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.

As parents, we naturally wonder about when our babies are going to hit certain developmental milestones. In addition, we’re anxious to get to the point where our babies can communicate their needs, perform certain actions like feeding themselves and more. Each new skill that your baby learns is like a gift. Whether you’re talking about learning to crawl, developing fine motor skills, learning certain words or another type of milestone, every time your baby reaches one it is a time for celebration.

One of the milestones that parents often look forward to is sitting up. Some parents may worry if their baby isn’t sitting up after a few months. For the most part, your baby is going to work toward those developmental milestones at his own pace. If he doesn’t reach them as soon as another baby, it doesn’t mean he’s delayed. It just means that he’s not quite ready to start performing that particular task.

You need to communicate your concerns to your doctor when it comes to developmental milestones. For example, your doctor isn’t likely to be too worried if your baby is not yet sitting up at four months of age. Still, if your baby isn’t sitting up by about seven months of age, your doctor may want to do some developmental testing just to make sure that there’s not something preventing her from learning to sit up the way that she should.

There are many things that could interfere with your baby’s ability to sit up. There could be cognitive delays that make it so your baby doesn’t yet grasp the concept. There could be physical problems where moving into that position is painful, although there would likely be other signs if that were the case. It could even be that your baby just has a problem with muscle control and can’t yet make those muscles work in order to sit up.

There are a few things that you can do to help encourage your child to start to try to sit up. You can help him up, supporting him with your hands at first. Ultimately, however, your baby isn’t going to sit up until he is ready. For many parents, it’s a matter of waiting until that happens.

Being a parent isn’t always easy, and it’s almost never quiet. The fact of the matter is that, from the moment your baby is born, chances are pretty good you’re going to have to endure a certain amount of noise and crying. The worst part about it, for many parents, isn’t the lack of sleep that it can cause, but rather the fact that you just hate to see your little one out of sorts.

For those first few months of life, it’s always wise to respond to your baby’s cries at night. The fact of the matter is that her little tummy just doesn’t hold enough of that milk or formula to let her make it all the way through the night. She’s going to need to eat every few hours. Pick her up and feed her.

After those first few months, however, many babies will continue to wake up even if they’re not hungry or don’t need a diaper change. Your baby should be sleeping for longer stretches, and if he wakes up it’s often because he’s just feeling active and wants to continue practicing a new skill or experiencing the world around him.

There is some question as to whether you should let your baby cry it out or whether you should rush to pick her up. Really, this is a decision you need to make for yourself.

There are those parents who believe that you should pick a child up any time that he cries, and that this is a sign of love and attachment between you and your baby.  This philosophy is part of something called “attachment parenting,” and many trusted experts advocate for its principles.

Other experts believe that you should allow your baby to cry for at least a couple of minutes before you attend to her. They suggest that, given a few minutes, most babies will learn to soothe themselves and that by rushing in to soothe them you create a situation in which they don’t learn to soothe themselves.

Ultimately, you need to decide what’s right for you and what works for your family.