As a dietitian, I find that many parents delay starting their little ones on solids as they are confused about what they should do and scared of making a mistake.  Doing anything for the first time can be daunting, and I understand that when it comes to introducing solids, you want to get it right.   To make things worse, ...

The sound of a baby’s first cries brings joy to everyone in the birthing room. Doctors and midwives love to hear this as it indicates the baby lungs . Newborn babies don’t cry because they’re complaining, that cry is the first time their lungs are breathing air. The baby will continue to cry until all the amniotic fluid and mucus ...

Human physiology has been constantly studied throughout history, with specific systems and organs focussed upon at different stages. With recent technological advances and improved medical understanding, digestive system health and the role of “good bacteria” in keeping the body healthy has become a topic of interest among research groups [1-2]. Moreover, the connection between gut bacterial populations and disease causation ...

It is well-known that balanced intake of vitamins and minerals is essential to a healthy diet, and multiple sources of these vitamins exist, to cater for all dietary needs. Despite this, education regarding vitamin requirements in pregnancy and in everyday life may not be as widespread as the medical world would prefer. As a result, the benefits of key molecules ...

How do you know if your baby is developing at normal rate? As a maternal and child health nurse some of my most frequent consultations are helping anxious mothers determine whether their baby’s behaviour is normal. But when your child is a newborn the buck stops with you. If a parent displays a behavior consistently when a child is in ...

As a midwife, maternal nurse and child health expert, I’ve fielded many questions from parents over the past 43 years.  These range from concerns about conceiving, pregnancy and labour to parenting. These are some of the most common questions I get asked. Why doesn’t my baby sleep all the time? Parents often think their babies will continue to feed and ...

Have you ever heard of or had heartburn? Have you ever heard of babies with such bad heartburn they cry and cry and cry and cry? These babies are so uncomfortable, miserable and unhappy. The baby’s condition can be very distressing for parents, particularly first time mothers, who think the reason their baby is crying is their fault. Either from ...

Of course, we are all solidly aware of SARS-CoV2 (the virus) and COVID-19 (the disease that it causes); a medical consideration that didn’t exist a couple of years ago. For most of us, COVID-19’s main symptoms are respiratory and, although the virus is sometimes challenging, we usually recover within a few weeks. However, for some, the effects of COVID-19 are ...

We all know that there are many components to the timeline of a pregnancy, with medicinal and nutritional aspects in the pre-conception and gestational stages being very important to the health of a developing baby. But while a lot of the focus is upon the health of the female who is carrying the child, it is just as important that ...

Thrush in babies Oral thrush in babies is a fungal infection that can occur in the throat, tongue or around the mouth. Despite being a concern for parents, thrush in babies mouth is very common during bubs first year of life, and isn’t anything to worry about. What causes thrush in a newborn baby’s mouth? Babies can pick up oral ...