Consultancy

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Tata Catia is available to members for personal consultations...

Are you a new parent... Do you have any questions you would like answers to or advice...

Do you ask yourself...

Why does my baby cry?
Why my baby is not sleeping through the night?
How I can cope with baby's colic?
My baby has reflex, how I can help him?
When start weaning?
Can I give water to my breastfed baby?
Do I have to wake my baby to feed him?
When do I need to give vitamins to my baby?
Baby need to be swaddled?
 
If you have any of the above questions or any others, contact Tata Catia for a personalised consultation by registering as a member.

The Importance of Asking for Help

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Becoming parents is one of the most significant and empowering experiences that a man and a woman can have in their lifetime; with the baby born, parents, who have probably never had to deal with diapers and scented nappy, with sleepless nights and colics in the first months... They have, therefore a marked change in their lives. Mother's body has just endured one of the greatest challenges known to human kind. It's been drained of nutritional reserves, destroyed of strength, deprived of rest, pushed to limits. As if that's not enough, the baby's exhausting rhythms make mums feel inadequate. The baby has his own identity, personal characteristics and his way of working, which will not be easy to read.

Many parents cannot avoid a feeling of strong anxiety in front of inconsolable crying, sleeping problems or various difficulties about child feeding sphere. Together with anxiety could be some fears: it could be endless, related to own parenting skills or the partner's ones, or related to the newborn's health. There could be questions like...

"Will I be able to raise him?"...
"Am I going to be too strict/compliant?"...
"Is my partner going to co-operate in the right way?".

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SIDS

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Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (also known as SIDS) is defined as the sudden, unexpected death of an infant younger than 1 year of age. If the child's death remains unexplained after a formal investigation into the circumstances of the death, the death is then attributed to SIDS. Sudden infant death is a tragic event for any parent or caregiver.

SIDS is rare during the first month of life. Risk peaks in infants 2-4 months of age and then declines.

About 90% of SIDS deaths occur in infants younger than 6 months of age.

The cause (or causes) of SIDS is still unknown. Despite the dramatic decrease in the occurrence of SIDS in the United States and worldwide in recent years, SIDS remains one of the leading causes of death during infancy beyond the first 30 days following birth. It is generally accepted that SIDS may be the result of multiple interacting factors.

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My Opinion about Vaccinations

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Dear parents I have four children, my oldest is on her 30's: all my children are vaccinated. There was a time when no one doubted the benefits of vaccinations.

In this century, our knowledge and curiosity have expanded because scientists, researchers and paediatricians started having doubts.

During the meeting "Scientific Review of Vaccine Safety Datalink Information", a conference held on 7th/8th June 2000 in Georgia (USA), it emerged that since 1999 the American Academy of Paediatrics suggested to remove mercury from vaccines because it was a potentially preventable source of exposure, but the THIMEROSAL (drug with addition of mercury) is still used.

Aluminium and mercury are often simultaneously administered to infants, both of these metals play a significant role in all the neurodegenerative disorders, furthermore, both of this metals accumulate in the brain and spinal cord.

The other toxin, Formaldehyde, didn't prove to be any safer, as it was banned from cot mattresses due an apparent association to cot death.

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Importance of children’s drawing

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Drawing is certainly the most authentic and original expression of the child's personality; It is a means of communication and, like language, is capable of expressing, in addition to the level of maturity, even the problems, the feelings, the emotions and the child's conflicts.

The first graphical attempts children's doodles are at about 18-20 months: the pencil marks on the paper, these scribbles, are essentially the product of shots, sometimes so forceful to cause holes in the sheet.

At one point, the child discovers that there is a relationship between his movement and the marks obtained; this usually occurs around 1 and a half/2 years age. At this stage the child varies his movements and can do as he like vertical, horizontal or circumferences. The intention to control the gesture is made possible only by the movements' maturation; the pencil is moved with movements led to the eye. At about half past two/three years the child begins to give a name to his scribble, thereby showing of wanting to attribute meanings: the child does not scribble more for the pleasure of the movement but to represent inner feelings experienced intensely. For children living in a particularly challenging environment, this stage can begin already at 2 years age. This stage is called stage of "scribble meaning" to indicate that there is an intentionality representative.

In four years age scribbles come readily understandable even to adults. Emerge the first schematic human figures; the baby comes out permanently from the phase of the scribble to get into that figurative. Shapeless scrawl give start both the drawing and writing; to draw, however, it is required initially a motor skill less than that required to write.

E 'at this age the child begins to represent the person. He track human figure with schematic few elements: a circle is the head from which four lines depart who are the arms and legs. It is the so-called "little man cephalopod", common to children around the world. Soon within the circle two large eyes appear; later, his mouth and nose appear. The face remains for a long time the prevailing part of the man, so that if a child refuses to draw it you can think of the existence of some problems.

Between 4 and 5 years, the child draws the first sketch of the body and often puts the belly button.

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Colics

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It's estimated that one in five babies have crying spells, usually beginning in late afternoon and lasting until bedtime, that are severe enough to be labelled colic. Colic's differs from ordinary crying in that the baby seem inconsolable, crying turns to screaming, and the ordeal lasts for three hours, sometimes much longer, occasionally nearly round-the-clock.

Most often colicky periods recur daily,though some babies take an occasional night off . Doctors usually diagnose the colic based on the "rules of three": at least three hours of crying, at least three days a week, starting at about three weeks of age. A baby whit colic pulls his knees up, clenches his fists and generally increases his activity. He closes his eyes tightly or open them wide, furrows his brow, even holds his breath briefly; bowel activity increases and he passes gas.

Eating and sleeping patterns are upset by the crying, the baby frantically seeks a nipple only to reject it once sucking is begun or dozes for a few moments only to awaken screaming.

Not all babies experience colic with the same intensity of crying and associated behavior, and not all parents respond in exactly the same way.

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Breast Feeding

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Nature, through breastfeeding, has provided women with the perfect way to nurture their babies. Breastfeeding naturally binds mother and baby together, making them inseparable for the first months; this can limit mum's freedom as a woman but give her the first wonderful opportunity about motherhood .

In some occasions mums cannot or want not breastfeed;

If a woman have been infected with HIV, because the virus can be passed to child through the milk. (Women infected with cytomegalovirus and hepatitis C generally can breastfeed.)

If a woman have a serious illness (heart disease, for example, or severe anemia ) should not nurse, if she have a serious infection like active, untreated tuberculosis.

A woman shouldn't nurse if has been receiving radiation in any form or are taking medications that pass into the breast milk and can hurt the baby, like antithyroid medication, chemotherapeutic agents, and some mood-altering drugs.

Mum shouldn't nurse if have a drug or alcohol addiction.

Smokers can breastfeed, but they shouldn't light up at least 95 minutes before every feeding, to be sure no nicotine or other chemicals are in the milk.

Another reason because some mums avoid breastfeeding is because they feels pushed from family, friends and media, but they feel breastfeeding too hard, hurting or maybe the breastfeeding idea is frightening or repulsive.

All opinions need to be respected.

There is not magic formula for a successful breastfeeding relationship but you can follow some suggestions.

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Baby’s Sleeping Problems

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I and all middle age people know, sleepless is the no 1 problem that plagues parents from the moment they bring their baby home from the hospital.

Sleep is the most important issue because all other aspects of baby care revolve around sleep, to sleep is to grow, if you have a tired child, he won't eat or play. Babies come to us with 24 hour internal clocks, they don't know how to sleep, they don't know the difference between night and day; we need to teach them.

I would like to explain the nature and the importance of sleep in infants.

In the third period of gestation the baby has developed the capability of (basically) two types of sleep: REM and NOT REM.

REM meaning Rapid Eye Movement, is a light sleep and you can recognise it because is an active sleep; the baby twitches, breathes irregularly and his eyes move fast under the eyelids, sometimes you can see his smile briefly. During REM sleep the brain receive extra blood and warms up, this is the condition when the brain develops more functions.