8 Things You Should Never Do With An Infant

When an infant cuddles in his or her mother’s arms, it’s a beautiful moment. There is no doubt that the mother will be overwhelmed with beautiful emotions, but she can also be a little nervous, especially if she is a first time mother.

Despite all the advice from grandmothers, sisters, aunts and friends who have already experienced motherhood as well as parenting and hundreds of website searches, a new mom may not know what to do with all that information when she holds her baby for first time.

We need to summarize the basics of when the child is already home. The main idea is to start motherhood the right way.

Below we have eight situations that your baby should never experience.

What you should never do with an infant

1. Leave a child alone

First of all, do not leave your baby alone in the bed, cot, changing table or in another room. At no time should an infant ever be unattended or alone.

Crying is a form of communication. If your baby is crying, it’s because he or she needs something: to be fed or changed, something may hurt, or your baby may just want to be with mom.

Some people say that the child must learn to be independent. But they will learn to be independent later in life.

As with all mammals, an infant depends on the mother to be close and attentive. After being in the mother’s womb for 9 months where there was nothing but the mother’s voice, babies will cry to be with her.

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2. Scheduled breastfeeding

Although it is one of the harder things if you have decided to breastfeed, then there is nothing that can be compared to the moment your baby drinks while he or she is looking at you. Congratulations!

Breastfeeding should not have a schedule, but it should be required. With milk formulas, babies should be fed every 3 hours.

An infant does not just need her mother’s breast milk when she feels hungry or thirsty. In addition, it is also the only way for the baby to make contact with the mother to find comfort and feel the mother’s love.

3. Let an infant cry alone

There will always be a grandmother or aunt telling you to let your baby cry alone in the crib as exercise. Those who are more outspoken may even say that your child is crying to manipulate you.

Manipulation is a concept that applies to adults, not to an infant. The key question to ask yourself is: after waiting for 9 months, will I leave my baby alone to finish crying?

An unattended crying baby will eventually stop crying because he or she will come to understand something: you do not care what happens to them.

Crying is a baby’s only form of expression; when a baby cries, he or she tells something.

4. Leave an infant to sleep alone

An infant does not sleep like an adult does. Every two or three hours the child wakes up to look for mother to sleep again. You cannot teach a baby to sleep, but a baby will naturally sleep on its own.

Falling asleep alone is a process that happens over time as they grow up. If you are unsure about sleeping in the same bed with your baby, keep the crib nearby so you can be by their side as soon as possible. It will also help you minimize the times you will have to get up at night.

5. Shake infants aggressively

We have to say it: after a hard night where your baby does not stop crying and no one knows what to do or what is wrong, it can really make you feel hopeless. The parents who say they have never been tempted to shake their baby to stop crying are likely lying.

An aggressive shake does not help your baby to calm down. It will probably only scare them and make them cry even more.

In addition, you can damage their delicate little body. Loving and frequent embraces will give them the peace and quiet they need to calm down.

6. Not to keep them

The safety of a mother’s arms relaxes infants. If a baby does not relax regularly in the mother’s arms, the baby will have a hard time calming himself later in life.

Infants cannot fend for themselves. They need as much contact as possible with their mother. They need to be cared for, protected and given the things they need. Limiting contact with the child from the beginning weakens the hormone receptors for happiness (serotonin, endogenous opioids and oxytocin).

7. Punish them

A slap teaches a baby to create distrust in the person who takes care of them. In addition, babies learn to hold back their needs, lose their motivation because of the world around them, lose confidence in themselves because they devalue their impulses, and finally accept pain and stress as a norm.

To raise happy babies who want to know their needs are being met, be patient.  However, it is easy to experience hopelessness sometimes. Taking care of an infant is a messy business! But babies need the care that comes from an adult’s patience.

Remember: When most loving people can control their negative emotions, they guarantee more empathetic and cooperative adults in the future.

8. Lack of confidence in your instincts

There are many opinions out there that vary from what the experts say to what other mothers will tell you. While a community of other women and mothers can be a great help in the beginning, when your heart tells you to go another way, then you need to trust it.

Pregnancy connects a woman with her nature and her purest instinct.