3 Things You Should Learn Before Your Baby Arrives

Having a child is a life-altering event. Once your baby arrives, you’ll have more responsibilities and less time to juggle tasks. It’s also normal to spend several months coping with sleep deprivation during your child’s first few months.

Sleep deprivation jeopardizes your health and safety and can make it hard to concentrate. Since life after your child’s arrival is challenging, parents benefit from taking time to learn parenting essentials before their child arrives. Let’s look at things you should know before you have a child.

1. Preventing and Treating Injuries

Sleep-deprived parents have a higher risk of being in a car accident than drivers that aren’t suffering from lack of sleep. Tens of thousands of children 12 and under are injured or killed in car accidents each year. Parents can reduce the risk of death and severe injury by using appropriate car or booster seats for young children and securing their children before they start driving. Expectant parents can take the National Child Passenger Safety Certification course, ensuring they can identify car and booster seats offering suitable protection for their child.

Ideally, you’ll find ways to prevent accidents and won’t have to care for an injured child. However, most parents spend time kissing boo-boos and wiping tears away after their child scrapes their knee or bumps into furniture. Obtaining your first aid certification is a great way to prepare for health emergencies. Taking a first aid course ensures you know how to address various injuries, such as burns, bites, and stings. You’ll learn about wound, breathing, and choking emergencies and how to assess and address each situation. First aid programs also cover heat and cold-related emergencies, poison emergencies, and allergies. 

2. Feeding

Breast milk provides essential nutrients and helps strengthen your newborn’s immune system. However, breastfeeding may not always be an option for moms planning to return to work.

Still, moms can supply breast milk for their children when they aren’t present. Using a pumping bra enables moms to pump breast milk they can store for feedings when their child’s at daycare or when their spouse is handling midnight feedings. Hands-free pumping bras make it easy to attach breast pumps and handle other tasks while pumping milk. These bras work with leading breast pumps made by Medela and Lansinoh. Expectant moms may also want to spend time shopping for regular nursing bras they can use when breastfeeding. 

Some parents may opt to use formula or supplement breast milk with formula. Take time to research options to ensure you choose a safe formula for your child. For example, consuming cow’s milk formula can cause premature infants to develop necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Investigating your options ensures you’ll choose the best food for your baby.

3. Childproofing Strategies

Parents are used to seeing the world through adult eyes and may overlook safety threats. While most people know they should install baby gates to prevent their baby from falling down a staircase, they may not think about small items under furniture their child may choke on. 

Put outlet covers in unused electrical outlets to prevent your child from sticking their fingers in electrical sockets. Use cabinet locks on kitchen and bathroom cabinets to prevent your child from opening cupboards and accessing harmful items, such as household cleaners. Add doorknob covers to keep your child out of unsafe spaces.

Install childproof window guards to prevent your child from falling out of windows. You should also anchor TVs, bookshelves, and other furniture to ensure these items won’t fall over if your child pulls on them. You should also add bumpers to coffee tables and other pieces of furniture with sharp edges to prevent injuries.

When you learn you’re expecting, take time to prepare before your child arrives. Learn how to prevent and treat injuries, how and what to feed your child, and how to childproof your home to ensure you’re ready to care for your child.

For more information related to the new baby, such as if you are concerned about selecting your baby’s name, visit randomnames.com. This website can assist you in finding a unique name for your baby.