting, Physical, Development, Exercise

Today’s Tip - Have a day care diaper bag and a “other times” diaper bag

It’s just like packing an overnight bag for your baby. Except for the fact that you’re probably on a tight schedule in the mornings, and you can’t afford to be rushed when you’re trying to get yourself, your baby and their bag ready to head out for the day.

If you can, pack the bag the night before. It’s one less thing you have to worry about. My wife and I have a diaper bag that goes with him to daycare and one that we use for other trips out of the house or if we’re giving him to a babysitter. It makes it easier for us to know what to stock back up and gives us a spare if were coming back from day care and need to head right back out.

Parenting, Day, Care, Diaper, Bag