Healthy Living

Your newborn baby has her own very special personality, and she may surprise you with what she can do, Spend as much time as you can with her; and you’ll soon get to know every little expression and sound she makes,

Posture And Senses

At first, your baby’s head is too heavy for her back and neck muscles to support. All her postures when not lying down are governed by her gradual development of the ability to control her head. If you put your baby on her back, she’ll probably turn her head to one side, stretch out her arm on that side, and flex the opposite arm in toward her chest. By the time she’s a week old, she’ll raise her head in small jerks when she’s supported on your shoulder. At six(A Perfect First Mother’s Day Gift From Baby) weeks she’ll probably be able to hold up her head for more than a minute.

From birth, she has fairly good senses of hearing, smell, and taste. At first, she mainly touches things with her mouth. She’ll soon recognize you by smell, and by sight, too, within a couple of weeks. When you hold your baby close to you for the first time, she’ll focus on your face and look into your eyes. Babies like looking at faces more than anything else. Hearing high-pitched human voices gives her great pleasure, and she’ll like yours, and your partner’s deeper one, more than any others. She’ll also respond to sounds with a change in her breathing, and she may be startled by loud noises.

All babies have certain automatic movements-reflexes-which help them protect themselves. They usually last until about three months and are then lost. For example, your baby will close her eyes if you touch her eyelids. All babies have a sucking reflex if you press the palate of the mouth. The sucking is more like chomping-it’s very strong and lasts for some time. Babies are born with the swallowing reflex-they’ve had to use it when swallowing fluids in the womb-and so they can swallow colostrum or milk the instant they are born. If a baby swallows too much liquid, her gagging reflex will immediately act to clear her breathing passage.