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The measures here are infant mortality and money. This chapter includes actions with substantial, well-supported effects on survival or expenditure, rather than detailed advice about soothing or everyday parenting. For preparations before birth and on discharge day, see Chapter 27. Public services and RMB prices refer to China where specified.
Place the baby face upward on a firm flat sleeping surface in the same room as you but in a separate bed. Keep pillows, blankets, bumpers, stuffed toys and head-shaping pillows out. Inclined rockers and infant seats are not sleep spaces. Around 3,500 US infants die from sleep-related causes each year.
Give the first dose within 24 hours. WHO reports that infection in infancy and early childhood becomes chronic in about 95%, while most adult infections resolve. Early vaccination therefore matters. A baby whose mother is hepatitis B surface-antigen positive also needs hepatitis B immunoglobulin.
Childcare centers and schools check vaccination records and arrange catch-up for missing national-program doses. Complete only unfinished doses rather than starting again; changing manufacturer can be allowed for the same vaccine. Stable eczema, hives, allergic rhinitis or asthma, and physiological/breast-milk jaundice, generally do not require postponement under the cited Chinese guidance.
WHO recommends starting within the first hour, exclusive breastfeeding for six months without extra water, then adequate complementary food while breastfeeding to 2 years or beyond. China's guidance includes daily iron-rich animal foods after 6 months. If milk is insufficient or breastfeeding is not possible, use formula without blame. The author considers safe sleep more consequential than the feeding-method difference.
Powdered formula is not sterile and can contain Cronobacter. Reported fatality among infected newborns is 40%–80%. In the cited laboratory study, adding powder when hot water in the bottle had cooled to about 73.8°C usually left the mixture above 70°C and reduced the organism by more than 100,000-fold. Cool to feeding temperature afterward and discard unfinished milk.
Avoid honey water, honey mixed into food and honey-containing cakes before age 1. Honey can contain botulism-causing organisms whose spores can grow in an infant's immature gut. The source extends caution to homemade pickles and fermented foods.
Newborn vitamin K stores are low; deficiency can cause bleeding, with late cases often bleeding into the brain. In a setting without routine prophylaxis, incidence was 478 per 100,000 newborns; prevention was estimated to reduce it by more than 78.5%. Chinese hospitals routinely administer it, but confirm after home or nonstandard-facility birth.
For a baby under three months, a temperature of 38°C requires prompt hospital assessment. Do not watch at home or give fever medicine first and wait. Serious bacterial illness at this age can present with fever alone, so looking reasonably well is not enough reassurance. Babies under 8 days are outside the cited guideline and especially need urgent assessment.
Babies have relatively large heads and weak necks. Violent shaking can cause brain and retinal bleeding, death or lifelong disability. Gentle soothing motion is different from uncontrolled forceful shaking. If you are losing control, put the baby safely in the cot and step away for a few minutes; brief crying is safer than being shaken.
No official body has ranked a single best brand. Check product-quality inspection notices and investigations of specific incidents. Expensive or imported does not guarantee safety. Try a small pack for a week, checking rash and pressure marks before stocking up.
Strollers, cots, wraps and toys have short useful periods and abundant secondhand supply. Borrow first, then consider used items, then new. The source excludes car seats and mattresses from its secondhand recommendation, because crash damage to seats can be invisible. Wait 24 hours before major optional spending such as postpartum centers or early-learning courses.
In high-risk infants starting at 4–11 months, regular peanut consumption led to 1.9% peanut allergy at age 5 versus 13.7% with avoidance among those initially skin-test negative. For weakly positive skin tests, rates were 10.6% versus 35.3%. Seek clinician assessment first. Whole peanuts can obstruct the airway and must not be given.