Practical Approach
Parenting is tough. It’s demanding, exhausting, and too often surprising. New parents, especially, can get overwhelmed, and when that happens, they start making mistakes. If you are new to this parenting thing, then save yourself some worry and take a moment to read the list below. It will teach you about the mistakes that most new parents tend to make and how to avoid them.
Installing the Car Seat Improperly
There are some car seats that are pretty easy to install. Unfortunately, they’re not that common. As many frustrated new parents know, car seat installation can often be baffling. Don’t just keep trying until it seems right. After you have picked out your seat, get the store staff to show you how to install it, or get some help from a fire station. With your baby riding in it, you want to be absolutely sure you have got it installed properly.
Panicking about Sickness
If your baby starts throwing after shortly after feeding, your first instinct may be to panic, possibly even rushing your baby to the emergency room. Don’t panic. Most babies spit-up a little after being fed. This is just a mixture of saliva and mucus, though. It is a healthy part of babies being the disgusting, adorable creatures they are. However, if your baby is doing this every half hour or so, regardless of when the last feeding was, this is vomit. That is a reason to seek medical attention.
Getting Advice from Unreliable Sources
New parents are often desperate for parenting advice, and they sometimes look for it in all the wrong places. Whether this is a coworker or a random parenting website, it is always a bad idea to take parenting advice from anyone but reliable, expert sources. When it comes to online information, the American Academy of Pediatrics is a good source of advice, as is WebMD.
Reflexively Comforting Your Crying Baby
Babies cry when there’s something wrong. They cry when they want something. Sometimes, they cry just to see if they can make you respond. They even cry for no good reason at all. Now, obviously, you are going to want to help your baby who is crying because they need something. However, it is a bad idea to comfort them every time they cry. This just reinforces helplessness and bad behavior. When your baby cries, go to see if there is anything wrong. If you don’t find anything, just let them cry it out. Although you should be aware that if your baby cries for more an hour or more, then they might be sick, especially if they are vomiting, feverish, or have a swollen stomach.
Ignoring Your Baby’s Fever
If you took your temperature and found that you had a mild fever of 100.5, you would probably think that it was not a big deal, and just take a Tylenol and let it work itself out. Doing the same thing with a newborn could be deadly. If your baby is three old or younger and has a fever of 100.5 or more, call the doctor right away.
Neglecting Dental and Oral Care
Being a new parent means you are constantly busy. As a result, dental and oral care are often ignored for too long. You should use wet gauze to wipe your baby’s gums, to reduce bacteria buildup. After your baby turns one, you can start using a toothbrush.
The Takeaway
Remember, people have been figuring out how to be good parents for as long as there have been people, and you can too. As long as you don’t panic, things will be OK.
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