observing these indicators will help alert you to conditions that may not
lead to healthy growth. Poor starts and tragedies can be avoided by
monitoring your baby for signs of adequate and inadequate nutrition. If
you start to notice the unhealthy indicators, call your pediatrician and
report your objective findings.
Included in the back of the book are a series of healthy baby growth
charts developed to assist you in your daily evaluation. The first one was
designed specifically for your baby’s first week of life. The second chart
is for weeks two through four, and the third is to be used for weeks five
and beyond. Using these charts will provide important benchmarks
signaling healthy or unhealthy growth patterns.
What indicators should you look and listen for? Consider the
following:
WEEK ONE: Healthy Growth Indicators
- Under normal circumstances, it takes only a few minutes for your
baby to adjust to life outside the womb. His eyes will open and he will
begin to seek food. Bring your baby to breast as soon as it is possible, and
certainly try to do so within the first hour and a half after birth. One of
the first and most basic positive indicators is your baby’s willingness and
desire to nurse. - It is natural to wonder and to even be a little anxious during the
first few postpartum days. How do you know if your baby is getting
enough food to live on? The release of the first milk, colostrum, is a
second important encouraging indicator. In the simplest terms, colostrum
is a protein concentrate ideally suited for your baby’s nutritional and
health needs.
One of the many benefits of colostrum is its effect on your baby’s
first bowel movement. It helps trigger the passage of the meconium, your
baby’s first stools. The meconium stool is greenish black in color with a
tarry texture. Newborn stools in the first week transition from meconium
to a brownie batter transition stool to a mustard yellow stool. The three to
five soft or liquid yellow stools by the fourth or fifth day are totally