Laura Jana Celebrity Guru

LLuminari Expert, Dr. Laura Jana is a pediatrician and Associate Director of the Boys Town Institute for Child Health Improvement based in Omaha, Nebraska. She is the co-author of the parenting book, "Heading Home With Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality" published in 2005 by The American Academy of Pediatrics. Having served as a consultant to Dr. Benjamin Spock for the seventh edition of Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care, published in 1998, she went on to co-found a national parenting media company named after her mentor in 1999, and has remained dedicated to promoting what she considers to be "reality parenting" ever since. In addition to her daily direct interactions with children and parents, Dr. Jana is regularly quoted in national parenting magazines including Parents, Parenting, American Baby, Working Mother and Child, and serves as a media spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, a member of the LLuminari Expert Network, and a ClubMom expert. Dr. Jana can be frequently seen and heard discussing her common sense approach to parenting on Omaha television and radio. In addition to being the proud mother of three, Dr. Jana is a certified child passenger safety technician, writes a review column of children's books, is a national trainer for Reach Out and Read, and is both an advocate for early education and child care and the owner of an educational child care center in Omaha.

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Benefits of Breast Feeding

Based on many studies done in the United States and elsewhere around the world, we know that breast feeding is not only nutritionally sound and decreases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), but can translate into fewer colds, allergies, infections, hospitalizations, and visits to the doctor's office. That's because protective proteins called antibodies, along with other infection-fighting cells found in breast milk, are continually transferred from you to your baby for as long as you breast feed. This added level of defense against bacteria and viruses is particularly beneficial during the first several months of your baby's life when his immune system isn't yet functioning at full speed.

Milk Does a Body Good!

Your breasts are likely to start producing colostrum even before your baby is born – as early as the second trimester. Colostrum provides most newborns with everything they need for the first several days of life. By the end of the first week, if not sooner, your body should begin to make a larger volume of milk that is less yellow and more watery – known as “transitional” milk. This milk is definitely more likely to satisfy your baby’s hunger and help him settle into somewhat of a more predictable pattern of feeding.

Double Sipping

We recommend filling each bottle with only as much as you think your baby will take – with a little extra for good measure in case she happens to be particularly hungry. That way you can minimize the amount you end up having to discard at the end of each feeding. The party line is that it’s OK to hang on to leftover formula or breast milk for a little while in hopes that your baby decides to finish it off – especially if you’ve got a grazer on your hands or your baby decides to drink less than you expected. However, you should plan on keeping leftovers no longer than about an hour before throwing them away, because bacteria from your baby’s mouth are known to multiply fairly rapidly in milk.

Vitamins for Newborns

With only a few exceptions, most healthy full-term newborns get all the vitamins they need from breast milk and/or formula. The American Academy of Pediatrics does, however, recommend that exclusively breastfed newborns receive vitamin D drops (200 IU per day) starting at the age of 2 months because breast milk does not contain enough of this vitamin. Babies getting at least 16 ounces of formula per day, on the other hand, should not require any extra vitamin D.

Precocious Pooping

In some instances, babies actually poop before they are born – allowing meconium to mix into the amniotic fluid. While this is a reassuring sign that all’s well in the poop department, such babies may require closer observation in the period immediately after being born to make sure that the meconium hasn’t made its way into the lungs.

The Path of Least Resistance

Many parents get alarmed when liquid comes spewing out of their baby’s nose, but let us reassure you that this is an anatomically normal (albeit potentially surprising and/or unpleasant) occurrence. In case you haven’t already discovered it for yourself, we all have a direct connection between the backs of our throats and our noses. Stomach contents expelled by spitting up or vomiting usually follow the path of least resistance, so depending on the circumstances – your baby’s positioning and the force of the eruption to name a couple – the exit route may be his mouth and/or his nose.

The Reality of SIDS

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), sometimes called crib death, is the sudden, unexplained death of an otherwise healthy baby. It is certainly not a topic we, as parents or pediatricians, enjoy bringing up with excited new parents, but it is one that is definitely worth being informed about. While SIDS is always a tragedy for the roughly 2,500 babies and families it affects each year in the United States, the odds of it happening to your child are very low and it is well within your power to lower them even further. Although SIDS rarely occurs during the first month of life (the risk is greatest from 1-4 months), there are simple things you can do that protect your newborn right from the start. Back sleeping and breastfeeding have been shown to lower the risk of SIDS. Things that increase the risk of SIDS: belly sleeping, putting a baby to sleep with another child or adult who might roll onto him, exposure to cigarette smoke, prematurity, overheating and loose or soft bedding.

Calculated Crying

In your first weeks and months, remind yourself that it is absolutely normal for babies to cry. A typical newborn will increase the amount he cries during any given day from about 2 hours at 2 weeks of age to a peak of up to 4 hours a day by 3 months. Light at the end of the tunnel: The amount of crying babies do then begins to gradually decrease, and the cause is usually much easier to figure out as time goes on.

An Ounce of Powder

Baby powder serves the basic purpose of reducing moisture and potential irritation in skin folds, and is often used not only in the diaper area but also under arms and in double (or triple) chin folds. While some parents commonly use baby powder, others (ourselves included) have never bothered. If you do choose to combat moist creases with baby powder, be sure to apply it carefully so that your baby doesn’t end up lying in the middle of a powdery cloud. And even more importantly, buy talc-free baby powder (the most common alternative being a corn starch-based powder) because talcum powder can cause a chemical irritation and pneumonia in the lungs of babies who inhale it.

Water in the Ears

As far as ears are concerned, your baby’s ear canals dead-end at the eardrum (as do your own). What this means for bathing purposes: Water is conveniently blocked from getting into the middle ear. It also mean that having a little water in one’s ear canals every now and then doesn’t cause middle ear infections (otitis media) and may even help keep them clean of wax.