Baby Care

One in seven Indian babies is born early. The road is longer and the fear is real — but preterm care is one of the great success stories of modern medicine, and much of what helps most is done by the parents themselves.

Malish, ghutti, gripe water, kajal, honey on the tongue. Most Indian babies meet ayurveda in their first month. Some of it is lovely and some of it puts babies in hospital, and the difference is not obvious from the outside.

Malish is one Indian tradition modern medicine broadly applauds — touch, warmth and attention, daily. Here is how to do it well: the oils, the strokes, the safety rules, and the myths gently retired.

Everything about it changes within days of the first spoon, and almost all of the alarming-looking results are normal. Three colours are not.

Newborns spent nine months in a body that was still at night and moving all day. Their internal clock arrives late, and it can be nudged.

A baby's bath is the household's favourite ritual and a first-time parent's most nervous ten minutes. Here is the safe routine, the honest frequency answer, and the rules that never bend.

Feeding a baby to sleep is normal, biological and not a mistake. It becomes worth changing only when it stops working for the family.

Almost every baby brings milk back up, and almost none of them need medicine for it. Here is the line between a laundry problem and a medical one.

Chickenpox is usually a miserable week rather than a dangerous illness — as long as the itch is managed, the wrong medicines are avoided, and the danger signs are known.

You will see this doctor more than almost anyone else in the first two years. Choosing on convenience alone is how families end up with a chemist's counter for a clinic.

Some babies cry for hours every evening for no findable reason. It peaks at six weeks, ends by four months, and nearly kills the parents in between. Here is the honest survival guide.

Red eyes go round Indian schools every year. Most of it is viral and self-limiting — and a few eye problems in childhood are genuinely time-sensitive.

Most childhood constipation is not a diet problem — it starts with one painful stool and becomes a habit of holding on. Breaking that cycle is the whole treatment.

A small child catches six to eight colds a year, and every one of them is treated at home. Here is what actually helps, what to keep out of the house, and the breathing signs that change everything.

Diarrhoea is still one of the biggest killers of Indian children under five — and the treatment that prevents almost all of those deaths costs a few rupees and sits in every chemist's shop. Here is how to use it.

The instinct in almost every Indian household is to add a layer. Overheating is more common and more dangerous than being slightly cool, and the check takes two seconds.

A child who wakes screaming and pulls at one ear is a scene most Indian parents recognise. Here is what is happening and what actually helps.

Karnavedha is done in most Indian families, often in the first year. The tradition is fine; the hygiene is where it goes wrong.

Three parts of a baby that families traditionally clean the most and that actually need the least. Here is the safe routine — and the short list of things that should never go in.

One rule before everything else: fever in a baby under three months old means the hospital the same day — no home remedies, no waiting for morning. For older babies, here is the calm, complete guide.

Blisters on the hands, feet and inside the mouth, a miserable child who will not eat, and a playschool that has sent three notes. Usually harmless, and the risk is dehydration.

How a child falls asleep at bedtime is how they will expect to be resettled at 2 a.m. Change the first and the second usually follows.

Most Indian school children are an hour short of sleep, every night, and it shows as behaviour and concentration rather than as yawning.

Newborns are less fragile than they look and there are two things that genuinely matter: the head, and never shaking.

Measles is not a routine childhood rash. It still kills children in India every year, and almost every one of those deaths is in an unvaccinated child.

A child who suddenly refuses food and drools is usually telling you their mouth hurts. Here is how to tell ulcers from thrush, and what to do about each.

Nearly every baby gets nappy rash at some point, and nearly all of it clears with the same four steps. Here they are — plus an honest look at cloth versus disposable in an Indian climate.

Several things that look alarming in a newborn are caused by the mother's hormones and pass within weeks. A small number are not, and those have a clear list.

Blood in a nappy, black stool after the first days, or pale chalky stool all need a doctor. Everything else on this page is almost always ordinary.

Newborn skin arrives wrinkled, peeling and blotchy, then settles. Here is what each of those looks like, the two-minute care routine that is all it needs, and the customs to retire.

A newborn sleeps sixteen hours a day and somehow nobody in the house sleeps at all. Here is what is normal, the short list of safety rules that are non-negotiable, and how the first three months actually get survived.

Go now, do not wait for morning, and do not wait to see if it settles. This page leads with the list because that is what it is for.

Hygiene is a set of habits handed over gradually. Here is what a child can manage at each age, and the ones that matter most for illness.

Most of what reduces this risk is about the surface, the temperature and the position. Swaddling helps some babies and becomes dangerous at a specific point.

Twenty teeth arrive between roughly six months and three years, most of them without drama. Here is the timetable, the safe relief, and the important list of things teething gets blamed for but does not cause.

New parents in India are sold a very long list. This is the shorter one that covers everything a newborn actually needs.

Nothing in the first year protects your baby like the vaccine card. Here is the whole first-year schedule made plain — what happens at each visit, why each dose matters, and how the government and private schedules fit together.

The two-to-one nap transition is the messiest of all of them, and rushing it produces a fortnight of a very unhappy baby.

Newborns do a great many alarming things, almost all of them normal. Here is the list, sorted honestly into 'ignore it', 'mention it at the next visit', and 'go today'.

Typhoid is one of the illnesses where the treatment is straightforward and the mistakes are common — a half-finished antibiotic course is how it comes back.

Keep it clean and dry, and put nothing on it. The traditional applications are the main reason newborns develop cord infections in India.

Most vomiting is a stomach bug that ends in a day. The danger is not the vomiting itself — it is the fluid that leaves with it.

A baby who sleeps beautifully in your arms and screams the moment they touch the mattress is not being difficult. They are doing exactly what a newborn is built to do.

Sweat, dust and a hot climate push Indian families toward daily shampooing, and daily shampooing is what leaves the hair dry, frizzy and worse. Here is the balance.

Hundred strokes a night is a Victorian instruction that ruins textured hair. Here is what brushing actually does, how often it is needed, and how to detangle without a fight.

A five-year-old brushing alone is a five-year-old wetting a brush. Hands are not ready for the job until around seven, and the decay that follows is entirely preventable.

Early waking is the hardest sleep problem to shift, and the most common fix is the one that sounds most wrong: an earlier bedtime.

Worm infestation is common in Indian children, easily treated, and quietly costly — it drains iron, appetite and concentration long before anyone notices.