Understand and Parent Your Newborn

Infant Infant Understand and Parent Your Newborn Understand and Parent Your Infant Understand and Parent Your Older Baby Understand and Parent Your Almost-Toddler

Understand and Parent Your Newborn Your newborn comes out of a quiet, dark place and needs help staying calm and organized in the midst of the sights, sounds and commotion in her new world. Since you spend most of your time together feeding, doing it in the right way is essential. For your newborn, feeding and nurturing are the same thing. Your baby feels and does best when you go by her signals in caring for her. If you follow her lead, she will eat as much as she needs and grow in the way that is right for her. Feeding the way she wants you to tells her that the world is a friendly place where she will be loved and respected. Don’t worry about spoiling her. You can’t spoil a tiny baby. Ellyn Satter’s Division of Responsibility in Feeding: The parent is responsible for the what of feeding—breastmilk or formula. The child is responsible for everything else—when, where, how much, how fast. How to Feed and Parent your Newborn with Respect to Feeding Pay attention to her cues and feed her when she wants to eat, when she is wide-awake and calm. Ask her to open her mouth by touching her cheek or lips or showing her the nipple. Sit still during feeding. Keep the feeding smooth and steady. Let her eat her way—much or little, fast or slowly, steady or start-and-stop. Talk to her or touch her in a way that she likes and that helps her to stay awake. Talk or play awhile after feeding. Put her to bed when she’s calm and drowsy. For a comprehensive set of educational materials that teach stage-related feeding and solve feeding problems, see ELLYN SATTER'S FEEDING IN PRIMARY CARE PREGNANCY THROUGH PRESCHOOL: Easy-to-Read Reproducible Masters (4th grade reading level, English and Spanish) and ELLYN SATTER'S NUTRITION AND FEEDING FOR INFANTS AND CHILDREN: Handout Masters (7th grade reading level, English only). Copyright © 2005 by Ellyn Satter. For more about feeding your newborn, see Ellyn Satter’s Child of Mine; Feeding With Love and Good Sense or www.EllynSatter.com For permission to reproduce this handout, call (800)808-7976 or e-mail info@ellynsatter.com

About Us     |      Speaking and Training      |      Success Stories      |      Shopping     |      Home

Ellyn Satter Associates
4226 Mandan Crescent, Madison, WI 53711
Phone: 608-271-7976 | Toll-free 800-808-7976 | Fax: 866-724-1631
Email: info@ellynsatter.com
Copyright © 2008 ESA. All rights reserved.