Your baby is here and your life suddenly seems to be changed in many ways. Questions, doubts, sleepless nights and tiredness are your companions now… Well, for your newborn to be healthy and happy, you must experience all this and no, there’s no escape.

One of the most important things that most first-time parents tend to ignore is their own health. All said and done, your baby needs you for everything in their life and you have to be well to cater to its needs. So, first and foremost, take care of yourself, by sharing chores, by having set schedules and taking turns to sleep, rest and relax. Because you need to be healthy to keep your baby healthy.

Now that you know why taking care of yourself is important, let’s learn the basics of  handling a baby: 

• Be wary of the baby’s under-developed immune system and sanitise your hands before handling the baby as often as possible

• Your baby is fragile and delicate. Avoid playing with the baby by flinging it into the air or any such harsh movements. Avoid shaking the baby , it may at times lead to bleeding in the brain and result in death.  The baby is not ready for your rough play yet.

• When you hold your baby in your hands, always support their head and neck as if you are cradling.

• Babies have sensitive eyes and ears, do not expose them to extremely bright lights and loud noises.

• Hungry babies are fussy babies, make sure they’re fed at regular intervals.

• Babies tend to agitate after dirtying their diapers, which is about 7-10 times a day. Make sure you follow the right diaper routine by using the diapers that suit your baby the best.

How to handle a crying baby:

• Cradling the baby and stroking them in different patterns will calm them down. With time, you will also figure out the stroking pattern that your baby enjoys the most, making it easy for you to find answers to the crying.
• Babies love being skin-to-skin with their parents, it helps them a great deal in the newborn feeling secure while developing a strong bond between the baby and the parent.
• Singing, talking and cooing can be effective ways of calming your crying baby down. Babies like vocal sounds and these sounds can be soothing for them. Reciting rhymes, poems or reading books to your baby will help.
• With these basics, the bare minimum, being covered, you now know why your baby could be crying and how you need to handle them. In our next article, we will learn about diapering, bathing, feeding and burping.