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How to be "baby-ready" ?

1K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  rapidoa 
#1 ·
My sister's living with me and she is expecting a baby by end of this year. We are much excited about the baby. What all basic changes should we do to our place to make it baby friendly ? what are the common allergies seen in newborn babies ? Suggest some precautions..
 
#2 ·
Just my opinion which is based on only my experiences. We didn't find it necessary to be "baby ready" when the child first came home because . . . well . . . they're basically just a lump. At that point it was more important to have the baby necessities in place, like a convenient place to access burp cloths and wipes. Having a good diaper changing station set up with plenty of butt creams and such. The actual baby proofing came later when we realized our baby was starting to sit up and be a little more mobile. Then we sort of just learned as we went and sealed off dangers and moved breakables higher and got rid of anything they could possibly swallow.

Again, just my opinion, but when it comes to allergies, I'm of the school that you shouldn't attempt to protect a child from allergies until they already exhibit symptoms, because often times I sort of think early exposure might help prevent the allergy in the first place.

Congrats about your sister. It's very cool that she will be living with you!
 
#3 ·
Getting "baby-ready," might involve creating a place for a newborn
to learn about colors, textures, sounds, and fragrances. Providing objects
at different distances to learn to focus, choosing colors that might soothe,
delight or maybe sometimes surprise, selecting sounds, perhaps from nature,
that are calming or intriguing and placing living things in abundance - in
short beginning life with beauty everywhere and within everything might
prepare a baby to be ready for life.


The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things. ~ Plato
 
#4 · (Edited)
Your sister will need a lot of support, without the dad there (because she's living with you?) she will need help with cooking/getting groceries, people to spell her off with holding the baby, maybe even help with night time feeding, help with laundry, medical visits, help getting baby stuff, help recovering from the birth etc. The floors in your home should be clean and safe, babies and toddlers spend a lot of time on the floor, furniture should be fastened to the wall, some babies/toddlers are climbers, any hazards in the home like exposed wiring should be dealt with, as soon as babies are mobile dangerous things need to be put away or locked away (knives, cleaners, batteries, detergent, pet food, medicines, soaps etc) Babies will pull at cords or tablecloths and put themselves in danger, lamps, Tvs, irons, kettles etc. and will put any thing within reach into their mouths. If you have stairs you will need baby gates. If you live on a busy street you've got to be vigilant about toddlers getting out on their own, maybe even putting a lock at the top of the door if need be. Keep in mind babies chew and suck on anything within grasp or leaning distance and when mobile will pull at things to get themselves up, and eventually will try climbing in and on things to reach stuff like drawers, cabinets, dishwashers, stoves etc. Oh and think about where toddlers heads are, often at table height, I found head injuries happened a lot in the early walking stages, I got rid of a concrete table we had.
 
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