Everyday care

Baby’s wellbeing

Every day, you will be taking a thousand and one small decisions for the wellbeing, happiness, health, and safety of your child.

Feeding your baby well is important, but there’s more! You will also be bathing her, watching over her sleep, interpreting her cries, understanding her, looking after her, and supporting her growth and her learning, day after day—such a fabulous adventure!

Guarding your baby’s sleep

In the early days, your baby will sleep 16 to 18 hours a day. She will require less sleep as she grows. Whether she is sleeping through the night or not, the quality of her sleep is the cornerstone of her balance and of a healthy development.

Beds

In the first few months, you may want to keep your baby near you, though it might mean disrupting the few hours of sleep that you will manage to snatch.

Alternatively, put her bed in the next room, so you hear her when she wakes up, for accessible breastfeeding and nappy changing.

Feel into how close you need to be to your child, especially right after birth. Later, as she starts sleeping through the night, get her used to sleeping in her own room. As time goes on, she will react more to surrounding sounds and movements: her sleep will be easier to disturb if she is sleeping beside you.

Safe and secure

Your baby’s bed will be a safe haven by taking basic precautions:

Lay your child down on her back, not on her tummy. This position is now acknowledged as reducing the risk of sudden death syndrome in infants.
Choose a firm mattress that is adapted to the size of the bed, making sure there are no gaps around the edges.
No pillows, sheets, or blankets: the best is to have her sleep in a sleeping bag or a playsuit. No duvets before 36 months of age. Also avoid piling soft toys on her bed, especially large ones, or tying her dummy to a string. All this will reduce risks of suffocation.
Ideally, set the temperature to 19° C in her bedroom.
No pets in baby's bedroom, for both hygiene and safety.
When your baby is awake, you may turn her on her tummy to strengthen her back muscles and to show her the world from another angle.

Sleep disorders

Night waking is disruptive for your child, but also for her parents and for the whole family. Be gentle and firm about teaching her to fall asleep by herself.

Anxiety: Some children get scared at bedtime. They may be afraid of the dark, of being alone in their bedroom, of knowing that life goes on without them in the next room, or of monsters hiding under the bed or behind the curtains. A change of habits, tension in the family, moving house, a TV programme or her own wild imagination can also be fear inducing. If your child is anxious and calls for you at night, try to find out what she is afraid of, reassure her using a gentle voice, chase the monsters away, and give her a snuggle. A nightlight will often be enough to overcome her fear of the dark. If her fear turns into a phobia, speak to her paediatrician rather than letting her climb into your bed.
Excitement: As your child grows, she may find it harder to fall asleep and even dislike waking up several times in the night. She will call out to you each time, asking you to help her go back to sleep again. At first, you can reassure her and explain that she needs to sleep to be full of energy for the next day. To help her settle down and fall asleep again, establish a simple ritual that she will be able to do without you: holding her soft toy, turning the other way, looking at her nightlight… Going forward, you will need to resist the temptation to comfort her and wait for her to go back to sleep by herself.
Nightmares: Every parent has experienced jumping out of bed and finding their child terrorised and crying, in a muck sweat. Your calmness will be the best reassurance: explain that it was only a nightmare and help her go back to sleep. If her night terrors continue, don't hesitate to talk to her doctor.

Washing your baby

Face

Eyes: Check the corner of her eyes, where secretions sometimes build up: to remove them, use a cotton pad dipped in warm boiled water or saline solution, wiping from the inner corner of the eye towards the outside.
Nose: It can often be congested with mucous. However, breathing freely is essential to breastfeeding: clear your baby’s nose by gently removing whatever is blocking it up with a cotton swab dipped in warm boiled water or saline solution.
Ears: Clean the outer ears with special cotton swabs for babies to prevent any damage to the eardrums. Do not try to reach the end of the ear canal, which contains small hairs that push earwax out.

My baby is crying!

You will need to learn to overcome the pang of hearing your baby cry.

Many things can make a baby cry: frustration, such as tiredness, hunger, physical discomfort, or anxiety. Try to find what is causing it as soon as possible.

You will soon be able to understand variations in your baby’s first method of communication.

It is normal for your baby to cry a lot in the first 3 months of life. She has no other way of calling for you, and is adapting to her new environment, having spent nine months in the peacefulness of your tummy.

Mentally run through the reasons why she may be crying: is she in an uncomfortable position? Is she hungry? Has she been woken by a sound? Has she soiled her nappy?
Once you have eliminated major causes of discomfort, remember that her crying might also be a way of letting off steam, often the cause of evening crying. Your baby is evacuating stress. Let her express herself and reassure her as you rock her in your arms. To help her calm down, you can sing, hum a song you used to hum when she was still in your tummy, speak softly, try to distract her, or play her music box.
Find the right balance between letting her cry it out and picking her up.
If your baby’s cries are louder than usual with no apparent reason: if she is grimacing in pain, take her temperature, check for signs of digestive or other disorders, and call your doctor for a diagnosis and a course of action.