An Art of Parenting

Posts Tagged ‘skin’

It is true that consumption of sour foodstuffs such as tamarind, orange, lime and buttermilk causes the child to be born with hairy skin? The auspicious moment of birth brightens the child’s future. The hair on a newborn infant’s skin is present in varying proportion. Hairness depends on ancestry and heredity. Thus, if the mother and father have very little or no hair, it is very unlikely that their child will be born with hairy skin. This feature is often uniformly manifested within a community and even a country. Thus, all members of a particular community may have either a lot of hair or negligible hair. Perhaps,  heredity, geography and climate all play a part in determining hairiness. It is, therefore a racial feature. At times it may depend on the communities for the reason of hair growth.

The mother’s diet does not affect the extent of hair on her child’s skin. However, sour food increases acidity and can cause stomach burn. In the early stages of pregnancy, there is the urge to eat sour things to counteract nausea and tastelessness. Their consumption does relieve biliousness.

Drugs such as steroids or anti-convulsion drugs taken during pregnancy may be responsible for additional hair on the baby’s skin.

The normal rectal temperature of new born ranges between 35.5⁰ C and 37.5^o C. Since no single temperature measurement can determine the adequacy of the thermal protection, the serial recording of rectal, skin and air temperature during the care of the babies is helpful in determining the normality of any single temperature. Usually the skin temperature is the same or than the rectal temperature it is possibly duet to heat loss having been limited by environmental heating and further increase in thermal temperature results to fever which is possibly due to other heating and not sepsis.

On the other hand, if the skin is cooler than rectal temperature the fever could be due to hypermetabolism or due to infection. Thus it is very important to monitor even environment temperature. If the incubator temperature is more than 2 to 3^o C cooler than the body skin temperature, it is likely that the infant is using up his energy stores in trying to maintain his body temperature, at a normal level. Thus all above reasons serve to understand the needs for knowledgeable use of thermal measurements in manipulations to the particular infant under special nursery care.

When should a baby have his first bath? Many pediatricians now feel that there is no hurry to give a bath after birth. He has come out of a very comfortable and warm environment. He also has a protective whitish material called vernix, particularly in the neck folds, arm pits and groins. No effort should be made to clean this off, as the delicate skin of the baby will be damaged. The baby’s face should be cleaned, and a blood from the delivery should be wiped off. His body including head should be dried with a soft towel, and clothes put on. The less he is distributed for the first few hours the better. He can be given a bath on the second or the third day. Many hospitals do not give the baby a bath at all during the hospital stay.

To give the baby a bath at home, you will need a good size wash basin or a baby bath. Plastic ones are freely available and you can choose any attractive color. The water should be comfortably warm and should fill half to three-fourths of the basin or tub. The room should be warm and free of draught. The fan should be switched off. First the baby’s face and head should be washed. The baby can then be put in the tub while supporting his head properly. If the baby’s buttocks are soiled with stool, he should be cleaned before being put in the tub. The baby’s skin is very sensitive and only a mild soap should be used. A shampoo can be used for the head and a soft brush can be used for the hair.

The skin changes that can upset you most are the dreaded stretch marks or striae gravidarum as they are called, which may make their appearance across the lower abdomen from the twenty-forth week.

Unfortunately in most women there are not always confined to the abdomen and may occur on the breasts, the thighs, and on the buttocks too. Stretch marks tend to affect women whose abdominal skin has been subjected to much stretching caused by, for example, twin pregnancy, excessive and fluid retention or simply a very large baby. But that isn’t the whole story because some women with enormously distended abdomens never develop stretch marks at all.

It is now believed that striae are caused, not so much by the actual stretching of the skin, as by certain hormonesm released in the pregnancy which acts on elastic fibres beneath the skin. It has been found for instance, that women will really noticeable stretch marks are more likely to develop, toxaemia – retention of fluid, urinary changes, raised blood pressure – later on their pregnancy, than women who have never been troubled at all.

Chances are you’ll be one of the lucky ones who just won’t happen to form stretch marks.. But just in case you do, here’s some news to cheer you up. These ugly marks always – yes, always-fade to a much lighter color after delivery. Also post delivery massages and lavish application of vitamin E fortified creams help to lighten them.

Facing Up To Your Changing Skin During Pregnancy: Pregnancy is the most beautiful time in your life. It is a time when you feel extra special and the knowledge of a life growing within you makes you beam with joy. You bloom like never before. And as you edge towards the sixteenth week of pregnancy you observe yourself getting bigger each day. It’s something you can’t very well help exciting. And it’s terribly exciting. But excitement apart, you also tend to observe a lot of skin changes and that make you feel a little low.

Pigmentation: If you stand naked in front of the mirror and examine yourself carefully, you’ll find that certain parts of your body have become darker; the area surrounding the nipples known as the areola, the vulva, the perianal region, and the line down the middle of your abdomen. This strip is normally a little paler than the rest of your skin and is known as the linea alba or white line. During pregnancy however, it darkens and becomes known as the linea nigra, or dark line. This darkening or pigmentation, of the skin occurs in varying degrees in almost all women who become pregnant. A few women develop a patch, café au lait, and pigmentation across the forehead, cheeks and upper lip. This is known as the mask of pregnancy. Of course you can always disguise it with cosmetics, but that shouldn’t often be necessary.