An article describing Colic was posted on this blog in September. But today I learned of a website designed to help parents better understand and survive this difficult period of early-infant crying: The Period of Purple Crying. “Purple” is an acronym developed by Dr. Ronald G Barr and Marilyn Barr of the National Center on…
Nothing is likely as intimidating or discouraging to parents as a screaming infant — especially a newborn. Last week my wife Kathy showed me this amazing YouTube video of Dr. Robert Hamilton, of Pacific Ocean Pediatrics in Santa Monica, California, demonstrating his calming technique for infants 3 months or younger. Literally, I had opportunity to try…
Thrush is a remarkably common, harmless, yet frustrating condition which many of us have had to contend with in our newborns and infants. I still shudder when I recall, as new parents, how long it took for us to eliminate those nasty little white patches from our daughter Emily’s mouth. The basis for our repeated…
“Does anyone have a clue what we’re going through?” Likely nothing in our entire lives leading to parenthood will ever quite prepare us for the infant with colic. Though our three children are not genetically related (two are adopted), all three had severe colic from about 3 weeks of age until just after 3 months of…
Introducing table solids into a baby’s diet is for many parents a downright scary proposition. “I’m afraid he might choke on it, and…” you fill in the blank, but be assured, these words have been uttered to me countless times by very appropriate, but genuinely frightened parents. So how to proceed. First, your baby will,…
If you are reading this, you are likely the parent of a 3 to 4 month old baby, alternately thrilled, then terrified at the prospect of introducing solids. You are not alone! I would submit that even my professional organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics, (AAP) has repeatedly revised its recommendations. 🙂 Let’s start with “when?”…
What follows assumes your baby is at least 6 months old, and is waking up for a feeding at least once a night. It also assumes that your baby doesn’t consistently put him or herself to sleep at the beginning of the night. In my experience, there are a few non-negotiable “musts” if you want…
Below is a simple approach, relatively easy for both parents and babies, which if followed, should achieve 9 to 12 hours of continuous night sleep by 4 months of age. All humans sleep by association. Infants and adults wake up multiple times per night, during REM sleep. If the conditions to which we awaken are similar…