Baby Care: 10 Tips on Bringing Home & Feeding Your Newborn

mom • parenting • parenting • ages and stages

by Mom It Forward on June 29th, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Baby Care—Having a newborn is a wonderful, terrifying, life-changing experience, the magnitude of which no one can appreciate until they have one of their own. If you're bringing home your first baby, and if you're anything like me, you're full of questions. There's no one, standard manual that comes with every newborn, and even if there were, every newborn is different, somewhat like every person is different. There is plenty of information out there, though; the trick is to be well-informed but to trust your judgment as well.

Many valuable tips were provided by seasoned moms and newborn expert Dr. Laura Jana during a recent MomItForward Girls' Night Out Twitter party. Here are the top 10 Tweet tips offered, in order, starting off with those offered by Dr. Jana:

Top 10 Tweet Tips on Bringing Home and Feeding Your Newborn:

@playtexbaby: "Newborns should eat every couple hrs at least 8-12x in 24 hrs. In general let baby nurse until satisfied – usually 10 to 30 mins. When bottle-feeding, hold your baby semi-upright. Feeding a baby in more reclined position can increase the risk of choking. Using a pillow under your arms can make feeding baby more comfortable. (Note: The Boppy pillow was the most highly-recommended among #gno tweeters.) Don't be too concerned about sticking to a schedule. Often helps to look for angled bottles or disposable liners that allow less air into nipple & designed to mimic breastfeeding. This can help reduce extra swallowed air. Try feeding in calm, quiet environment with few distractions. Focus on your baby and let your baby focus on you. Whatever you do, be sure to relax, slow down, and enjoy the time you get to spend with your little one during feedings. If you breastfeed, how long you should do that is actually a personal decision. The recommendation in the U.S. is 1 year but several years in other parts of world."
@2sic2mooov: "ASK for help and do not try to be superMOM! Says @youngmommy: "Asking for help was so hard, but it got easier with the more kids i had!"
@amberpagewrites: "Know that everything will be okay. I wish I had known that everything would be okay. No matter what I did, it would all be okay."
Be prepared for the challenges having a newborn can present to your relationship with your spouse or partner.@juliebroughton: "I wish I had known it isn't all unicorns and puppies, and that it can be a bit challenging on the ole relationship."
@jylmomif: Listen to your gut. "I wish I would have listened to my gut more. Always felt like I had to do it "the right way" as a new mom!
@youngmommy: Watch baby for signs of hunger. "Look for baby's queues in the first couple of weeks... she'll begin to establish her own routine. Don't worry too much."
@tipjunkie: Pump some times if you breast feed so your man can help feed."The best thing I did when breast feeding is pumping from the get go and letting my man feed the baby too!"
@luvmy_babygio: Use playtex drop-ins. "I like @playtex drop ins.. similar to breastfeeding."
@youngmommy: Learn to say no to extraneous things. "Learning to say no is still something with which i struggle daily, but it's a good thing to do during those first days."
@tipjunkie: Sleep when baby sleeps. "Best advice I got - sleep when baby sleeps."

Popular and hilarious MomItForward panelist tweeter @troypattee also offered several valuable quotes on parenthood, the best of which are listed here:

"If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?" ~Milton Berle
"A baby's an inestimable blessing and bother." ~ Mark Twain
"A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson