Milestones During The First 2 Years Long before your baby utters her first word, she has already started communicating with you, using smiles, looks, movements, and sounds. Children develop at different rates, but they usually are able to do certain things at certain ages. Following are general developmental milestones. Keep in mind that [...]
Starting Solid Foods Rice, oatmeal, or barley? What infant cereal or other food will be on the menu for your baby's first solid meal? Have you set a date? At this point, you may have a plan or are confused because you have received too much advice from family and friends with different [...]
Helping Your Child Develop A Healthy Sense of Self Esteem How can we help our child develop a healthy sense of self-esteem? By definition, self-esteem is the way in which an individual perceives herself-in other words, her own thoughts and feelings about herself and her ability to achieve in ways that are important [...]
Cognitive Development In Preschool Children Your three-year-old will spend most of her waking hours questioning everything that happens around her. She loves to ask “Why do I have to . . . ?” and she’ll pay close attention to your answers as long as they’re simple and to the point. Don’t feel that you [...]
Movement and Coordination At this age, your child will seem to be continually on the go—running, kicking, climbing, jumping. His attention span, which was never particularly long, may now seem even shorter. Try starting a game with him, and he’ll immediately change to a different one. Head in one direction, and he’ll quickly [...]
Well Child Care at 2 Weeks Feeding Your baby is growing! At this age, a baby only needs breast milk or infant formula. Breast-fed babies should usually feed about 10 minutes at each breast during each feeding. Breast- fed babies may want to nurse as often as every 2 hours. Most babies take [...]
Newborn Normal Development Here’s what you might see your baby doing between the ages of 0 and 2 weeks old. Reflexes • Reflexive actions: crying, grasping, yawning, swallowing, sucking, blinking, coughing, gagging, and sneezing. • Grasps whatever is placed in hand. • Sucks whatever is placed in mouth. • Is startled by sudden [...]
Recommended Immunization Schedules The following schedules show the recommended ages for routine administration of currently licensed vaccines for children. Any dose not administered at the recommended age should be given at a subsequent visit when indicated and feasible. Birth - 6 Years 7 - 1 8 Years AAP Pediatrician Anita Chandra, MD, FAAP [...]
AAP Schedule of Well-Child Care Visits Parents know who they should go to when their child is sick. But pediatrician visits are just as important for healthy children. The Bright Futures/American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) developed a set of comprehensive health guidelines for well-child care, known as the "periodicity schedule." It is a schedule of screenings and assessments recommended at [...]
Five Keys to Successful Breastfeeding Keep your baby skin to skin with you until after the first feeding The first feeding sets the pace for next several feedings. In the time right after birth, babies are often awake and ready to feed during that hour. Take advantage of this special time by asking [...]