Taking care of or parenting babies may seem simple enough. They need to eat, sleep, be kept clean, and they need to be in good health. These things are easy enough, though some parents fear that they will not do these things correctly. If that is your worry you can relax, as it seems daunting, but is rather easy once you get to know your baby. They have very few physical needs that you will get use to very quickly. There is more to parenting an infant than you think, however, so take some time to go over the finer parts of parenting while your child is still very young.
You may hear a lot about bonding between baby and mom and dad. This is more important than you think in parenting babies. Bonding with your child and giving them security when they are very young has a huge, positive effect on them that lasts throughout their lives. They need to know their needs are being met. If they do not feel this way, they will have trouble with relationships throughout their lives. Bonding is easy, as long as you respond to your baby when they need something. Never allow them to cry alone as some may recommend. This builds distrust.
You can start the verbal part of parenting babies very early. When baby is born, they are already familiar with their mother's voice as well as the voices of those that were around mom the most when she was pregnant. Baby will be soothed by these voices, so take the time to talk to them and sing to them as much as you can. This helps them feel secure. It also sets up good speech patterns in the future. This part of parenting babies is not only easy, it is something that will bring both baby and parents a great amount of joy and aids in total bonding of the family.
Parenting babies is also about teaching them to communicate with you. You will soon enough learn to distinguish what cry means what need is not yet been met. However, you can use simple words to explain what you are doing with them. For example, if you say 'up' each time you pick them up, they may soon start responding to that word by lifting up their arms to be picked up. If you say 'bottle' or 'food' whenever you feed them by bottle or breast, they soon learn that sound means they are going to eat. Other simple words to use are bath, sleep, diaper, and play. They will learn what they mean long before they can answer you with words.
What most don't know about parenting babies is that they are soaking in everything that they see and hear. If you shout a lot, they are going to think this is normal. If you spend a lot of time watching television, that is what they are going to think is normal for family time together. Parenting babies to be open to anything and to want to get up and explore the world means showing them that there are many things that you can do together. You also want them to learn that shouting is not normal, so try to keep it down. They truly do learn what they live and they are watching you very intently.
Pages
▼