Here are some effective tips to stimulate and develop newborn's senses

There are many important milestones that must be achieved in the first month. Infants experience a wealth of developmental and cognitive achievements in their first month of life. Stimulate your newborn’s sense is also part of this important milestones.

Here a few effective tips that you will find particularly useful to stimulate your newborn's senses and development, right from the beginning. 

1. Make your baby touch fabrics of different textures, e.g., smooth, rough, cushiony. This would help develop her sense of touch. 

2. Hold up bright colored blocks or other colorful objects 10 to 12 inches away from your baby's eyes. When she focuses, try moving it left and right, up and down and then in circles. Doing so will improve her sight. 

3. Provide your baby high-contrast toys such as mobiles with black-and-white or primary color patterns, or hang them in the crib. These would help stimulate the parts of the brain controlling vision. 

4. Play “Pat-a-Cake” while you hold your baby and gently move her hands. 

5. Sing to your baby. Change the pitch of your voice from high to low. Doing so will help hold her attention. Babies generally respond well to mom’s singing and will often help her to settle. 

6. Talk to your baby whenever you are with her; describe her all that you are doing to her: bathing, changing, feeding. “Are you enjoying your bath? Do you like your new soap? Here comes a new diaper for you.” This type of descriptive talking will not only liked by your baby but is also the base of communication between the two of you. The more you talk to your baby the more she is able to learn. 

7. Encourage your baby to imitate you. Try sticking out your tongue. Most of the babies, when they are a couple of weeks old, imitate sticking out the tongue after you did so 2-3 times before them. 

8. Get a crib mobile and hang it on your baby’s crib. When your baby is quiet and awake, she will gaze at it. This will help arouse her interest in the world outside the crib. 

9. Get a wind chime and hang it where your baby can gaze at it, move and hear the pleasant music it plays. Doing so will stimulate her sense of seeing and hearing and she will learn to correlate a pleasant sight with a pleasant sound. 

10. Shake a rattle before your baby. Shake it first on left side then on right. Allow your baby time to recognize that the rattle is producing the sound. This activity will also help your baby correlate sound with sight. 

A number of scientific studies have shown the way a baby uses her senses in the early months of life is crucial to future development. A baby, whose senses are stimulated develop a sharper memory, inquisitiveness and a better concentration. Besides, babies who are stimulated attain developmental milestones earlier have superior muscle coordination, and a safer and sounder personality. 

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It is easy to make your sensitive baby feel ashamed of their naked body

You cannot get a more natural state than a baby with no clothes on, and it's a state you will find your baby likes to revert to sometimes as she gets a bit older. That, too, is perfectly natural. 

However, most modern societies frown upon open nudity, and it is normal for all people to be fully dressed, at least once they emerge from the privacy of their home; and that includes babies. 

If you consider it from the baby's point of view, though, she does not quickly understand social stigma. She likes comfort, and if it's warm, it can be ideal for her to play with no clothes on at all; or so she thinks. So, in the home or in the garden on a warm summer's day, babies can be quite happy playing in the nude. 

This starts often at about fourteen months old, and is completely normal; in fact, if you are lucky it could help with potty training. But then you also have to deal with the baby's introduction to social norms; what is acceptable and what is not, and in what situations. How, then, should a new parent deal with a naked toddler? 

It is best not to discourage this behaviour entirely. As with many aspects of bringing up a baby you should set limits about where and when your toddler can be naked, and then enforce them. It is tedious, but repeatedly re-dressing your toddler may be the best way to get the message across that having clothes on is now the norm, rather than nakedness. 

In practice, this is really not that difficult to do. By encouraging babies to take an interest in their clothes from a very young age, they may start to enjoy being dressed up and looking different. Our baby daughter loved getting dressed in new clothes long before she was a year old, and it was not long before she was checking her new look in the mirror. 

If you buy new clothes, make a fuss of her when she tries them on; my wife always says 'show Dada' when our toddler is trying on something new. She comes to me with a beaming smile to model her new outfit. 

That sort of encouragement with clothes will teach the baby to appreciate them, leaving less scope for any insistence to be naked all the time. 

When they do want to be naked, or when you're tired of changing them because they've urinated in their pants twice in 10 minutes, then just keep it totally relaxed, as if it is the most natural thing in the world; which of course it is. 

You do not want to make a child feel ashamed of their body; that is not what discipline is about. It is about a steady and relaxed learning of what is allowed and when. 

Exactly what is acceptable will vary from country to country. Here in the Philippines adults tend to be coy in public about their bodies, because by and large it is a very conservative country. 

Yet baby and infant nakedness will not raise an eyebrow if around the home and garden. It is seen and regarded as natural, and is more easily accepted than back in England. You really have to take into account what your social norm is where you live. 

Just in case some visitors may be uncomfortable with a boisterous nude infant giving them a hug, it is probably best to ensure baby is dressed for visitors. Your toddler may be comfortable with their naked time, but friends and neighbours may not be. 

Use your child's new found freedom to encourage them to choose their own clothing. In fact, they make the decision themselves. Our baby girl got into the habit, at about 19 months, of pointing at what she wanted to wear. Now, at 21 months and in a bed instead of a crib, we may go in to her in the morning and find her wardrobe has been emptied, and all her clothes being sorted on the bed. Well, at least she is showing an interest in clothes! 

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is not to allow your discipline about clothing become about your child's body. It is easy to make your sensitive baby feel ashamed of their naked body, even if you do not intend to do so. This kind of discomfort can go a long way in determining how your growing child will feel about their body in the longer term, right up into adulthood.

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How to Make Baby Quilts?

All it takes to make a baby blanket is some cloth cute and colorful. I use a method of fabric manipulation that is just a free form method of quilting on the sewing machine. Just take a plain piece of muslin and piece a collage of sorts on top of it from your cute fabric stash. 

You can also just take a plain piece of adorable fabric and lay it on top of the muslin without piecing if that is easier for you. 

Put it in the sewing machine and start stitching with some matching and contrasting thread and just free form the stitches. It’s up to you how you want it to look. 

Stitch it a little or a lot and don’t be afraid to change your stitches either. Even if you have a very basic sewing machine like I do, you can do a lot with just a zig zag stitch. 

I can imagine how you quilting pros would be able to make it look unique and different. When you have the stitches the way you want them; throw it in the washing machine. This will shrink and pucker because of all the stitching. 

Because of the shrinking, make sure you increase the size of piece to allow about two inches of shrinking per side. Put batting underneath and complete the quilt as usual. 

I have also done wall hangings for people completed in different methods or just left unfinished and raw looking as well. 

If you have a cute collage for babies or have done some photo transfer work, you can make something customized for the nursery. It would look great on the wall too. 

Baby quilt patterns can easily follow any theme you have decided for the nursery. You may decide to include a quilt in your crib bedding plans or find a baby quilt pattern you like and make it yourself. 

It would be time consuming but the crafty mom to be with nine months will have plenty of time to finish the baby quilt to complete the crib’s bedding suite. 

Some of the most popular patterns are; ABC blocks in pastels or brights, animal prints of all kind of different animals from wild to domestic, sports themes, butterflies and lady bugs, cowboys and cowgirls, mittens, or use one of the traditional blocks any quilter is familiar with. 

Bedding for cribs can be so much cuter when you add a quilt with your selected motif or pattern. Grandma may also decide to make you one which would be even more special and a quilt that will be cherished for generations. 

Make your quilt traditional or kick it up a notch with some interesting quilting variations. Your baby will stay warm and cuddly under a quilt made by you or someone else special in the family.

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