How Baby's Laughter Affects Our Brains

A good friend recently had his first child, a son, allowing my friend to join the growing number of my peers who now call themselves. I’m always astounded at how sudden and profound the transition is from pre-baby to parent. One day you go to expecting to wake three snoozes into your alarm, and 20 hours of labor later, you go to sleep expecting to wake up whenever this tiny new creature beckons. Then, you have to be ready to feed, soothe, or rock the little guy back to quiet slumber. With so many things to learn—immediately—to care for a baby, it seems like evolution must have given our brains a few tools to ease the shift into the newfound role as parent, just as a bird shifts to its nesting instinct.  That’s why, when I saw a recent study looking at how affects our brain’s response to babies, I grew curious.
Compared to placebo, oxytocin changes the way the brain responds to a baby’s laughter. When hearing a baby’s laughter, oxytocin led to reduced activation in the amygdala, a brain region involved in processing fear, threats, and anxiety. Oxytocin also enhanced the connections between the amygdala and other regions of the brain, such as the orbitofrontal cortex, the region just above your eyes, and the anterior cingulate, a frontal region right in the groove between the two hemispheres of the brain. The orbitofrontal cortex, or OFC, and the anterior cingulate cortex, or ACC, help process emotions and relay that information to other parts of the brain. 

Top Tips for Pregnancy Nutrition

Multivitamins Have Multiple Effects During Pregnancy

Multivitamins do more than supply the necessary folic acid for growing babies, according to a population study conducted at the University of Pittsburgh.
Researchers there found that women in early pregnancy who took a multivitamin or prenatal vitamin regularly reduced their risk of prceemplia by 45%. Preeclampsia, which causes elevated blood pressure and protein in the urine, is a leading cause of premature delivery and fetal death.
Despite the benefits, you may find swallowing pregnancy supplements difficult. The pills are often large, and they contain high doses of iron that can irritate your stomach and cause consumption
"If you find yourself having trouble taking prenatal vitamins or you're having unwanted side effects, talk to your doctor about other, safe options," advises Jennifer Shu, MD, pediatrician and co-author of Heading Home with Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality.
And always tell your doctor or midwife about all the dietary supplements you take, including herbal remedies.

Make Calories Count During Pregnancy

During the first few months of pregnancy, you may not notice a big weight gain.
Some women may even lose weight during the first trimester of pregnancy because of queasiness that prevents them from eating and drinking normally. Tell your doctor if you experience persistent vomiting or nausea – you may become dehydrated. So-called morning skins can last for the entire pregnancy, but it typically starts to dissipate after about 13 weeks.

Best Tips During Pregnancy

Being pregnant may bring a lot of changes to your daily life. One of the most common and major changes are dietary habit changes. Even if you had a healthy diet prior to becoming pregnant, you may begin to look at what you eat and how you eat different now that you're expecting. Here are some tips to ensuring your diet is what it needs to be during pregnancy.

• Remember the food pyramid? It's gone. But the My Plate is a great place to start. It helps you to eat more foods from the proper food groups. This visual representation is great. Many places have handouts. It's a great tool to have for reference on the refrigerator.
• Variety in your diet is very important. It helps ensure that you're gathering the daily doses of recommended vitamins and minerals every day from the foods you eat. It also helps prevent boredom with your diet which can lead to straying.
• Bring on the water! Staying hydrated has many benefits for the healthy pregnancy, including avoidance of early, Skin (meaning more elastic), and general decrease in pregnancy that are annoying (constipation, swelling, etc.). Juice has a time and a place but the majority of your fluids should be water. Other "drinks" like soda, coffee, etc. should not be included in your daily count of 6-8 eight ounce glasses a day.
• Eat foods that remember where they came from! The closer to the source of the original food the better. For examples: green beans that are fresh contain more of the good stuff than those in a can; bananas are better than fried banana chips or a banana split!

Best first food for new born baby

• It is relatively bland in taste - some experts say that this makes it more acceptable to babies because - when mixed with breast milk or formula - it tastes familiar to them.
• You can mix it to a fairly thin texture, which is believed to be ideal for babies making the transition from an all-liquid diet to a more solid one.
• It provides necessary iron - most baby rice is iron-fortified to boost babies' levels of this essential dietary element at a time when they become depleted (around 6 months of age).
• It is believed to be relatively non-allergenic, making it a safer option as a first food.
• It is said to be very easily digested.
• It is believed - by some - to help babies sleep through the night by keeping their tummies full for longer.
• It is gluten free, meaning that it can be given to babies under 6 months of age (please see this page for more information about gluten).

For quite some time, these reasons for introducing baby rice before other foods have not been greatly challenged - indeed, infant cereal is still one of the most popular weaning foods in the developed world. More recently, however, parents are 'reading up' on infant nutrition and questioning commonly held beliefs regarding feeding practices. With more information available - and parents being able to 'compare notes' via the internet - they are more likely to challenge pediatric advice regarding solid feeding issues than ever before.

Furthermore, the previously held notion that anything in a packet marketed for babies is automatically a healthy choice is beginning to fade away... and many parents have doubts over the necessity of those little packs of commercially prepared baby rice.

New Born Baby Care

On that special day you bring your newborn baby home from hospital, life as you know it changes forever. Where to start with newborn baby care?

Huggies Australia has put all their baby care tips, techniques and information into 1 place, to help make newborn baby care as easy as possible for new mums and dads. Becoming a parent is a big adjustment! Having an online resource to support you through this life-changing event can help make this time even more special. Trust us, it will be over quicker than you think. Enjoy every minute.

So browse, read, learn all the great baby care information from Huggies and enjoy this beautiful time in your and your new baby’s life. Huggies can help with all your baby care needs, from advice through to products.

The Best First Food for Baby

• It is relatively bland in taste - some experts say that this makes it more acceptable to babies because - when mixed with breast milk or formula - it tastes familiar to them.
• You can mix it to a fairly thin texture, which is believed to be ideal for babies making the transition from an all-liquid diet to a more solid one.
• It provides necessary iron - most baby rice is iron-fortified to boost babies' levels of this essential dietary element at a time when they become depleted (around 6 months of age).
• It is believed to be relatively non-allergenic, making it a safer option as a first food.
• It is said to be very easily digested.
• It is believed - by some - to help babies sleep through the night by keeping their tummies full for longer.
• It is gluten free, meaning that it can be given to babies under 6 months of age ( for more information about gluten).

For quite some time, these reasons for introducing baby rice before other foods have not been greatly challenged - indeed, infant cereal is still one of the most popular weaning foods in the developed world. More recently, however, parents are 'reading up' on infant nutrition and questioning commonly held beliefs regarding feeding practices. With more information available - and parents being able to 'compare notes' via the internet - they are more likely to challenge pediatric advice regarding solid feeding issues than ever before.
Furthermore, the previously held notion that anything in a packet marketed for babies is automatically a healthy choice is beginning to fade away... and many parents have doubts over the necessity of those little packs of commercially prepared baby rice.

Quick Tips for New Moms

A favorite word of advice that I've followed was to chronicle baby's ever-changing appearance by photographing him next to a favorite stuffed animal (similar in height) during that first week home, and then again every month or two during the first year. It's amazing how much a child's face alone changes—first thinning out, then bursting into smiles, and eventually gaining baby teeth. one or two at a time. And babies' bodies can do as much as triple in size the first year, quickly dwarfing that stuffed animal! For maximum impact, exhibit the photos in one big collage or by taping them into a large mat with multiple openings and dating each photo.

The busiest of moms may want to use a baby's frequent pediatrician check-ups as red flag events. After each visit, make some notes in your scrapbook, journal, or photo album on baby's length, weight, funny new habits, and development reached. This will help convey the great joy she brought to you as a baby by composing these little "snapshots" of information.