Your baby is here hurray! Experienced mums and everyone who has come in close contact with babies will have a lot of myths about babies to share with you; the new mother. So get ready!
Being a new mum can be a confusing and overwhelming time as you try try to adjust to your new role, and often recommendations or tips from other mums can be unwanted, and at times even untrue. And as you listen to different views it can be confusing to sort through everything to pick out that which is true. Some of this myths may have no dangerous effect on your baby. But we thought you should know the myths from the facts.
1# Newborns can’t see
Although new born babies may have blurry vision, yet they can definitely see. This myth might be based on the weird way newborns’ eyes tend to move. You might notice that your newborn’s eyes move in a jerky way at times, but that’s normal because baby doesn’t have full control of the eye muscles yet. Research showed that when babies are two weeks old, they can differentiate between colours but before that, everything’s in black and white. It takes time for them to become accustomed to the light, the environment, and for their eye muscles to become in use.
2# Babies need to be bathed more than once a day
Although most people believe that baby should be given a bathe every day, your baby really does not need to be bathed 2-3 times a day; although it’s a great way to get them to relax they only need one every day. The fact is, bathing removes body oil from your baby’s delicate skin, which can make it dry and irritated. Also, sitting in soapy bathwater can irritate a girl’s urethra thereby leading to urinary tract infections. So when you want to bathe your baby, clean your baby’s diaper area, neck and other skin folds to make it free of dirt, only give your baby a full bathe once a day. And if you wish to bathe your baby at night, don’t use soap.
3# You need to tip toe when baby sleeps
Truth is babies are used to white sounds inside the womb, so leaving the fan on or leaving the TV on downstairs while they sleep is a great way to get them used to sleeping in their new noisy world.
4# Use breast milk to treat an ear infection
Old mothers believe in the efficacy of breast milk in curing infections a lot. Even though breast milk may be the best way to feed a baby, it should not be recommended as more than a source of nutrition. So if anyone advise you as a parent to put a small amount of breast milk in your baby’s or toddler’s ear to treat an ear infection, go against it, it will not help but instead cause a new infection.
This is because the nutrients in breast milk are helpful to the body but it contains lots of sugars that bacteria love to grow on in it. The breast milk won’t reach the infection since the the eardrum seals off the area that’s infected, so instead the milk might attract bacteria.
5# Touching your baby’s soft spot can hurt his brain
Your baby’s fontanel otherwise called soft spot, at the front of his head is a skin-covered opening in the skull that pulsates, frightening some parents. Most mothers assume that this spot is vulnerable but in truth the brain is well protected so you don’t have to fear that you’ll hurt his brain by touching the soft spot.
6# Allowing babies to stand will cause bow legs
Contrary to this belief, a baby’s leg are often bowed by the in-utero position in the womb which later straighten when baby starts to stand and walk. What baby needs is just some normal stretching and movement to straighten out bow legs at birth. Now that babies are sleeping on their backs, we don’t see as much bowleg.
7# Babies who start everything early are gifted
That a child starts walking, eating, and talking early does not have anything to do with his later success. And although many parents see this early start as as sign of the child being gifted, it is not supported by evidence and so it’s a just a myth.
There are many and lots more like these myths, if you are not convinced about a particular course of action regarding your baby and you know your actions might affect your baby’s health then seek medical advice.
Mamalettes here are some of ours, what other myths about babies have you heard? Share with us! Visit our forum or post your comments below.
Comments
Comments
