Music Stimulates Baby's Development

Most have heard people say that having a baby listen to classical music will make him a smarter child. This claim is a bit deceiving. Tuning into a bit of Mozart each day is definitely not going to make your child into a prodigy. However, music stimulates a child's development, including emotional, motor and linguistic skills. So, if the preceding statement equates to a smarter child in your eyes, then so be it.

A loving parent's singing voice can stimulate linguistic skills. Even if you feel like you cannot carry a tune for anything, you're little baby will be delighted with his personal concert. Sing nursery rhymes or other kid songs to encourage your baby's development.

I often sang to my infant daughter, including singing along with the tunes on her toys. At 20 months, she was able to clearly sing all of the lyrics of "Twinkle, Twinkle." She knew what the words meant because we did hand movements to go along with words. These gestures aided her motor skills. And you don't have to know anything fancy to put with a song. Simple dancing and swaying sharpen a child's motor skills.

At Brigham Young University, researchers studied how music affected 33 premature infants in a Utah intensive care unit. Babies listened to men and women singing lullabies recorded on cassette tape for 40 minutes per day for four days. On the fourth day, doctors discovered that the infants who heard the music had lower blood pressure, gained more weight and had a stronger heartbeat than those who heard no music.

Yes, music can have healing power. When your baby is feeling under the weather, gently sing to him or play soothing songs on CD. Perhaps your little one will be back to his old self faster than he would have been without music.

So, even though you're not coaching the next Mozart, you can encourage the learning process by singing and regularly playing music for your infant.

Organic Disposable Babies Diapers

Now you can have it all: the convenience of disposable babies diapers and the reassurance of all-natural materials; "Organic disposables," no longer oxymoronic, promise to end the controversy and help to take Mother Earth out of harm's way.

Diaper technology may have advanced to the point where The Great Diaper Debate fades from screaming to whispers and ultimately becomes just a memory. Especially working parents and daycare providers stridently have argued in favor of disposable diapers, because they put a premium on quick-and-easy changes and zero maintenance: Who has time to fumble with pins or tricky closures, and who has time for daily laundry? Environmentalists, however, challenge disposable advocates' flagrant disregard for the planet's needs: Filled with chlorine, volatile organic chemicals, and plastics, old-fashioned disposables accumulate in landfills, releasing toxins without degrading. And the average baby clad in nothing but disposables will pile-up two tons of inorganic waste by the time he toddles up to the toilet.

At least five major manufacturers of babies' diapers now offer all-natural disposables. Even the frequent environmental offenders-Huggies and Pampers-come in all-new and all-natural materials. Most organic disposable diapers will go straight into the trash without inducing great pains in a parent's conscience; although they briefly take-up scare landfill space, they degrade and disappear in 150 days. The best organic disposables, however, are flushable and compostable. The flushable diapers typically are designed and developed for use in "pocket diapers," but a few work just like the old fashioned kind. Parents must break-up the paper and cellulose before they flush, but the flushables do go right down the drain. Compostable babies' diapers go right into the heap with all your other yard waste, breaking down at least as quickly as last autumn's leaves.

Advances in organic farming have made chemical-free wood more plentiful and affordable. Now, environmentally conscious manufacturers produce diapers that go from forest to baby to landfill untouched by toxins or volatile organic compounds. A few

premium producers of organic disposable babies' diapers boast their raw materials come from rare trees organically grown on family farms in the world's emerging nations. That claim scores the environmentalist trifecta. Large-scale manufacturers attribute their innovations to development of new cellulose products. Used as substitutes for old-fashioned disposables' plastic outsides, new cellulose compounds share plastic's performance properties, but they come from corn instead of complex laboratory-synthesized polymers.

Infant Massage

No new parent needs to be told to cuddle and touch her baby. But did you know that specific kinds of touch- infant massage- can help preemies gain weight or fussy babies settle down? Research has shown that massage calms colicky babies, improves sleeping patterns, and can help premature or ill babies who have trouble nursing latch on,and breastfeed successfully.

But even if your newborn is full-term and easy-going, massage can benefit your baby. "Any loving touch is good touch," says Susie Plechner, a certified infant massage instructor and spokesperson for the International Association of Infant Massage, "but massage is one of the best ways to bond with your baby." To get started, lie your baby on her back, either on a blanket on the floor next to you, or on your lap, with her head near your knees. Talk to her in a soothing voice to help her relax. If you wish, put a dab of an unscented massage oil in the palms of your hands (avoid oils made from nuts, since they may cause an allergic reaction). Then:

1. Start with the legs. Hold one foot in one hand and use the other hand to "milk" the leg, moving from ankle to thigh. Then, hold the thigh with both hands (like you're holding a baseball bat) and use a very gentle twisting and squeezing motion as you move your hands from thigh to foot. Now roll the leg between your hands from knee to ankle. To finish, lightly stroke the legs from thigh to feet.

2. Tummy time. To massage your baby's abdomen, slide your palm and fingers in a hand-over-hand circular motion, moving gently from the rib cage downward. Now slide both hands around the abdomen in clockwise, circular movements.

3. If your baby has gas, try the "I Love U" stroke a time-tested tummy relaxer. Picture an upside down U over your baby's abdomen. Start with a downward stroke for the "I" on baby's left side. Then stroke along the imaginary upside down "L" and then along the upside down "U."

Feeding Techniques

Baby will quickly establish his individual pattern as to when he is hungry or sleepy. Let his hunger pattern determine his feedings: this is called "self-demand" schedule, which some doctors recommend for Baby's first few days. Keep a record of the times he seems to want to eat and sleep and after a week you will have known the schedule that fits Baby satisfactorily. Other doctors may recommend what is called "modified-demand" technique. The baby is fed whenever he shows signs of hunger but is also offered a feeding at regular intervals. There are, however no hard and fast rules about feeding time. The time between feedings may depend upon: the size and weight of the baby; how often he seems to need food; and whether you and your doctor want to try letting him establish his own schedule or want to feed him only at regular intervals.

Young babies naturally fuss and get cranky when they swallow air during feedings. Although this occurs in both breastfed and bottle-fed infants, it's seen more often with the bottle. When it happens, you're better off stopping the feeding than letting your infant fuss and nurse at the same time. This continued fussing will cause her to swallow even more air, which will only increase her discomfort and may make her spit up.A much better strategy is to burp her frequently, even if she shows no discomfort. The pause and the change of position alone will slow her gulping and reduce the amount of air she takes in. If she's bottle-feeding, burp her after every 2 to 3 ounces. If she's nursing, burp her when she switches breasts.

Peek-a-BooThis game teaches your baby that objects out of sight still exist and can be found—an important cognitive lesson for baby.Here are some variations of the game:

Hide your face behind your spread-apart fingers. Peek around the corner of a doorway. Use a light cloth that baby can pull off easily and victoriously

as you call out "Peek-a-boo!" This game can be played throughout baby's first year of life and into toddlerhood.

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Maternal and Child Care

A Worksheet in NCM 101

Submitted to:Ms. Ashdel Artes R.N.

Submitted by:Ana Marie V. Busa

BSN II-C