Avoid excessive stimulation
Premature babies spend most of their time sleeping before the full term (until the due date): the living room should be quiet and semi-dark; soft music can be played during the daytime sleep. Hold your baby gently and slowly, and speak softly and quietly. Wrap the baby loosely in cotton. Try to do bathing, changing clothes, changing diapers, feeding and breastfeeding together. When changing diapers or doing other care, move gently and quickly and try to avoid frequent or excessive stimulation.
Caution: If your baby reacts with blossoming skin, general shivering, weakness of limbs, irritability, crying, etc., this indicates too much stimulation and should be left alone for a while. Place your hand lightly on the baby’s abdomen to soothe the baby when the baby cries. Observe the signs that your baby is hungry, wet, or uncomfortable, and feed, change diapers, and soothe your baby in a timely manner according to the signs you have accumulated, so that you can understand and meet your baby’s needs and make your baby feel safe. Some babies of small for gestational age may lack obvious signs of discomfort, so you can wait and observe patiently, as the baby matures, such signs will appear one after another.
Keeping warm
Under normal circumstances, the baby’s body temperature is maintained between 36-37 ℃ (axillary), premature baby’s body temperature regulation has the following characteristics.
1, low heat storage capacity, because premature babies have less subcutaneous fat.
2, less heat generation and more heat dissipation, because the brown adipose tissue is immature and the body surface area is relatively large.
3, immature thermoregulation function, because of poor stability, easily affected by the environmental temperature, with the environmental temperature fluctuations; environmental temperature is too low, will cause hypothermia, sclerosis and other dangers. Therefore, it is necessary to create a suitable environmental temperature for premature babies: the room temperature should preferably be maintained at 24-25℃ in winter and 27-28℃ in summer, and maintain a suitable relative humidity (55%-65%). When the room temperature is low, you should wear a hat, clothes and socks for your baby, so that your baby’s hands and feet are warm; add clothes or increase the room temperature when your baby’s feet are cold. In winter, when changing diapers or clothes can be preheated before use; if there is no heating facilities, you can use hot water bags to keep warm, do not directly touch the baby’s skin to avoid burns, it is best to wrap the hot water bag with a towel and put it outside the package to keep warm.
Provide a suitable sleep environment
Sleep duration: Premature babies spend most of the time in sleep, the younger the birth gestational age the more sleep time, sleep about 20 hours a day.
Sleep environment: keep indoor air circulation, quiet; do not shake the baby hard before going to sleep; try not to disturb the baby after going to sleep; do not wear too much in summer; use air conditioning or electric fan, the wind does not blow directly on the baby.
Sleeping position: you can take the supine or side lying position. Side lying position after feeding can prevent overflow or choking and coughing caused by suffocation; prone position helps babies who are easily awakened to sleep quietly, but do not lie prone immediately after eating milk, otherwise it is easy to cause vomiting. When lying prone, the baby’s head should be turned to the side, and someone should watch over the baby to prevent suffocation. Change your baby’s sleeping position appropriately. A long-term position will affect the development of your baby’s head and hip joints.
Sleep habits: appropriate brightening of indoor light during the day, but avoid direct light on the baby’s eyes; baby awake or feeding, more talk and play with the baby; night light should be dimmed, keep quiet, to show the obvious difference between day and night, to help the baby distinguish between day and night, and gradually develop the habit of sleeping at night.
Note: For babies who are prone to waking up, a soft sheet can be used to wrap the body during sleep to make it feel safe. But do not wrap too tightly, to make the baby move freely and limbs in a flexed position is appropriate. It is not advisable to use straps to tie and restrict the baby’s activities, so as not to affect the movement of the baby’s limbs and the development of the sense of touch.
Choice of clothing
Clothing texture: baby’s intimate apparel to white or light-colored cotton fabric is appropriate, winter can choose soft, warm cotton knitted underwear, summer can choose breathable, sweat-absorbing cotton gauze underwear.
The style of clothes: tops should be loose, easy to put on and take off and convenient for the baby’s arm activities, the neck should not be knotted with straps, the collar should be loose, similar to the collar of monk clothes, not only to avoid the collar rubbing the skin of the neck, but also to facilitate the cleaning of the dirty neck due to sweating or milk spills; the waist of the pants should not be too tight with elastic bands to prevent the development of the chest contour. If it is a jumpsuit, you should choose a looser and front opening to facilitate diaper changes at any time.
Note: New clothes contain formaldehyde and insect repellents and other chemicals, should be washed and reused, after washing can reduce the emissions of formaldehyde by 90%. There are color underwear with dyes may contain harmful substances, not recommended for small babies. Baby’s clothes should be washed with detergents that are less irritating and have fewer additives, do not use enzyme-containing laundry detergents and alkaline soaps, and do not use fabric softener.
Choice of shoes and socks and diapers
Shoes, socks and hats: socks should also be loose and soft, especially the mouth of the socks should not be too tight so as not to affect the blood flow in the ankle; if you give your baby shoes, you should choose cloth loose and soft, the ankle can be fixed with straps, but do not tie too tight. The hat is not tied to prevent strangulation of the neck.
Diapers: Choose diapers with good moisture absorption. Cloth diapers can also be used. Cloth diapers should be made of soft, clean, absorbent white or light-colored cotton fabric. White or old cotton cloth that does not lose its color can also be used as diapers after being disinfected by boiling water for 10 minutes. Rubber cloth or plastic sheets are not breathable and should not be used as diapers.
Keep the environment and supplies hygienic
Ventilate the baby’s room twice a day for half an hour each time; however, do not have convection winds to avoid the wind blowing directly to the baby. Avoid touching the baby when the family member has a cold; it is better for the mother to wear a mask before touching the baby when she has a cold. Try to avoid contact between the baby and outsiders. Change into clean clothes when touching the baby after coming back from an outing. Be sure to wash your hands with soap and water and rinse them with hot water every time before touching your baby and its belongings. Wash and change your baby’s clothes and bedding frequently. Do not mix baby’s towels and washbasins with adults. Sterilize your baby’s breastfeeding utensils before use.
Outdoor activities
Outdoor activities can be started from 1 month of corrected gestational age or even earlier. It is best to choose an area with plenty of sunlight and suitable temperature to exercise your baby’s ability to adapt to the environment and strengthen its resistance. Time and frequency: Start with 5~10 minutes per day, which can be extended by 5 minutes every 3~5 days and gradually extended to 1 hour or more per day. From 1 outdoor activity per day, gradually increase to 2~3 times.
Choose the appropriate activity time according to the season: In summer and autumn, when the sun is strong, it is best to be active in the shade. The refracted and scattered ultraviolet rays in the shade can meet the baby’s demand for ultraviolet rays. It is not advisable to spend a long time in the sun, so as not to sunburn the baby’s skin. In winter and spring, it is best to move around in sunny leeward places, exposing hands and feet and the back of the head as much as possible, but also to prevent getting cold.
Note: At first, you can open the windows in the room, so that your baby can feel the sun and fresh outdoor air, and then go directly to outdoor activities as your baby’s ability to adapt increases. Sun hat available to prevent direct sunlight on the baby’s eyes, damage to the eyes of premature babies.
Avoid incorrect care habits
Don’t rub your baby’s “horse teeth” and squeeze your nipples: the appearance of “horse teeth” and enlarged nipples during the newborn period is a normal physiological phenomenon, rubbing “horse teeth” and squeezing nipples can easily lead to infection and even The baby’s nails are long.
Don’t let your baby keep long nails: long nails are prone to breakage and nail infections, and may scratch your baby’s skin, so you should also cut your nails during the month. You can cut your baby’s finger (toe) nails in time after each bath.
Do not give the baby wrapped too tight: wrapped too tight will affect the movement of the baby’s limbs, is not conducive to the normal development of the baby.
Don’t give your baby gloves: wearing gloves will limit the movement of your baby’s hands and the opportunity to perceive various objects.
Prevention of injury
Prevention of burns: hot water bags should be used through the clothes, bathing with a water thermometer or elbow to test the water temperature before bathing the baby, the water temperature to adults feel not cool.
Prevent electric burns: Do not use electric blankets for babies to avoid electrocution.
Prevent suffocation: Adults should not cover a bed with the baby, or sleep with the baby to prevent the baby from being covered or suffocated by pressure. Do not let your baby sleep prone at night or just after feeding, to prevent choking caused by blocked mouth and nose. Do not hang a rope or chain around your baby’s neck to prevent strangulation and suffocation. Turn your baby on his or her side or face down when he or she sprays milk from the mouth and nose, and pat his or her back to prevent choking and suffocation.