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Most parents do ask them selves the question “Is my baby sleeping enough?” when ever their baby is cranky or seems tired. For optimal development your baby needs sufficient sleep and getting that solely at night time isn’t enough.

Your baby should be having regular naps throughout the day. While your baby is sleeping, it’s good time for you to have a nap too to recover some of the lost sleep that you will have been missing and reduce your levels of stress while recharging your batteries.

Sleeping enough and taking daily naps with your baby will also help you to lose the extra weight that you might have gained during pregnancy. Lack of sleep makes you easily to eat food with high sugar content.

Some babies will nap at regular times throughout the day and others will nap as they feel like it. There won’t generally be a regular pattern for newborns as they will nap for 2 - 4 hours at a time throughout the day and night. As your baby grows he/she will start developing more predictable sleeping patterns .

You will usually be able to tell when your baby needs sleep due to signs such as eye rubbing, getting irritable and so on.

As your baby gets a little older is he/she should be having less naps and not later in the day. Late day naps sometimes can affect child’s ability to sleep well at night. If you do have a problem with your baby going to sleep at night it would be wise to see if missing the afternoon nap will help. More often than not this will work as they will become more tired at their regular bedtime.

Every baby is different and while some babies can go to sleep easily and sleep for long periods of time others can be quite restless and wake often while sleeping very little. Thus – as frustrating as this fact may be – baby sleep patterns do vary from a baby to another, and even siblings can be totally different regarding their sleeping patterns.

Provided your baby is contented don’t be overly concerned about your baby’s sleep patterns initially as they will in time become more regular unless there are some other conditions that need to be checked by your child’s doctor.

You can try to make your life a little easier by getting your baby to get used go to sleep without requiring excessive attention from yourself as this will make your life a lot easier in the longer run.

If you have regular patterns with your own life, your baby will also adapt regular day and night patterns, including sleeping habits. This will make life a lot easier and more contented for both of you.

By associating specific actions with sleep it becomes a lot easier for your child to go to sleep so try to be as regular as possible with the various different events that lead up to sleep time.

Teething may make your baby restless and irritable. If fever, vomiting, or diarrhea occurs do not relate this automatically to teething, as teething is not generally the cause of these conditions. If your baby has fever, vomits or has diarrhea, it might be a good idea to get your baby checked out by your doctor to rule out any other cause if you have any concerns.

Some signs that your baby may be teething:

• Red cheeks or rash on cheeks increased saliva/drooling.

• Clingy or restlessness

• Wakefulness during the night

• Swollen red gums, sometimes you will see a blister on the gum where the tooth is coming through

• Loss of appetite

What you can to do to give relief for your teething baby?

Let your baby chew on a cold, hard object, such as a teething ring. The coldness helps ease the discomfort and the hardness will speed up the eruption of the tooth. You can try a few different types of teething rings to see what your baby prefers. Keep your baby’s teething rings in the fridge rather than the freezer to minimize the risk of frost bite.

Another way to give relief for your teething baby is to massage your baby’s gums with lemon juice can help reduce pain and discomfort during teething. Some older babies like to chew on frozen lemon wedges. Remember to defrost the lemon wedges a little before giving them to your baby to avoid frost bites.

Though your baby will eventually replace his primary teeth with permanent teeth they are still important for his development right now and are not just there for appearance. Primary teeth enable children to chew and speak properly, and these “baby” teeth reserve space in the jaw for permanent teeth. The proper care of baby teeth can be very important to the proper development of adult teeth.

Once the new teeth are in place clean them with a soft baby toothbrush or wipe them with gauze. To protect your baby’s teeth be sure to never allow your baby to fall asleep with a bottle because this will easily lead to tooth decay. Whether a baby is bottle fed or nursed, he will be vulnerable to “baby bottle tooth decay”. Such decay occurs when freshly sprouted baby teeth are exposed to liquids containing sugars (basically, anything other than water) for long periods of time. Bacteria in the mouth will grow in the sugar, which attack the tooth enamel and cause cavities. The best treatment for “baby bottle tooth decay” is prevention. Don’t let your baby use a bottle as a pacifier or fall asleep with a bottle. Also, be sure to gently clean his teeth and gums after each feeding with water.

Although you may have heard otherwise from well meaning friends and relatives, teething does NOT cause significant fever (over 100 degrees rectally). To help soothe your baby’s teething discomfort, here’s some baby teething pain home remedies:

• Gently massage the swollen gums with one of your fingers (be sure to wash your hands thoroughly).

• Take a clean, soft washcloth and soak it in apple juice. Wring it out, tie the cloth in a knot, and place it in the freezer for 30 minutes (it will not freeze hard like water does, rather, it will get very cold and nearly frozen). When frozen, give it to your baby, placing it first in his mouth, then his hands. You will see almost immediate results. Your baby will love the apple juice and most doctors approve it for even very young infants. The combination of the cold and the texture of the washcloth will begin to ease your baby’s pain right away.
• Give your child something cold to gnaw on like a Popsicle or a chilled teething ring (not a frozen one), or a frozen banana.
• Do not use lotions or ointments that are supposed to reduce teething pain in a baby less than four months. They wash out of the baby’s mouth within minutes. They may contain an agent that could numb the throat and cause the baby to choke.
• NEVER, under any circumstances, place alcohol into your baby’s mouth. Many well meaning friends and relatives (there sure are a LOT of those “well meaning friends and relatives”) may suggest a “dab of whiskey”, but this is NEVER ok. Alcohol can act like a poison to a young baby.
• Acetaminophen may be used for a few days if your baby is uncomfortable.
• Baby Advil (ibuprofen) can be used as well and can be more effective than acetaminophen because ibuprofen contains an anti inflammatory component and acetaminophen does not.