Some babies and toddlers develop an aversion to having anything placed in their mouths. This is especially common amongst babies who have received medication or ventilation through a tube, though it sometimes crops up without any obvious reason.

Oral defensiveness generally shows itself with a baby’s refusal to take the breast or bottle, and an aversion to having anything else in her mouth. It is believed that the reason many babies (especially those who have been treated with ventilators or Naso-gastric tubes) develop oral defensiveness is because they experience a sensation like choking when anything is placed inside their mouths.

If your baby shows signs of oral defensiveness, or refuses to take anything into her mouth for an extended period of time, missing more than one feeding, consult your doctor. There are several therapies she may suggest to help your baby start eating properly again.

One thing you can try yourself if your baby is refusing to take the bottle or the breast is to simply hold your baby close, preferably with skin to skin contact, and offer the breast or bottle. Don’t force the issue; the last thing you want to do is to compound the problem by making feeding more unpleasant for your baby than it already is. In most cases, your baby’s hunger will overcome her hesitance to put anything in her mouth and she will eat. When she does, do whatever you can to make it a pleasant experience for her.

When you do consult your doctor, she might recommend a feeding therapist. In most cases, these therapists will work with you and your baby to help your baby realize that the bottle or breast is not something to be afraid of, but something to receive nourishment from.

One of the things babies and toddlers with oral defensiveness often do is spit milk or formula out or vomit rather than swallowing. A therapist will work with you and your baby to help her figure out that if she swallows, she won’t have the unpleasant feelings she is experiencing from having something in her mouth. The goal is to help baby start to view oral feeding as pleasant again. In most cases, it doesn’t take long before your baby will gradually start feeding for longer periods of time again.

Some babies take to the idea of bedtime better than others. When babies first come home, they pretty much set their own schedules, and there really isn’t much you can do other than try to work around it. But as baby gets older, you should be able to start putting her on a more regimented sleep schedule.

As early as three months old, you should be able to start training your baby to sleep at night. This doesn’t mean that she’ll sleep through the night right away, of course. Frankly, her tummy isn’t developed enough to sleep for more than four hours at a stretch until she’s at least 4-5 months old.

Still, you can start the process at about three months old. Training your child to sleep at night basically boils down to helping her want to sleep at night. You may think that’s easier said than done, but it really isn’t in most cases. The real trick is to make night time as uninteresting as possible, while making daytime fun and exciting for baby.

When your baby is first born, she really doesn’t have much interest in anything beyond eating and sleeping. When she’s hungry or otherwise uncomfortable, she’ll cry, but other than that she really doesn’t interact much with the world around her. As she gets older, she becomes more aware of her surroundings.

By the time baby is three to four months old, she will begin to show some interest in what’s going on around her. When she wakes up to eat, she will want to check out her surroundings. If they are interesting and stimulate her, she’s not going to want to go back to sleep.

Your best bet for night time feedings is to put a rocking chair in a dark or dimly lit place where there aren’t many distractions. Feed baby in the dark if you can do so confidently, or keep the lights dim if you find that you need some light. If you don’t have a dimmer switch on your lights, consider using a night light or some other dim light source.

Limit your interactions with baby at night time to feeding her, burping her, and soothing her. Don’t interact with her in any way that might suggest that this is a good time to be awake. This isn’t a good time to play with baby. Save that for the daytime. Even if baby shows that she wants to play, hold her gently, rock her, and otherwise soothe her. She will eventually fall back to sleep most of the time.

By contrast, make sure that baby has plenty of your attention and interaction during the daytime. When she wakes up from a nap and the sun is shining, take some time to play with her after she has eaten. Before long, your baby will associate daytime and light with time to be awake and have fun, and night time with time to relax and go to sleep.

As adults, most of us already know that we need to get out and get some exercise to stay in shape, but did you know that your baby can start benefiting from exercise shortly after she is born? While your newborn isn’t quite ready to hit the gym or swim some laps just yet, she can benefit immensely from being encouraged to wiggle and shake as much as her age and muscle development will allow.

When baby first comes home, this can include a few minutes of tummy time. When it is safe to do so (usually 6 weeks after baby is born), you should start exercising yourself. Children learn a great deal by watching their parents, and if baby sees you exercising, she is more likely to develop a positive attitude towards exercising herself.

During tummy time, lay your baby on her stomach on the floor. This should be done when baby is awake, of course. Never lay a baby down to sleep on her stomach, as this has been shown to contribute to the risk of SIDS. Ideally, you should lie down on the floor with your baby. Typically, babies will kick, move their arms and try to raise their heads when they are on their tummies. All of these things help baby to develop muscles.

From the time baby is about one month old, you can help her exercise by laying her on the floor on her back and offering your fingers to her. Most babies at that age will grip your finger in their hands. When baby has a good grip, lift your hands to flex her arm muscles. Make sure that you don’t actually life baby off the floor, but bring her arms up as high as you can without picking her up.

Another exercise you can do with baby, starting at three or four months is the “bicycle” This is similar to the adult exercise. You lay baby on her back, grasp an ankle in each hand and gently push and pull her legs in a round motion, similar to pedaling a bicycle. When you’re done, baby will typically continue kicking her feet. Encourage her to continue doing so, as this helps build muscles she will need later for crawling.

When baby is 5 months old, you can lay her on her back and encourage her to grip your fingers like you did when she was an infant. Now, however, you can pull her all the way up to a sitting position. Make sure baby has a good grip on your fingers, though. Alternately, you could hold her wrists.

As baby starts crawling, and later walking, make sure that you have plenty of space for her to explore. Try to give them plenty of clean floor space to move around on and let them go. Most babies of that age will get plenty of exercise if given the opportunity to explore their surroundings.