Best Way to Maximize Your Baby’s Health

Your baby’s health is intricately bound up with his emotional well-being and general development. By nurturing him and responding to his needs, you are ensuring that he will develop into a happy and a healthy baby. Touching and caressing your baby regularly helps everything from cell regeneration to digestion. Making sure that he is not distressed or uncomfortable will enable his body to get on with keeping healthy.

Boosting your baby’s health

To maximize your baby’s health, try to do the following:

•  Breast-feed him. This gives him the healthiest possible start in life, as your breast milk contains antibodies that protect him from harmful diseases in the early months and boost his immune system.

• Don’t smoke around him. By keeping him away from polluted atmospheres, you will reduce the chances of his getting respiratory diseases or allergies such as asthma.
•  Avoid weaning him too early. Before he is four months old, his digestive system is not mature enough to cope with anything other than breast milk or formula. Weaning too early could damage his kidneys and may possibly leave him more at risk of developing allergies.
•  Take him to the baby clinic regularly, and make sure you don’t miss his reviews.
•  Discuss when and how to get your baby immunized with your healthcare professional.

Immunization

When your baby is around two months old, you will probably be asked to take him for his first immunizations, which will protect him against many severe infectious diseases.

When your baby is immunized, he is given a vaccine that contains harmless amounts of the virus that causes the disease. The vaccine is too weak to cause the illness, but it makes your baby’s body produce antibodies, which will protect him from developing it in the future.

Your baby may develop a mild fever afterwards, and may have a small, hard lump at the site of the injection. This will last a few weeks and is nothing to worry about. But if he develops any other symptoms, or if his crying sounds unusual or his temperature rises above 58° C (100.4° F), you should call your doctor immediately.