Common Parenting Panics You Don’t Need To Worry About When You Have A Baby

There are few times in any person’s life more exciting than the arrival of their first baby. When that day arrives, you probably find yourself wrapped up in a whirlwind of excitement, confusion, stress, and euphoria. You’re probably going to find yourself feeling plenty of things that you’ve never felt before. You’re going to be amazing that you could love something so much but you’re also going to find yourself worrying more than you ever thought possible as well. Sadly, that’s just something that you’re going to have to get used to. Part of being a parent means coming to terms with the fact that you’re always going to be just a little bit worried about your baby all day long. And most of the time there’s no reason to worry at all, and you can just get on with enjoying your time together. However, there are plenty of occasions where parents with panic and feel as though something is seriously wrong. However, there are plenty of occasions where the cause of that panic really isn’t that much of a big deal. In order to help you avoid feeling more stressed than you already are, here are a few incredibly common issues that might crop up with your new baby that are likely to leave you panicking, but really shouldn’t.

Fussy feeding

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Trying to feed a baby at any stage in their development can be a seriously stressful experience. It’s the kind of thing that can start from birth as well. Many mothers end up feeling incredibly anxious if they’re not able to breastfeed perfectly right away. There’s so much stigma around it that it can lead a lot of women to feel as though they’ve already failed as a mother or that there’s something wrong with them. THIS IS NOT TRUE. It’s incredibly important that you understand that there is nothing wrong with having trouble breastfeeding. It’s an incredibly common issue, and there are plenty of things that you can do about it. It might simply be a matter of patience and letting things run their course, but you might also decide that it’s best to switch your baby to formula from a bottle. Don’t let anyone tell you that there’s something wrong with formula feeding, it’s specifically designed to have all of the nutrients that your baby needs and exists to help mothers who are struggling to breastfeed. There’s nothing unnatural or unsafe about it, and there’s nothing wrong with you for needing to use it as the method of feeding your baby. Plus, it offers you the chance to share feeding duties between both parents incredibly easily.

Weird colors

This is something that far more parents need to be warned about before their baby is born, but your little one could end up being any number of weird colors. And not just the bring pink hue that many babies first come out with. One thing that can cause a lot of parents to panic really is when they go to check on their baby, and they’ve turned a worrying shade of blue. Not only that but their fingers and toes might be freezing cold. This might seem incredibly worrying, but it’s really not a big deal at all. It’s simply a result of the fact that your baby’s circulatory system might not be fully developed yet. The best thing that you can do is to make sure that your baby is wrapped up nice and warm and the issue should go away on its own. The other frightening hue that your baby can develop is a sickly, jaundice yellow. Now, most adults know that jaundice is almost always a sign of something serious. However, for new babies, it’s nowhere near as much of a concern. Again, it just comes down to the fact that their system isn’t fully developed and they’re not able to filter out the things that cause jaundice to occur. As with the blue colour, jaundice should go away on its own without your baby needing any kind of medical intervention.

Irregular number twos

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It’s ridiculous how much more time you spend thinking about poo once you have a baby. Before you’re a parent, you probably didn’t really give it much thought at all, but once your little one arrives you’re going to spend huge amounts of your time obsessing over it. Parents are constantly concerned with everything from the color of their baby’s number twos, to the smell to the texture. Not only that but a lot of parents end up getting extremely worried that their baby isn’t going to the toilet often enough. However, you really don’t need to worry. The truth is that some babies are going to go number two multiple times a day, and others can go up to four days without so much as a whisper of a movement in their diaper. Things like constipation and diarrhea are going to happen, but most of the time they really aren’t that much of a concern. Unless your baby is in visible distress when they’re trying to go to the toilet, you don’t really need to worry about it.

Cradle cap

Cradle cap is one of those things that a lot of parents panic over when they first see it because it had such clear and visible symptoms. It can often look like severe eczema on your baby’s scalp which, when you’re looking at something that usually has such smooth skin, can be incredibly frightening. However, the truth is that cradle cap is nothing to worry about. Cradle cap is essentially infant dandruff. It’s caused by an overabundance of sebum which makes your baby’s skin oily and irritated. As sore and unpleasant as it might look, it really isn’t something that you need to worry about. There are also plenty of cradle cap prevention methods that you might want to try. Not only that but, despite the name, cradle cap can appear pretty much anywhere on your baby’s body as well so don’t panic if you see the same sort of oily, flaky skin on other places as well.

Screaming tantrums

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There are few things in life that make you feel like you’ve failed as a parent than when your baby just won’t stop screaming. You’ve tried everything: feeding, burping, playing, napping, singing, dancing, driving in the car, everything, and nothing has made even the slightest bit of difference. The most important thing to remember is that this is completely normal. There is nothing wrong with you or your baby. This is just something that happens sometimes. Sometimes babies will cry because they want or need something, and sometimes they’ll cry for seemingly no reason whatsoever. It’s important to remember that if it feels like things are getting too much for you, you can just set them down in their crib and leave the room for a while. It can be tough to listen to your baby cry in the other room, but it’s not going to do them any harm, and it will prevent you from going completely insane. Plus, as stressful as it might be, the moment that they stop and give you a big smile you’ll forget all about it.

Development speed

Having as much clear information about your baby can be incredibly useful. It can let you know which things to look out for and what things are normal, as well as giving you an idea of how your child is developing. However, one issue that it can cause is that a lot of people end up panicking when their baby doesn’t perfectly line up with development expectations that they have for them. It’s crucial that you remember that all development milestones are vague estimates. Just because your child isn’t walking or talking or doing anything else at the same speed as other babies, that doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with them. In reality, most of the time those kinds of things make no difference whatsoever to your child’s future development.

Being a new parent can be scary a lot of the time. The old saying that kids “don’t come with an instruction manual” might be a serious cliche, but it’s also incredibly true to the experience of trying to take care of a baby for the first time. In the exact same way that they’re learning to understand the world around them, you’re learning how to take care of them. So cut yourself some slack. Sure, you’re not going to be the perfect parent, because no one is! And sure, you’re probably going to make a few mistakes along the way, but that’s just a natural part of life. The best thing that you can do is just to try and relax and enjoy the experience of taking care of your little one as much as possible. Over time you’ll find that you get better and better at being a parent and it will all be second nature to you before you know it.