Feeding ability of your baby

Most children have a vigorous sucking ability at birth, although many do not perfect this skill until they are 4 weeks old. At 4 months, the infant will begin to show signs of waiting for food.

The infant will develop more tongue control, sticking out his or her tongue for the spoon. Between 5 and 6 months, the infants develop lip control and can bring their lips to a cup.

The hands also are developing at this age, and the child will be able to grab a bottle with both hands.

Between 6 and 9 months of age, the child will learn to remove food from the spoon and might be able to drink from a cup.

The child also will learn things like a cracker without any assistance. Between 9 and 12 months of age the infant will achieve better finger control and be able to grab small pieces of food

Has your baby experience been like this? Share your experience, or if you have any suggestion, comment or question

Alvaro Castillo has been researching on healthy parenting for many years and helped countless of moms. Check his website for more information in www.myhomeparent.com or check out articles at

Avoid the nursery wars

Never in the history of bringing up babies has so much advice been so easily accessible by so many.

Every bookshop has a parenting section and pretty well every book has a website. If you Google a problem, you will find contradictory solutions galore.

An internet journalist said that the experts didn’t realize how daunting they were to mere mortals and that most parents find it easier to take tips from their friends than from books and a bossy nanny state.

At a Cambridge University seminar attended by Daisy Goodwin, producer of the recent, controversial reality TV parenting series Bringing Up Baby, many mothers said they felt hypnotised and disempowered by both the abundance and the contradictions of all the advice, especially when claims are made (wrongly in the case of Goodwin’s programme) that certain practices can permanently damage, even threaten, the lives of babies.

My advice to any parent is to survey the parenting shelves, the TV programmes and the internet sites with the same subjectivity that you use when you select a magazine or a cookery book.

What do you think? Do you feel the same way? Feel free to share your thougths on this

Alvaro Castillo has been researching on healthy parenting for many years. Check his website for more information in www.myhomeparent.com or check out articles at

What safe during pregnancy?

There are many things that must be avoided and others that you must take in consideration in order to have a healthy baby.

Alcohol should be avoided, If you still smoke, it's time to stop. Feel free to continue any physical exercise that you enjoy before becoming pregnant, however you must do it in moderation

if you have any other suggestions share it with us or if you just want to comment on it, feel free to do so.

Pregnancy - The Big Event

Just as in pregnancy, the big event, birth, is full of complex emotions for both mother and father.

For many days before delivery, the mother may experience contraction know as Braxton Hicks contractions.

These are thought to prepare the uterus (womb) for delivery. True labor has generally begun when contractions are 10 minutes apart.

The end of the first stage is known as transition and is often the most tiring. It is for this stage that childbirth class preparation is often the most helpful, because relaxation is important

The second stage of labor ends when the child is delivered, lasting 1 to 2 hours in the first. The third stage is the shortest one and lasts from several minutes to half hour.

So these are the events that a mother will go through during child labor. If you want to share something to the readers, add to this, or comment on it, we will be happy to hear it.

Alvaro Castillo has been writing health articles specializing on pregnancy and babies for many years. For more information feel free to check his website at www.myhomeparent.com

Medications During Labor

All medications that are given to the mother will reach the child. No medications should be used automatically. For certain conditions, however, medications can be used with relative safety after careful deliberation by the doctor.

Most childbirth classes equip mothers with some of the pain of labor. However, as one obstetrician notes, "There is a reason they call it labor and not brunch!" Labor can be uncomfortable, and analgesics, should be made available when other techniques fail.

Share with us what medications might be helpful or harmful to either the baby or the mom, or if you want to share your experience if you took a specific medication or no medication at all.

Alvaro Castillo has been researching on healthy pregnancies and parenting for many years. Check his website for more information in http://www.myhomeparent.com/

Childbirth Preparation Classes

Preparing physically and psychologically is the key to a successful pregnancy for both parents. Learning to cope with some of the physical demands on mothers is very important.

Some preparations include eating to meet increased nutritional requirements, exercising to strengthen back and abdominal muscles, the breathing best suited for labor is not something women have a chance to practice in daily life.

Childbirth classes are useful for learning about these special physical demands on pregnancy.

Tell us what you think, if you have important information about childbirth classes in your area or if there are anything else that might be helpful to an expecting mother.

Alvaro Castillo has been researching on healthy parenting for many years. Check his website for more information in http://www.myhomeparent.com/

Testing For Moms During Pregnancy

Testing for HIV is now recommended for all pregnant women. Although the test is voluntary in most states, it is strongly recommended that everyone has it.

Finding out will enable you to obtain the important therapy you need, and by taking the drug AZT, during pregnancy, you can reduce the likelihood that your infant will become infected from 1 in 4 to 1 in 20.

Also it is natural to worry about birth defects which occur in 2 to 3% of infants at birth. Each year, there are newer and better ways to screen for some of the most serious defects.

If one test indicates a cause for concerns, doctors will often recommend a more advanced test to be sure that there is a problem

Tell us what you think, or if you might have some extra info you might want to share to expecting moms out there.

Alvaro Castillo has been researching on healthy parenting for many years. Check his website for more information in www.myhomeparent.com