Teething babies are hard to comfort and it’s difficult to know what might help to alleviate their pain. Fortunately there are some methods that are effective in relieving the pain felt by teething babies.

Anything cold can help with the pain.  There are commercial teething rings available on the market that you can fill with water and freeze.  These have the same effect as the teething ring with the added benefit of soothing a teething babies pain.

If the pain is too much for the cold to handle, the teething baby may need a mild pain reliever.  Children’s Tylenol or an ibuprofen product designed for babies are usually the choices recommended by doctors.  Be sure that your pediatrician approves of giving the baby medication and NEVER give your baby aspirin.

Another pain reliever is a topical gel applied to the gums.  The effects of these types of pain relievers usually don’t last as long as ingested forms, but can help get a teething baby to sleep.

Something as simple as lightly massaging the baby’s gums with your fingers will often be enough to temporarily alleviate the pain.  What you are doing is providing counter pressure to the pressure the emerging teeth are putting on the baby’s gums.  This technique can be made more effective if you dip your fingers in cold water or juice first.

The pains of teething are a part of life and there is nothing you can do to totally alleviate the pain of your teething baby.  But with a little care and a few simple techniques, you can at least help to ease the pain enough so that the baby can get some rest.

Try one of the methods above to see if it helps your baby, and if you have a rocking chair now would be a good time to rock baby to sleep in your arms.

Babies can’t talk so they make a fuss. Here’s a checklist for handling a fussy baby.

Feed them
A basic human need is food and babies will not let you forget. If your baby is fussy, this should be your first suspicion.

Change their diaper
If the baby is well fed and is still fussy, the next thought should be a messy diaper. No one wants to be uncomfortable.

Talk to them
If baby is full, clean and warm, this will often do the trick. The soothing voice of a mommy can calm even the most fussy of babies.

Hold them
You’ve fed and changed the baby but still they are grumpy. Often a baby is just looking for attention and security. The warm touch or embrace of a mother or father is often sufficient to sooth a fussy baby.

Sing to them
If after picking them up they are still not happy, sing them a comforting tune.

Play music
Some people have the voice of fighting lions. If you are one of them, put on some gentle, comforting music. Most fussy babies can’t resist the slumbering effects of a good lullaby.

Put them in a rocker
If you want to add fire to the musical influence, put baby in a rocker so he or she can feel the beat.

Add/Remove covering
Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees. Babies have yet to learn the nuances of communications. They are very straight forward in their demand. When they cry, it is usually a matter of needs or comfort. A baby who is too hot or too cold will let you know.

Let them explore
Sometimes babies want to explore. After 18 hours in a crib they want their freedom and a change of venue.

Distract them
Babies get bored just like adults. A fussy baby is often simply looking for something new to liven up the day. An interesting mobile will usually suffice.

If after all this you still have a fussy baby, you have my sympathy. It looks like you have a diva on your hands. Good luck.

The type of food you first introduce is of the utmost importance. A good rule of thumb is to start with a hypoallergenic cereal such as rice or barley cereal with added breast milk, formula or water. Give your baby one to two teaspoons on a rubber tipped spoon to start. Begin with just a small amount on the spoon itself. Follow the cereal with some formula or breast milk to aid in digestion. Remember, this will be a very foreign feeling for your baby, so do not be surprised if s/he spits it out and does not eat that much. Like any other newly learned skill, babies need practice with eating foods. Keep on feeding your child once a day at a time that is convenient for you and when you feel your baby is hungriest, increasing the amount of food every week or so.

As your baby successfully eats more and more cereal (more than 2x per day), you can then move on to introducing other solid food choices. As a general rule, it is best to introduce fruits and/or vegetables on a one by one basis with a three day interval between each food to ensure your child has no reaction. While some experts believe it is best to introduce green vegetables first, the choice is up to the individual parent. We recommend introducing our single ingredient recipes first (i.e. Sweet Potato or Broccoli) and then moving on to our fruit recipe (Banana Blueberry). In other words, after cereal, the recipes we recommend for first introduction are:

    Sweet Potato or Broccoli
     Banana Blueberry

The above recipes are rich in Vitamins A and C and are perfect “starters” for your little one.

After 8 months or so, your growing little tot will be able to move his jaw in a chewing motion and will want to put everything into his mouth! Your baby will likely be able to pick up small food objects with his thumb and forefinger and can transfer objects from hand to hand. At this stage, an infant’s energy and nutritional demands also change with an increasing need for protein and iron. The recipes we recommend as a second introduction are:

Veggies & Chicken
Lentils & Root Veggies
Veggies, Beef & Barley

When you first introduce food, do not be alarmed if your baby’s stool changes color and has a different smell; this is completely normal. Remember, your baby has only been on formula or breast milk up until this point. If your baby’s stool becomes hard and firm, try switching from rice cereal to barley cereal.

Reprinted with permission from Sweetpea Baby Food http://www.sweetpeababyfood.com/

New parents might often wonder… what’s making my baby upset when nothing I do stops them from crying? Or why it’s so hard to understand what children want when they are tiny infants? New parents need all the knowledge and information they can get to make their parenting job a little easier.

Most parents of young children are used to being on the receiving end of advice on how they should bring up their infant. Whether it comes from grandma, cousin Jane or the co-worker in the next cubicle, the advice is always well meaning but patchy in terms of its reliability, quality and scientific integrity.

Because every child is unique, the people best qualified to make appropriate parenting decisions are obviously parents themselves! Just Ask Baby helps parents understand the world from their child’s perspective, using online videos to present science-based child development information in a fun, accessible way – by showing how and why young children think, do, feel, say and see the things they do. Parents get a better understanding of how babies develop and are empowered with the knowledge to help support their child through the critical stages of early development.

Sign Up for a Trial and get 15-days FREE access to Just Ask Baby. It’s simple! Go to:

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I’ll admit, since I’ve been pregnant with my first baby, I’ve turned into the type of expectant mother I swore I’d never be.

For me, along with morning sickness (read: morning, noon and night sickness) and bloating came an innate obsession with all things maternity. I use “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” as more of a manifesto than a reference book. If there was a website at www.ihavetostopbuyingbabystuff.com, I’d need to check it out. I want to know everything possible about my baby and its development at every stage. If I could install a little two-way mirror in my belly so I could peek in at the baby (whom we’re calling Bean at this point, since we haven’t picked a name yet), I probably would.

A few weeks ago I did the next best thing: I booked an appointment at UC Baby.
My family doctor told me about the new 3D ultrasound business back in December. The UC Baby franchise has 18 locations across the country, and provides ultrasounds not for medical or diagnostic purposes, but for expectant parents who want to have a look at their baby in the womb.

The local franchise is owned and operated by Sarah Boone, a trained diagnostic imaging technologist who once worked with Eastern Health. Boone prefers to work as an ultrasound technologist instead of an X-ray technologist, and particularly likes working with expectant mommies and their babies. She opened her business at Campbell Avenue in St. John’s last September.

Focused sound

According to Health Canada, fetal ultrasounds create images of the baby in the womb by using short bursts of sound waves that travel through the body in a series of focused beams. Echoes from the beams are converted into real-time images that show the unborn baby’s movement, internal organs, heartbeat and even blood flow.

While the 2D diagnostic ultrasounds required by doctors and performed in the hospital are obviously necessary, they don’t show the untrained eye the surface detail that 3D ultrasounds show. With 3D, expectant parents can see and decipher clear images of their baby, including facial features.

Though Boone’s prices start at $175, my partner, Ian, and I chose the $299 option — which includes two ultrasounds, about 10 weeks apart, about 40 pictures of the baby on CD at each visit, two printed photos at each visit, and the ability to listen to the baby’s heartbeat. Gender determination and a podcast — so family members and friends not present can watch live online — are free options.
Ian and I chose to pay an extra $25 to have the ultrasounds recorded in 4D (the fourth dimension being movement) on two DVDs.
We opted out of buying the cute teddy bear that comes implanted with a recording of our baby’s heartbeat. For now.

Unlike in a hospital, you can bring your entire family with you to see your UC Baby ultrasound. We brought our parents — Bean’s four grandparents — to witness the first portrait session.
The office isn’t a clinic. The waiting room is a cozy living room-type space, with carpet, vases of flowers and a fireplace. The actual ultrasound room is even more impressive — while it has the standard table and ultrasound equipment on one side, the room also features a large white leather sofa and armchair, and a huge flatscreen TV, for your family’s viewing pleasure.
“All we need is popcorn, and we’ve got a great Saturday afternoon matinee,” my dad remarked.

Gorgeous black and white photographs of tiny babies by central Newfoundland photographer Dawn Oldford adorn one wall and add to the cozy feel of the room.

Flicking the switch

Once everyone was comfortably seated (and I had assumed the standard lying-down-on-the-table, belly-covered-in-jelly pose), Boone turned on the machine and started the session with a look at the baby in 2D.
To anyone not trained, the 2D ultrasound images look gray and blurry. You can make out the head, spine, hands and legs and see the heart beating away, but the pictures are more for doctors.

To the average parent-to-be, the ultrasound shows only the skull, and not the real face, so the baby looks like an alien with gigantic eye sockets — a cute little alien, but very extra-terrestrial-like, all the same.

When Boone flicked the 3D switch, Bean appeared. You could see the eyes (although at this point, the eyelids are still fused shut — I know this from reading the manifesto), the lips, and the little bum. We watched the baby rub its eye, stick out its tongue, play with the umbilical cord and snuggle in towards my back.
Ian’s father, who had never seen an ultrasound of any type, took off his glasses and leaned towards the TV screen to count the fingers and toes, which were clearly visible (a perfect 10 each).

“I’ve seen babies sucking on their toes, grabbing at their feet, hands completely up on the head, or right underneath the bum. Really cute things,” Boone said.
“I’d say with half the babies, we see yawning. They don’t actually shed tears, but I’ve seen expressions that looking like crying, frowning, or anger, almost.”
Although we already had a good idea of Bean’s gender from the diagnostic ultrasound, we asked Boone if she could confirm it for us in 3D. Bean co-operated, and we saw, on the big screen, further proof of what we’d been told at the hospital.
After that, Bean wouldn’t show us its face anymore, turning so we could only see its side, and covering its face with its hand.
“The baby is embarrassed,” my dad joked. “It’s afraid you’re going to put the gender pictures on Facebook!”
“That won’t be happening,” Ian, already a protective dad, quickly responded with a chuckle and a shake of his head.

Impact

The most incredible thing about the 3D ultrasound is that we could clearly see Bean’s features, and when I say clearly, I mean we know already, at about six months’ pregnant, that the baby has my nose and chin, its father’s long legs, and long fingers like the both of us.
Leaving the UC Baby office, after making the appointment for the second ultrasound — and with a bag full of goodies, including the CD and DVD, coupons, diaper rash cream and a baby bottle — I considered in amazement that Bean was no longer a “thing” in my tummy, but an actual person.

Seeing the 3D images of my baby made me want to eat more veggies, and Boone later told me studies have shown that many women take better care of themselves after having the 3D ultrasound.

“It’s no wonder parents today are so connected to their children,” remarked Ian’s mother.
“You can know everything about them before they’re born.”
After seeing the ultrasound images, most people feel a bond with their baby, whether or not they know the gender, Boone said.

“One of my first clients, the father, said as he was leaving, ‘I did not feel like I was going to be a dad until now,’” she said. “I think for the dads, they don’t get to feel the movement, so it’s a good way to get them involved.”

As The Telegram reported in 2008, Health Canada issued a notice in 2003 recommending that parents not expose their unborn babies to fetal ultrasound simply for keepsake purposes. Ultrasounds should only be done based on a doctor’s referral, and only “when the expected medical benefits outweigh any foreseeable risk,” the notice said.

However, it acknowledged the millions of ultrasounds that have been done with “no confirmed health risks for the baby or the mother.”

Health Canada hasn’t issued any other notices about elective fetal ultrasounds.
In 1996, the Canadian Association of Radiologists issued a statement about fetal ultrasounds, saying it was concerned the operators of the equipment might not be equipped to recognize fetal and placental abnormalities.

This is one reason why Boone accepts clients only after they’ve had their 20-week anatomy ultrasound at the hospital, and requires all expectant mothers to fill out a form, giving their obstetrician and family doctor’s name and phone number before they have the 3D ultrasound. If she detects anything out of the ordinary on the ultrasound, she will contact the doctor right away.

“That’s very rare, though, because if there are any abnormalities present, they should have been detected at the 20-week ultrasound,” she said.

Many of Boone’s clients come to the clinic after having been told about the service by their doctor. She sees about 20 new clients a week.

“In my personal opinion, they would not be doing the ultrasounds as freely in the hospitals as they do if they thought it was dangerous,” Boone said.

“There are high-risk pregnancies that require ultrasounds weekly, and if they thought there was a risk involved, they wouldn’t perform them as freely as they do.

“There is equipment in the hospitals that can produce 3D images, and they often just turn it on for some of their patients. It’s not like an X-ray — which is actually ionizing radiation and is completely different; it’s dangerous, it’s harmful — and no one would recommend that a pregnant woman be exposed to ionized radiation.

“My family doctor, as soon as she found out I had this business, said, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to tell my patients.’”

The 3D ultrasound was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. I’ve shared the pictures with my friends and made copies of the DVD for Bean’s grandparents. Like the baby-obsessed preggo that I am, I sometimes look at them before I go to bed, say a prayer for Bean’s safe arrival, and let the baby know that whatever it’s planning to throw at me next — whether perpetual heartburn, 20 more pounds or a 40-hour labour — it would all be worth it.

May 21, 2009

I was so disappointed to discover that gender identification and pictures were not shared with parents in the province of Nova Scotia. My two previous pregnancies were in different locations, both of which celebrated pregnancy, sharing as much information with parents and families as possible.

I am so not one that can wait to find out anything. I shake Christmas presents, I want to know! Then I heard about UC Baby, the first 3D/4D ultrasound provider for parents in Canada. I could not wait to find out more information! It was reassuring to discover that they have licensed and experienced ultrasound technicians, that were friendly and very informative. After contacting the owner I was delighted to head in to perform a gender identification about eight weeks ago.

We were thrilled to be informed that we were expecting a baby girl! Since I did not know what to expect, I did not bring in my children, instead they stayed with their Dad. However, once I arrived at the office I was disappointed that I did not bring them along. Not only were the staff super nice, the ultrasound room is huge. Definitely more than accommodating for my growing family. Not only that, the sonographer Kathy informed me that the kids were welcome, as well as could eat and drink. As most parents know, the key to good behaviour at appointments sometimes is a good snack!

For the 4D scan I totally brought my husband and kids along to experience it with me. My husband, a few nights before went to the UC Baby website to check it out and was so excited to get a good look at our new baby girl before she arrives. We have spoke at length with the children, to prepare them for the birth of their new sibling and I knew this experience would further the concept.

I was not disappointed the second time around. We did however discover that our baby girl was breech. Not a worry so early along, however it made it virtually impossible to get a good picture of her. Not only was she breech, she was all curled up with her hands and feet covering her tiny face. It was still so amazing to see her, watch her heart beat and share it with my family. However, UC Baby insisted we wait a couple weeks, then return to see if our little rascal had flipped.

I have to admit I was not sure I believed in going for an optional ultrasound. It felt frivolous and unnecessary. Yet when I was there, seeing my little baby girl all tucked inside me safe, cozy and a part of me, I could not have been happier in that moment. Being able to share that moment with not only my husband and children, but my friends and family that are far away was priceless. My mother in law has never seen her grandchildren on an ultrasound before and was able to be part of the moment through UC Baby’s free Live Broadcasting.

We returned for our final viewing last Tuesday. A good friend suggested I try standing on my head to flip the baby out of breech position. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get on my head, so instead I did a shoulder stand with the help of my husband. It must have worked because the baby girl was in perfect position. Once again my mother in law and a few friends were able to see the baby through UC Baby’s free Live Broadcasting. This time we had the microphone on so they could hear what was happening.

I was so pleased with the UC Baby experience. My husband was all gushy afterward, happy to have witnessed our baby girl inside me. Our daughter (almost 5 years old) was totally into the process as well. We were able to bring home not only a ton of pictures on CD, printed photographs from the sessions and a DVD of all the recordings during the sessions we went to. Such amazing memories we will be able to cherish and share with our children in the future.

For more information on products, packages and services provided by UC Baby check out their website. Really truly, it was amazing and absolutely worth it, I am still all giddy seeing our baby. So exciting only 10 weeks till we can snuggle her!

Written by: blush
8/11/2009 11:18 AM
This week we had one of the most incredible experiences of our lives. I’m still struggling to find the right words to describe it. This week we had a 3D ultrasound experience with UC Baby.

After my immense disappointment at not being able to find out our baby’s gender at the 20-week scan, we weighed up what we wanted to do. We could either give up trying to find out the gender, have a 3D ultrasound, or wait for my placenta previa scan at 32 weeks (the placenta is a bit too close to the cervix at the moment so I need another scan to make sure it’s moved far enough away). Being the impatient person I am, and because Husbando and I had already agreed that we wanted all baby-related tasks to be completed by 30 weeks, we decided to go the 3D route.

The staff at UC Baby was fantastic. Not only do they offer full scans, which last 45 minutes each, they also do shorter scans (15 minutes) just to find out the gender. Each of the scanning rooms can accommodate up to eight people, so you can bring your family and friends to meet the baby, but there is one service they offer that made the whole thing even more special for us.

UC Baby is able to broadcast the scan over the Internet. For us this meant that Husband’s family, and my best friend in the UK, could be a part of it all. In this day and age, when the people we are closest to are often scattered all over the country or the world, being able to include them in such a momentous occasion is priceless. Each person is given their own log-in (you can have up to four email addresses) and they can see and hear everything you do.

When we arrived at the scan I was nervous. After the crushing disappointment of not finding out the gender at the 20-week scan, I had tried very hard not to get my hopes up (even though I knew that the chances of finding out with a 3D scan were much higher). Our tech instantly put me at ease, and after a few minutes of set-up we were able to get started.

I can’t explain the amazingness of seeing the picture jump from a regular 2D image into a 3D picture. Suddenly, there in front of us, was a picture of our baby. I was shocked at how clear and precise the features were. You could very clearly make out the lips, eyes, and cheeks. I could tell it has Husband’s nose and my cheeks it was startling to see our features combined on this little creature. After a tour of our baby’s face, arms, legs, hands, and feet (still look larger but with adorable toes), the tech asked us if we were ready to find out the gender. I grabbed Husband’s hand and the tech had to manoeuvre several angles until he was able to show us that we are having a baby GIRL! Thrill and exhilaration rushed through me. A girl. A daughter, OUR daughter is all of a sudden we were a family. Tears filled my eyes as we stared at the face of the daughter we would meet in 18 weeks. Such a truly incredible experience.

My husband and I can’t stop talking about the scan and the discovery that we are having a daughter. It has definitely made the experience far more real and immediate. I think both the scan and finding out the gender have made a massive difference to him. It must be hard for husbands and fathers to feel involved in the pregnancy. I get to feel every little move, every kick and every day I discover a new way in which my body has changed to sustain this baby, both now and after the birth. But there is nothing for him to feel yet (and thankfully, his belly isn’t growing!) This scan has made it real for him, and I think that plays a vital part in his bonding with our daughter.

UC Baby has clinics across Canada and I can’t recommend them enough. The 3D scan has definitely been one of the best things about the pregnancy so far. We will be having another 3D scan at 30 weeks in one of their other offices and they are hoping to have upgraded their Internet broadcasting to include two-way communication (right now the people watching can hear you but you can’t hear them) so I can’t wait to tell you about that, but in the meantime I leave you pictures of our daughter’s