Baby 5 to 6 months, what to do with him
Baby 4 to 5 months. What to do with it
Baby 3 to 4 months old. What to do with it
Infant 2 to 3 months old. What to do with it
Educational games for children 1-2 months stimulate the senses and expand the infant's perception of the outside world (voices, smells, movement). During the 2nd month of life, the reaction of the child to the behavior of adults becomes more distinct. The baby improves coordination of movements, vision and hearing. Lying on his stomach, he can move his head from side to side. But remember to support your baby's head when you take him out of the crib or carry him in your arms. The kid is able to track the movement of the toy at a distance of 20-30 cm. The child is interested in new non-speech and speech sounds. He reacts differently to them: loud ones frighten him, and calm, quiet music calms him down.
The baby sleeps less, responds better to sounds and bright light, feels good touches on the body, more actively shows by his behavior that he is uncomfortable. During this period, you will be able to determine (if you are attentive to the child’s signals) when the baby feels good and when it’s bad, why he screams (from pain, hunger, or to attract attention), how best to hold and carry him in your arms, how calm him down, how to feed and put him to bed,
By observing the behavior and reactions of the child, you can cope with the difficulties that will arise in the first months.
You can already begin to decide what toys a child needs up to a year old. At 1-2 months, show your baby sounding and luminous toys, as well as toys made of different materials (plastic, wood, rubber, rag, etc.). Talk to the child, sing songs to him, dance with him, gently rocking. All this develops hearing, vision, tactile sensitivity. However, too intense communication and continuous stimulation with sounding and luminous toys can tire the child - he will begin to act up or cry. In this case, let the baby rest. And if the baby is crying, take him in your arms, gently shake him and, when the baby calms down, put him in the crib.
Remember that you can communicate and engage with your child at any time when he is awake and feels good.
Useful games with a baby 1-2 months
To form your child's first ideas about the surrounding reality and enjoy the magical moments of communication, play with him as early as 1-2 months!
The most difficult, adaptive period, when everything was new and unusual for both the baby and the parents, has been successfully completed. The next thirty days are a time of other equally important discoveries, a grandiose period of mastering new skills, gaining experience and forming habits.
Physical development
In the second month of life, your baby's body continues to develop at an extremely high pace: having taken a good start in the first month, the baby is actively growing. Over the next four weeks, he should gain 800-1000 g of weight, increase his height by 3-4 cm, increase the volume of his chest and head by 10-15 mm. During this period, the development of the internal organs of the child becomes active, the systems and organs of the baby are no longer so much adapted as they enter into a rhythm corresponding to the extrauterine environment.
Indicators of a child from 1 to 2 months
To ensure the growth and development of the baby, parents must provide their child with a stable sleep and feeding schedule. The task is, first of all, before the mother. Of course, the hourly feeding system imposed by Soviet pediatrics has become obsolete, and it is quite possible to feed the baby on demand, while not violating his regimen at all. However, it is important to consider that a one-month-old baby should sleep 18-20 hours a day and eat such an amount of mother's milk that would correspond to 1/5 of the baby's body weight.
If we take, as a standard, the weight of a child is 4 kilograms, then a mother must provide her baby with at least 800 grams of milk per day. This amount of food gives the child the opportunity for a full energy exchange, he remains active, cheerful and gains weight well.
If parents notice that the baby sleeps or eats a little less (more), then you should not sound the alarm. Each child's body is individual, and it is not worth observing any standards when establishing a regimen of rest and feeding - they simply do not exist. As a rule, healthy children already at this age feel their own norm and are able to clearly let their mother know that they have already had enough.
If during the second month of your child's life you have not been able to independently establish his regimen - he eats little and mostly sleeps or is naughty, then it is better to seek help from a pediatrician. In addition to healthy sleep, monthly babies must have another source of energy - abundant nutrition.
In the second month, the mother's lactation should be active.- You need a lot of milk and often. If you notice that the baby is not full, change your diet: drink plenty of fluids - at least two liters a day, add cottage cheese, fish, lean meat, milk and kefir to your menu. Before feeding, make it a rule to drink a cup of weak tea with milk.
Baby gains new motor skills
He already confidently raises his head and can hold it for 10–20 seconds; in the prone position, the child, in addition to the head, raises the chest and can remain so for some not very long time. The frog posture, typical for the first weeks, begins to transform into a human one: the child’s arms and legs are more relaxed, he stretches them more and more to the sides. If one of the elders supports the baby in a sitting position, he can shake his head, and involuntary shuddering and muscle twitching occurs less and less in the child.
Any bright spot, a rattle that makes melodic sounds are the most curious objects for a baby at this age.
He grabs the toy tightly and can hold it for a while. And when the child's hands are not occupied with a toy, then his fists are partially opened. Sometimes the baby thrashes his hands in the air with all his might - and this is quite normal for children of this age.
Baby crying when tired or unable to sleep
In addition, the crying of a baby can be a kind of signal to parents that he is lonely and wants to embrace his own. For most babies, getting into the arms of mom or dad is a great way to calm down.
If the child cries for a long time, bringing himself to the state in which his hands and chin tremble, while he throws his head back strongly, burps too often and sleeps little - immediately show him to a neurologist.
The baby may have intestinal colic even in the second month. To minimize them, mom should again pay attention to her diet: limit sweets, give up grapes and vegetables rich in fiber, soda and drinks based on it.
You can alleviate the fate of the child when he starts having colic problems by laying the baby on his tummy, applying a warm heating pad or stroking his belly clockwise.
During this period, parents should pay special attention to the baby's skin and care for it.. Air baths, massage, evening bathing are not only very useful procedures, but also very pleasant for the child.
In the second month of life, children are increasingly active, they already prefer one or another type of communication. The most favorite activity of almost every month old baby is to wiggle and bounce. They like to lie down, comfortably sitting on their father's chest.
By two months, the baby must be examined by a pediatrician, ophthalmologist, orthopedist and neuropathologist.
mental development
The second month of life is the stage when the child begins to use the organs of sight and hearing more confidently. The visual organ, compared with the first month, has developed significantly, allowing the baby to fix his gaze on a motionless bright object for half a minute.
The kid already knows how to follow a moving object with his eyes, while he “clings” to the object that attracts his attention not only with his eyes, but also helps himself with all his might, twirling his head.
The child now knows how to catch the eyes of parents, so his visual abilities "matured" in this short period of time. The child can focus his attention on any of the objects that fall into his field of vision. Usually, parents, checking the baby’s visual reaction, use a simple test: half a meter from the child’s eyes, they slowly pass a colored toy - the baby always leads with his eyes following, at the same speed with which the object of interest moves.
Child's hearing ability in the second month of life also increase markedly. Now, upon hearing any sound that breaks the silence of the room, the baby actively tries to locate the source of the noise and locate it.
A hearing test can be performed using the same rattle, ringing it for no more than 10 seconds outside the child's field of vision. After the sound that startled him, the baby freezes for a split second, subconsciously analyzing the nature of the phenomenon. And then he starts to turn his head, trying to detect a "noisy" object.
In addition to the sounds made by rattles, squeakers and other toys, in addition to various kinds of artificial sounds, a one-month-old baby begins to listen to voices. He perfectly distinguishes intonation, in response to a quiet gentle voice he will turn calmly and slowly, but he may be frightened by a sharp cry. Therefore, the main rule of conversation in the children's room: quietly, not abruptly, calmly.
Dynamics in the emotional development of the infant
In a month, children are able to give their parents their first smiles. But this smile will not be unreasonable - it will rather become the child's response to your gentle appeal to him. In addition to smiling, many children at this age can laugh, and the nature of laughter is different for everyone: from quiet intermittent to loud bursting.
A child at the age of one month makes the first attempts to distinguish an animate object from an inanimate one: look at how much more your baby will be interested in another child than in the proposed toy. The baby focuses more and more attention on a child or one of the adults and watches them with such interest that at some point it may seem that a one-month-old baby is thinking about what he saw. The characteristic immobility of the body and some of the mimic nuances give rise to conclusions about the monthly "thinker".
Single guttural sounds, characteristic of the first month of life, now develop into babble. The kid clearly pronounces "a", "y", "o", "e", "uh". Cooing is often observed in the second month of life.
At the end of the month, the child is already diligently beginning to combine vowels with consonants, and such “words” as “ehe”, “ah”, “ho”, “he” will lay the foundation for your baby’s rich vocabulary.
If a one-month-old baby gurgles, then he does it very emotionally. In humming, you can catch gurgling, grunting, squealing, champing, and cooing. The baby puts a feeling into every sound and, perhaps, he is able to feel the mood of his parents, especially his mother, because he has not lost that close connection with her that was present between them during the nine months of gestation. He trusts his mother more than anyone, even sympathizes when she is upset by something - catching the mood, the baby is also upset and starts to cry.
Children at this age begin to be interested in the faces of others. They study the features of their parents for a long time, carefully examining them.
Even the crying of a baby in the second month of life is tied to an associative chain: hungry - crying - they hear the signal - they feed me.
Despite the rapid pace of development of the baby, the monthly baby should be protected from too bright light, too loud sounds, during his sleep it is better to turn off or turn down the sound of the TV as much as possible and restrain your negative emotions with the child.
Scientists believe that the mental abilities of monthly babies are much higher than we used to think, but reading fiction aloud to a baby is most likely too early to practice.
But verbal and visual contact, as well as contact through touch, will bring many benefits in building your relationship with your baby. Communicate with him as often as possible, including during feeding: gently hold the child to you, stroke, look into his eyes, talk to him. In the future, he will "remember" this.
In the second month, the baby enters with a smile, he smiled before, but involuntarily, to some of his feelings. And on the fourth or fifth week I smiled for the first time in response to your kind words, smiled consciously, joyfully. This smile is a sign of understanding, readiness for communication, for dialogue.
The English psychologist T. Bauer, taking 86 babies under close observation, found at least four meanings of a smile addressed only to the mother: a smile like “Hurrah! I did it!”, a friendly smile, roughly meaning “I want to please you”, a smile of relief when the child realizes that some kind of sharp sound or unexpected movement is not dangerous for him.
Another discovery of Bauer: girls and boys smile differently. The boy first opens his mouth vertically, then opens his eyes wide, and the girl's lips first slowly curve at the corners, she bats her eyelashes, then slightly turns away, showing herself in profile. In general, it looks like some coquetry.
Whether this is true or not, you can check by making your own child smile more often. And even if you do not find a special variety, you will still get great pleasure every time.
Another characteristic feature of the second month is the intensive development of orienting reactions, the very ones that physiologists figuratively call the “What is it?” reactions.
Of course, you have already hung toys over the crib, or better - so far only one bright ball. Now the child more and more stops his eyes on him. It is important that the toy hangs above his chest at a height of 50 cm - this is the distance that contributes to the correct fixation of the gaze. The attention of the baby began to attract moving objects. He is attentively watching the rattle, which you, having shown him, begin to move left and right. He is extremely interested in sounds - you can verify this by ringing the bell from one side of the crib, then the other. He listens to voices, and he obviously does not like sharp, loud intonations, but from affectionate, gentle ones he literally blossoms.
Of everything around him, he is more attracted to bright, brilliant, sounding. But the most favorite subject for consideration is your face. It is simply amazing with what close attention, how seriously the baby peers at his mother or father leaning over him. How can one disagree at such moments with psychologists and neurophysiologists who say that a newborn child already has intelligence and that the possibilities of mental development of children in the first months of life are much wider than we imagine!
The same Bauer, for example, believes that for a child, communication with an adult is equal in its entertainment to solving a puzzle: we try to understand him, and he tries to understand us ...
The second month is also marked by the increasing pace of physical development.
If in the first four weeks the body weight of the child increased by about 600 g, now you have to gain 800, grow another three centimeters (and in total from the moment of birth by six). Activity also increases - the baby moves his arms and legs more, begins to hold his head in an upright position, raises it, lying on his stomach.
All this requires an increase in energy resources - you need to get more milk from your mother, 120-140 grams at a time, and for six feedings - about 800!
Nature provides for this - in the second month, as the needs of the child grow, lactation (milk production) also increases. But something may not work in this mechanism and then the milk begins to be missed.
As we said, still fixable. Experienced experts advise in such cases, first of all, to review your own diet. Lactation requires an increased amount of protein (see the chapters "Breastfeeding", "Nutrition of the nursing mother").
Finally, one more remedy, new to us, but, in fact, very ancient, biologically based: maximum bodily contact between mother and child during feeding, not through clothes, but with the skin.
Skin-to-skin feeding method
Before feeding, the child is undressed, leaving only a diaper and covering his back with a diaper. Mom also undresses to the waist. Heat exchange, irritation of certain skin receptors, emotional impact increase the flow of milk.
A vigorously sucking baby provides himself with the next feeding, because the very act of sucking and the complete emptying of the mammary gland reflexively contribute to the further production of milk. All that is left must be expressed literally to the last drop, and then for 5-10 minutes, substitute the chest under a hot shower.
It has been known for centuries that from worries, troubles, a woman may lose milk. And even just anxiety about the fact that the child does not have enough milk also exacerbates the situation. Therefore, in the treatment of hypogalactia (insufficient milk production), psychotherapy has recently been widely used. The best psychotherapist for a woman can be her own husband. Remember, husbands: a mother is happy and calm - a child is full!
According to the classic old feeding scheme, from the second month of life, fruit and vegetable juices are introduced into the child's diet, starting with a few drops and bringing up to 5-6 teaspoons per day by the end of the second month.
Still, the introduction of juices is an additional burden on the digestive organs, and they already function in a stressful mode. So, if the baby has an unstable stool or you notice manifestations of diathesis in him, it is better to wait a bit with the introduction of juices. Moreover, when breastfeeding - it is with breastfeeding! - there is no need for them yet.
Massage and gymnastics for a child
When the feeding regime is established, the whole life of the child enters into a rut. Now he has more or less constant hours of sleep and wakefulness, he walks two or three times a day - at first for 20-30 minutes, and by the end of the month it’s already an hour and a half or even more (if the temperature is not lower than -10-12 °C and no strong wind). At the same time - before the evening feeding - he is bathed. It's time to set aside 6-8 minutes for a massage and the first light gymnastics. It is better to do this in the morning and, most importantly, not before bed and not immediately after feeding.
Our great-grandmothers even guessed about the benefits of massage, although they may not have known this word. Remember the folk rhymes, proverbs that accompanied swaddling, all these “Pull-pulls, on the legs of the feather, on the handles of the grip” or the immortal “Magpie-Crow” with stroking the palm and kneading each finger. With the then tight swaddling, the child simply could not do without it, but today's baby, who has received much more freedom, needs to be stimulated to be active.
Massage and gymnastics also combine an air bath, that is, a hardening procedure, and skin-to-skin contact. And, no less important, eight minutes of massage are minutes of emotional communication and joy. The technique of gymnastics and massage is given in the following chapters.
"My stomach hurts!" "I want to be with you!"
For a day, or rather, for a day, the mood, well-being, facial expression of the child will change many times. He was calm, peaceful, and suddenly winces, whimpers, smiles again, but burst into such weeping that it’s just a pity to look: he turned purple all over, tensed up, clenched his fists, uneasily moved his legs ... This usually happens with intestinal colic, so frequent in children in first months of life. “My stomach hurts! Do something!" he says with this cry.
What can be done if the child has a stomachache? Take him in your arms vertically, press him to you, walk around with him, lightly patting him on the back. Iron a flannel diaper folded several times with a hot iron and apply warm (not hot!) To the stomach. It is easy to massage the stomach in a clockwise direction.
These are all home remedies. And to make intestinal colic less frequent, you can resort to some harmless medicines. For example, activated carbon absorbs gases well. It is given three times a day, half a tablet crushed and mixed with water.
There is a special children's tea with fennel. Toddlers drink it willingly, and it works well, reducing intestinal spasms and facilitating the passage of gases.
Resorting to any of the listed means, it is also necessary to trace whether particularly persistent bouts of colic do not coincide with the errors of the mother's diet. The child may pay with abdominal pain for the fact that the mother eats too much sweets, vegetables with coarse fiber, grapes, or drinks more than half a liter of milk a day.
"Wailing hours" usually come in the evening. The baby cries when he is tired, if he wants to, but cannot sleep; by crying, he informs slow-witted adults about some kind of discomfort, by crying he calls out: “I want to see you!” Being in the arms of mom or dad, warming themselves with their warmth is not a whim, but a child's need, and often the only way to calm down.
Children whose nervous system has suffered in the prenatal period or in childbirth are more sensitive to any unpleasant sensations, they cry more, and at the same time their chin trembles, their hands tremble. Often this is combined with the so-called Graefe symptom - with a sharp sound, a sudden flash of light, the child's eyes open so wide that a white stripe of the eyeball becomes visible above the iris.
Some more symptoms available to the mother's eye: the child burps very often, sleeps little. Tends to throw back the head so that the back of the head touches the back. His muscles are constantly tense - it is difficult to straighten the arm or leg. The mobility of the arms and legs is not the same - the left hand, for example, is clearly less mobile than the right, or vice versa.
A consultation with a neurologist in the first months of life is very desirable for any child, and for such it is simply necessary. And - urgently!
The complex of treatment of neurological disorders usually includes massage.
The one that mom does is completely insufficient in these cases. Therapeutic massage is a delicate matter, its sessions last for 30-40 minutes or more, and only a specialist should conduct them.
The appointments of a neurologist must be carried out very accurately. And let the treatment not seem superfluous to you, even if, in your opinion, the child is already quite healthy. The fact is that early lesions of the central nervous system, albeit minimal, are capable, having faded outwardly for a while, then emerge again and again, manifesting themselves in different ways at different age periods: in a preschooler - increased motor excitability, capriciousness, stuttering, in a schoolchild - distraction, inability to concentrate, handwriting defects, and even in an adult - difficult character traits. So treatment in the first months is protection for life!
What should a child be able to do by the end of the second month of life
By the end of 2 months of life, the baby:
- Looks at a stationary object that has attracted attention for a long time and follows a moving object for a long time. Able to hold the gaze for 15-30 seconds.
The look of the baby is stable, he is looking intently! Everything he sees surprises him. Surprise is the beginning of knowledge, the beginning of curiosity. The kid begins to perceive the world, highlighting individual objects, large and small, pleasant and unpleasant. He smiles! - There is a "revival reaction". This is a reaction to communication with adults, when the baby, along with a smile, moves his legs and arms animatedly!
- Holds the head. Some babies are already able to visually focus in an upright position, turn the head after the object and follow it with their eyes at a distance of up to one and a half meters, listen to the sound, and stare at the light source.
- Prefers to be held by an adult.
For the full mental development of the baby, it is very important to take him in your arms! It is this position that gives him the opportunity to see and hear, which contributes to mental development. In the position on the hands, the baby satisfies the orienting reflex. - Spontaneously pronounces individual sounds, for example, “khe”, “ah”, etc.
In the second month of life, in the cries and cries of the child, one can already clearly recognize the differences in his requirements. Hunger and pain cause a sharp cry, and a tired baby emits a “plaintive” grunt… - A lingering "aha", shaking the head, funny eyes, elongated lips - all this means pleasure!
Talk to your baby from the very first days of his life! Tell him about everything that worries you, or what you rejoice in, speak easily and simply, gently ... Do not be afraid to gesticulate and express facial expressions, all this will contribute to the development of your baby's speech. Speak the right language. Studies have shown that the speech of children who were spoken to early in a language other than children's developed much faster ... Remember: the development of speech and intelligence are interconnected!
Development of the child from 1 to 2 months The first few weeks of the newborn have flown by. The kid is more and more adapting to the new world, and his parents fully felt themselves in new roles.
Physiology of the second month
The baby is growing rapidly. The physiological postpartum weight loss was more than compensated for. Normally, by the beginning of the second month, the figure on the scales should increase by at least 600 grams. And the next monthly increase will be about 800 grams. The baby will grow by three to four centimeters, the circumferences (diameters) of the head and chest will slightly increase. At this age, a pediatrician, orthopedist, ophthalmologist and neuropathologist will have to undergo examinations, who will make a conclusion about the state of health.
sleep and food
To cope with the rapid pace of development, the child still needs to sleep and eat a lot. Most of the day (about 19-20 hours) passes in a dream. An equally important aspect is food: the daily volume of milk that a baby receives is almost equal to a quarter of its weight. By applying the baby to the breast on demand, there is no need to weigh before and after feeding. The child independently controls his diet, so who, if not him, knows better than anyone how much and when to eat.
Gradually, the regime is being established. At night, basically, babies lengthen the intervals between feedings. During the day, the time of wakefulness and sleep can constantly change, but already at this stage, parents should let the baby know when evening comes. It is recommended to come up with a special ritual for going to bed at night. Most often, the last meal is preceded by bathing and massage. The child gradually gets used to this state of affairs, realizing that in the dark you need to sleep sweetly.
Psychology of the second month
Mom and Dad watch in amazement as their tiny miracle changes. Gradually, chaotic and reflex movements are replaced by some understanding.
Vision
The baby slowly begins to focus his eyes. Colorful and new items can spark his interest. At this time, singing and sparkling nightlights and mobiles appear above the cribs, with a light parental hand, the movement of which will be monitored by the baby. The child distinguishes the faces of relatives, happily responding with a smile to the appearance of mom and dad in his field of vision.
Hearing
Shake the rattle close to the baby. Now he keeps his ear open and will figure out where the sound comes from by turning his head in his direction. In connection with the discovery that the world is full of curious noises, the baby will begin to build relationships of cause and effect. He will begin to understand that someone is sure to come to his indignant crying.
New Skills
- An inquisitive baby can raise his head and hold it for a while, although this is also worth a lot of effort. Lying on her stomach, she manages to tear her chest off the surface and look at the world in surprise, rising;
On his own, the baby will not soon take the toy, but, squeezing it tightly in his palm, he can hold it for a while;
Involuntary movements gradually disappear, now the child is able to lie down calmly, completely relaxed.
Mom's warmth and hugs are necessary for a little man, like air. The feeling of security and comfort that he receives with them is the key to full physical and psychological development.
Physical development
The neonatal period has passed, but the baby's body continues to develop at an unusually high pace. For the second month, the child should gain one-fourth of his weight at the end of the first month, that is, 800 grams (plus or minus 100-200 grams). During this period, the growth of the baby will increase by one tenth, that is, by 3-4 centimeters. Is it possible to imagine such growth rates in humans?!
Imagine being 10% taller in November than in October?! And in December, recover by 25% of the November body weight?! It sounds fabulous like this: “not by the day, but by the hour”, but scientifically formulated as follows: “In none of the periods of its development, the human body grows at such a speed as in the first months of life.” The circumference of the child's chest in the second month increases by 15-20 mm, the circumference of the head on average increases in the same way, the baby's brain should gain 40-50 grams during this period. All internal systems and organs of the baby are actively developing.
Such a rapid growth of the child's body is impossible without the appropriate energy supply. The baby during this period sleeps from 18 to 20 hours a day and eats as much mother's milk in 24 hours as approximately corresponds to one fifth of his body weight. In other words, if the baby now weighs four kilograms, then the amount of breast milk consumed per day by the baby is approximately equal to 800 grams. However, these are general indicators. Parents should not worry if their child is awake a little more. Each baby is individual. And when feeding the baby, the mother should not set herself any standards. Usually a healthy child feels for himself how much mother's milk he needs and makes it clear to his mother. Prolonged sleep and abundant nutrition are the very sources of energy that allow the baby to develop at an incredible pace at this stage. If by the second month you have not established a sleep and feeding regimen, in other words, your baby eats and sleeps little, you should contact a pediatrician.
What motor skills are characteristic of children during the second month? The kid raises his head well and holds it upright for several tens of seconds. When the child lies on his stomach, he raises his head and chest and holds them in this position for a while. The arms and legs of the baby are relaxed, they are stretched to the sides. The child may shake his head if someone supports him in a sitting position. Involuntary muscle twitching occurs less frequently than in the first month. The baby is able to hold a rattle or other object for a short time, tightly clasping it with his palm. His fists are partially open, sometimes he can flail his hands aimlessly.
A few words about the child's skin and some recommendations for parents on caring for it. The skin is both a protective barrier against a huge number of aggressive environmental influences on the human body, and the most important sensor that perceives a variety of external signals, and an effective thermostat. The health and well-being of a child largely depends on the condition of the child's skin. The skin of infants has a number of age-related features that do not allow it to fully resist injuries and infections. That is why mom and dad need to pay special attention to proper skin care for the baby. Let's take a closer look at the process of bathing an infant. It is best to bathe your baby at the same time before one of the evening feedings. What is required for this: a baby bath; jug or ladle for rinsing; thermometer for water; bathing foam; large bath towel. After bathing, you will need (should be prepared in advance): clean linen (vest, sliders, socks, cap); clean cotton diaper; diapers; cotton buds; hydrogen peroxide solution; 2% solution of brilliant green (brilliant green) or 1% chlorophyllipt; baby diaper cream; baby oil; hair brush. When all this is ready, you can start swimming. The recommended air temperature in the bathroom is about 24-26 °C, the optimum water temperature is about 37 °C. A bathing agent approved for use from the first days of a baby's life should be added to the water. Products containing mild ingredients and appropriate for the pH level of children's skin are optimal. They do not irritate and do not dry the skin of the baby, but have only a gentle cleansing effect. Bathing foam should not irritate the mucous membrane of the eyes.
The duration of bathing the baby up to two months is about five minutes, in the next two months you can bathe the baby for 12-15 minutes.
What is the procedure for bathing a baby? First, you should undress the baby and gently put him in the water so that his head is over your left wrist (if you are right-handed), while the hand of this hand holds the child by the shoulder farthest from you. With your right hand, you will bathe the child, that is, gently pour water on him. If the baby is tense or crying, take your time, smile and talk to him affectionately. Wash the child in sequence: neck, chest, stomach, arms and legs, back and only then the head. Be sure to thoroughly rinse the folds on the neck, armpits, groin, elbows and knees. Open and wash clenched fists. The baby's perineum should be washed with soap and water. In girls, rinse thoroughly and gently all the folds between the labia, and in the boy, gently wash the penis without moving the foreskin, scrotum, and then the area around the anus. With daily bathing, washing the baby with soap should be done no more than twice a week so that the delicate skin of the baby does not dry out. Since the child's head usually sweats a lot, it is washed daily. However, with the use of baby shampoo, the head is also washed no more than twice a week. You should tilt the baby's head back, holding it with the palm of your hand, pour water over the hair from the face to the back of the head and apply a few drops of shampoo. Then lather the shampoo in the hairs and massage the scalp, then gently rinse the foam with washing movements from the face to the back of the head. Then you can rinse the baby with water from a jug, which should be about one degree cooler than the water in the bath. After that, wrap the baby in a towel and put on a clean diaper. Wipe the head first, and then the body of the baby. It is optimal when all the folds of the child's skin are thoroughly dried. Then the umbilical wound should be treated: take a cotton swab and moisten it abundantly with a three percent solution of hydrogen peroxide and swipe it in the navel area, remove excess moisture with a clean cotton swab. With another cotton swab dipped in a solution of brilliant green or in a one percent solution of chlorophyllipt, treat the navel. After that, use a baby moisturizing oil or powder to treat all the wrinkles on the baby's body. Then you should treat the inguinal folds and the diaper area with baby cream or powder. The final stage is to put on a diaper, dress the baby, remembering to put on a hat, and you can start feeding - now your child is clean, beautiful and contented.
In the second month of life, children like to sway or bounce, lie on their father's chest.
By two months, the child should be examined by a pediatrician, ophthalmologist, neurologist and orthopedist. At the reception, the child is weighed, height, head and chest circumference are measured.
mental development
At this stage, the baby uses his communicative organs much more confidently than in the first month of life. So, the child's organ of vision has noticeably developed - the baby is able to fix his gaze on a motionless object that clearly attracts his attention for up to half a minute, for example, on a bright toy or the face of a parent, at a distance of half a meter from the child's eyes. Such visual concentration is an unconditional progress in the development of the infant. Progress is also observed with the focus of visual attention on moving objects. The kid very carefully follows objects moving at a moderate pace in his field of vision, “clinging” not only with his eyes, but also helping himself by turning his head. You can do a simple experiment with a bright rattle (the size of a small apple), at a distance of half a meter, slowly moving it in different directions in front of the baby's face. You will see how your child's visual skills have matured. The child is able to catch the eye of mom or dad. How did your little one's hearing develop? In the second month, the child is actively trying to determine the location of the sounding object in space. Again, do a simple test. With a sufficiently loud rattle, make noise for ten seconds outside the field of view of the little one (but not further than a meter from him). You will see how the baby freezes for a few seconds (his analyzers are working hard), and then starts turning his head left and right, trying to find the object that broke the silence. In addition to rattles and other artificial sources of noise, the baby is also interested in human voices. If you gently talk to a child lying on his back, standing next to him, but out of his field of vision, the baby will turn his head in your direction.
Along with the development of the organs of hearing and vision, the crumbs in the second month reveal a significant dynamics in the development of the emotional sphere. The kid is able to easily respond with a wide and sincere smile to the gentle appeal of an adult to him. The peanut is trying to distinguish living objects from non-living objects that fall into his field of vision. So, a two-month-old baby will pay much more attention to another child nearby than to a familiar rattle located at the same distance. The baby will observe the other child or one of the parents with great interest, discovering in his behavior "thinking" about what he saw. Such "deep reflections" are usually manifested in the immobility of the body and some mimic nuances. Sometimes children at this stage of development are able not only to smile, but also to laugh spontaneously. Sometimes laugh loudly and loudly, sometimes quietly and intermittently. Of course, for dads and moms, the laughter of a little one is magnificent and unforgettable.
In addition, it is quite possible that already in the second month the child will please his parents with a coo - the pronunciation of individual sounds. Lonely guttural sounds gradually take shape in babbling. The baby cries out separate sounds "a", "o", "e", "y", "ee". And at the end of the month, he tries to combine them with consonants ("ha", "he", "ehe"). Cooing crumbs, as a rule, is quite emotional. Sometimes the baby coos, squeals, gurgles, champs. Sometimes it may seem to parents that the little one captures the mood of loved ones. For example, if one of the parents is upset, the baby may also show grief. The baby can study your face for a long time, looking at you intently. The mental abilities of the baby are also developing by leaps and bounds. He feels the mood around when he gives signals (for example, by crying), it may seem that he is waiting for a response from adults, it is clear that he trusts his mother. The crumbs have a mental associative connection - after his crying, feeding or the necessary assistance follows.
By the end of the second month, the baby's crawling reflex disappears.