E
Morgan Shandler re-
calls several moments of new
mama anxiety during the first
few weeks home with her
daughter, who is now a busy one
year old.
Q
U
I
RK
Y
B
A
very new parent
at some point
wonders: Is my
baby supposed to do that? Is
this normal?
Babies also often make lots
of “gurgly, snorty sounds,” says
Michael Greenfield, MD, inter-
nal medicine and pediatric spe-
cialist.
“One thing that particu-
larly freaked me out was when
Violet would bob her head when
attempting to nurse. It almost
looked like she was having a sei-
zure or like she was a broken down
robot,” Shandler says. “But my pedi-
atrician assured me it was a completely
normal part of ‘rooting’ for the breast.”
Startle reflex. Parents also
worry about seizures when their infant
suddenly throws out their ams and legs
as if they’re falling.
Pediatrician Jennifer Mellick, MD,
FAAP, says that the startle or Moro Re-
flex is a normal neurological infantile
reflex that disappears as the nervous
system matures.
“If you believe in evolution, there’s
probably some reason why mammals
and homo sapiens have this instinctual
need to grasp, and if they’re falling,
reach out to find something and grab
on. Babies do that same kind of thing.
If they feel like they are falling, they are
going to throw their arms and legs out
wide to find their caregiver and grab,”
Mellick says.
If you’re ever concerned about
strange movements that your baby
makes, try to video record it, suggests
Jennifer McBride, MD, internal medi-
cine and pediatric specialist.
Strange
(but normal!)
Things
Babies Do
— by Christa Melnyk Hines
“Nine times out of ten, baby won’t
do the motion when in the office with us.
If parents record it, I can see what the
baby looks like when they are doing that
movement and either reassure them or
decide if we need to do something else,”
McBride says.
Funny breathing. Babies
have breathing patterns that alarm many
newbie parents. Physicians call it “peri-
odic breathing of the newborn” — and
it’s completely normal.
DID YOU KNOW?
Baby girls born with an intact uterus can some-
times have a little blood in their diaper after birth.
This “mini period” happens because they are no
longer receiving their mother’s estrogen.
— Source: Jennifer McBride, MD
12 WNY Family April 2019
“They will almost pant
for a period of time and then
they will pause for several
seconds-several seconds in
baby breathing seems like a
really, really long time. Then,
they take a deep breath, let
out a deep sigh and they pant
again,” Mellick says.
“This is pretty normal be-
cause babies have to breath
through their nose when they’re
eating and a lot of babies have con-
gestion, so it will make their breathing
sound much worse than it really is,”
Greenfield says.
Bless you! Just as babies make
funny sounds when they breath, they of-
ten sneeze, which leads parents to won-
der if their child suffers from allergies or
is getting sick.
“That’s just how the baby clears out
his nose because they can’t blow their
nose like we can,” McBride says.
Hiccups. Just like the rest of us,
babies experience hiccups, which are
sudden contractions of the diaphragm.
Often a baby can get hiccups after a
feeding.
“Babies will hiccup for hours on
end, which doesn’t bother them at all,”
Greenfield says.
Scaly scalp. Cradle cap, which
is a greasy, yellowish, scaly rash on the
head, may not look cute, but it’s usually
nothing to worry about. Try brushing
your baby’s hair or head once a day with
a soft baby brush, which will help loos-
en the natural oils on the scalp to avoid
build up. Moisturizers like baby oil,
mineral oil or coconut oil can also help.
“If it seems to be getting worse or
looking really red, that would be a time
to see the pediatrician. It could be a
sign that baby is going to have eczema,
which typically runs in families,” Mc-
Bride says.