Newborn Articles

Newborn articles for parents, doulas, lactation consultants, and other perinatal care providers.

Infant Flushed Cheeks: When to Worry & What to Do

You look over at your baby after a nap or feed and suddenly their cheeks are bright red. It's easy for your mind to jump straight to fever, allergy, or something serious. Most parents do that.The good news is that infant flushed cheeks are common, and the cause is often something simple like warmth, drool, or skin irritation. Sometimes, though, red cheeks are one clue in a bigger picture. Your baby's mood, temperature, feeding, skin texture, and sleep all help tell the story.One reason this can feel confusing is that some viral illnesses don't announce themselves clearly at first. The...

Sleep Training While Room Sharing

You're probably reading this from bed, or from the edge of it, while your baby grunts, squirms, or wakes the second you think they've settled. You want more sleep. You also want to keep your baby close, because room sharing feels safer, simpler, or just necessary in your home.That tension is real. A lot of parents assume they have to choose one or the other. They don't.Sleep training while room sharing is usually less about finding a magical method and more about reducing stimulation, staying consistent, and using a plan that fits the room you have. If your baby sleeps...

​ NICU Family Support: Your Guide to Help & Healing

The room may still feel unreal. One minute you were expecting to hold your baby close, and the next you were hearing new words, watching monitors, and trying to make sense of a care plan you never expected to need.If that's where you are right now, take a breath. You don't have to understand everything today. You also don't have to carry this alone. NICU family support exists because families need real help, not just kind words, during one of the hardest stretches of early parenthood.Navigating the NICU You Are Not AloneA lot of parents tell me the first hours...

Sleep Training Extinction Burst

You finally got a little hopeful. Bedtime had started to feel less chaotic. Maybe night two was better. Maybe night three looked promising. Then suddenly your baby cried harder, longer, and louder than before, and now you're wondering if sleep training has completely gone off the rails.That sharp turn is one of the most upsetting parts of the process. It can make a tired parent feel guilty, panicked, and tempted to scrap the whole plan at 2 a.m. If that's where you are, take a breath. A rough night after early progress doesn't automatically mean you made a mistake.The Night...

What Is a Newborn Screening: Understand Your Baby's Test

You may be holding your baby, trying to feed, trying to rest, and trying to make sense of a lot of new words all at once. Then someone mentions newborn screening. Many parents wonder what this means and if they should be worried. It's a common experience.Parents often hear about it in passing, right alongside diaper checks, feeding logs, and discharge papers. That can make it sound like just another hospital task. It isn't scary, and it also isn't meaningless. It's one of the routine ways care teams look for hidden health problems early, before a baby seems sick.Your Baby's...

​ Postpartum Sleep Deprivation: A Survival Guide for Parents

It's 3 AM. The baby finally settled, but now your body feels wired, your mind won't slow down, and you're staring at the ceiling trying to decide whether to wash bottles, pump, scroll, cry, or sleep.A lot of new parents land here. You can be profoundly grateful for your baby and still feel wrecked by the nights. You can have help and still feel alone. You can be “getting some sleep” and still feel like your brain and body are running on fumes.That experience has a name. Postpartum sleep deprivation. Not as a dramatic label, but as a very real...

Gas in Newborns: Relief, Causes, and When to Call Doctor

Your baby finally dozes off after a feed, then wakes with a grunt, pulls their knees up, turns red, and looks miserable. A minute later they pass gas, settle briefly, and then start the whole cycle again. If you're in that stretch right now, you're not missing something obvious and you're not causing it.Gas in newborns is one of the most common early baby concerns. It can look dramatic, especially at night, but in many babies it's part of normal development. The more helpful question usually isn't “What's wrong?” It's “How do we make this phase easier while their body...

Effective Diaper Rash Prevention

You notice it during a diaper change you've done a hundred times already. The skin looks a little pink, maybe warmer than usual, and suddenly you're wondering if you missed something.You probably didn't. Diaper rash is common, and it often starts fast.What helps most is not panic and not buying five random creams. It's a steady routine that protects the skin before it gets angry, plus a plan that other caregivers can follow too. That matters a lot in real homes, where a postpartum doula, lactation consultant, partner, grandparent, or night nanny may all be helping at different times of...

What Is a Primary Caregiver?

You might be seeing the term primary caregiver on leave paperwork, intake forms, insurance documents, or in conversations about postpartum help, and wondering what it means for your family.That confusion makes sense. Most explanations online talk about elder care or custody disputes, not the new-parent questions like, “If I hire a doula, am I still the primary caregiver?” or “If my partner does nights, who counts?”Caregiving is already a huge part of family life in the U.S. In any given year, 65.7 million Americans, or 29 percent of the adult U.S. population, serve as family caregivers according to the Family...

Learn infant CPR classes: Essential skills for protecting your baby

An infant CPR class gives parents and caregivers the confidence and skills to act decisively in a life-threatening emergency, like choking or if your baby suddenly becomes unresponsive. Taking a class is a powerful, loving way to protect your child, moving you from a place of fear to one of preparedness.Why Infant CPR Is an Essential Skill for ParentsBringing a new baby home is filled with joy, but it also introduces a whole new level of responsibility. Learning CPR isn’t about dwelling on worst-case scenarios. It’s about being ready for anything. In those first critical moments of an emergency, the...