From the moment we are parents thousands of doubts assail us because we fear doing it wrong, because many people give us their opinions knowing or not knowing and because we turn many of our illusions into our son, wishing he had a better life than ours.
If our baby is doing well, pediatricians and nurses usually take care of them, who check them every few weeks to see how they grow, how they develop, how they evolve and if what they do or stop doing is normal. However, there are many parents who want to know how our child grows and how it develops, and in fact it is necessary to do so because the first ones who usually observe that something is not going well are us, who see our children every day.
For this reason we will explain some things we should keep in mind to know if our child is well, related to its exterior appearance.
Newborn baby
A newborn baby has more to offer than we think, because not only does he eat, sleep and shit, but he is also able to smell and distinguish the smell of his mother, he can see us, knowing that he is looking at people to the point of being able to imitate the faces, he hears his mother and knows his voice, feeling more comfortable listening to her and comes "equipped" with several reflections that help him in his first paths through this strange world in which we live.
The parents' first doubts: the outward appearance
Every day we undress our son to bathe him, change him, dress him or have him for a little while in contact with our skin doing what is called "kangaroo mother method", how useful it is for children to be calm and gain more weight. In those moments we usually realize some things that generate doubts, such as pimples, the hair that is falling or spots that we had not seen before. We will talk about it to know the possible things that can generate doubts.
- As soon as we are born, we have a slightly weird face when we see our son covered with the cheesy vernix, a fat layer that served as his skin protection inside the womb. The baby has always been removed right away, when bathing, but now it is not done because it has been seen that it is not necessary, because it goes away alone, and because its skin remains protected outside while it has it.
- In the skin we can also see the presence of beauty in the shoulders, back and sometimes even in the face. It's the so-called lanugo, that hair capita that later disappears as the days go by (or weeks)
- Continuing with the hair, as our son grows is running out of hair, because it is losing the one that brought "standard" at birth. This means that he will remain bald or bald for a while, sometimes even with a grandfather's face for wearing a Alfredo Landa hairstyle, with hair on the sides and back, but without him on top. It is normal and, logically, new hair is gradually emerging (except Caillou, all children have hair).
- We can also see some spots on the skin, such as the Mongolian spot or as angiomas, which are dilations of the blood vessels under the skin and give the spot a reddish hue. In the second case they can be seen in any part of the body, although they are common in the occipital area, above the neck. Both the Mongolian spot and the angiomas usually disappear over time and therefore do not give them importance.
- In the first two months they have pimples, and not few. They are usually a reason for consultation and are often asked what cream to use. The reality is that no special cream is needed. These granites, which many know as fattening, appear because many pores of the children's skin are still closed but the sebaceous glands of the skin are already functioning. When the sebum cannot go outside, the grain is produced, which disappears after a few days.
- It may also happen that after having spent several days with a little pinkish skin, we notice that it is taking on a yellowish hue. It is what is known as physiological jaundice, which usually yields within a few days as it is pooping (taking it out in the sun does not help much), or that may persist if the child drinks breast milk, at which time it is called breastfeeding jaundice, which can last up to three months, and does not require any special treatment.
In a few days we will talk about some things more related to babies and children, to see if they are evolving well or if what they have or what they do is normal.
