Positive Attention: Overcoming Obstacles

The joy of bringing your baby home is indescribable. Everyone is busy paying attention to his needs and demands. It is quite natural to see, a newborn get more attention as compared to grown up kids. However as days pass, this attention is shared by the daily chores and other things become more important. But you need to remember that positive attention is key to the healthy development of newborns. The more you are attached to your little one, the more he feels secure and loved.

If you are the key caregiver of your baby, you need to ensure that your baby gets all the attention he deserves. At times, various obstacles to positive attention develop out of the mundane demands of regular life. These problems may hinder your care and love towards your newborn. This, in no way, means that you love your child any lesser than before, but just that you may be falling short to show your love to him.

Obstacles To Positive Attention and Solutions To Overcome Them

Possibilities that might pose a challenge to positive attention include:

1. Working Mothers

Situation: Many women are working mothers nowadays. They need to join their work a few days or months after childbirth. By this time, the baby is not grown-up enough to handle the absence of his mother. Long absence of mother makes the newborn moody, nagging, and insecure.

Solution: A working mother has to chalk out her day wisely. Most of the work places allow new moms to have a nursing time. Take out time to attend to your baby at least twice a day during the working hours. No matter if the duration of meeting time with your baby is short, but your sight and company will surely soothe him to a significant extent. Talk in a sing-song voice with him, cuddle him, play with him, and comfort him by taking him in your lap whenever you are close to your little one.

2. Stress

Situation: A mother may face stress in her life, be it work related or family related stress, ailments, or just any kind of stress that might lead to a situation, whereby it is difficult to attend to the baby. You might be losing temper often, and showing anger to the little one.

Solution: Do not show temper or anger to your child, do not speak with him harshly, and do not ever hit him. Whatever be the cause of trouble, first of all try to divert your mind away from it while you are in the company of your newborn. Take a deep breath, and try to understand that your baby needs you and he can’t understand why you could be reacting the way you are. These are very crucial months of your child’s life when you cannot leave him alone. Be with your baby, love him as much as you can. All your stress will melt away naturally.

3. You Don’t Quite Feel Happy

Situation: There may be times when you are in a bad mood and do not feel like playing with your baby or smiling at him. You may be caught up in your thoughts and forget to pay much attention to the little one and his needs.

Solution: It is normal to be in a bad mood at times. This does not mean that you are a bad parent or you do not love your baby. You can’t always be peppy and cheerful. Give yourself a break and spend some time alone till you feel like bouncing back and cuddling your baby.

4. Health Issues

Situation: Sometimes your health may not allow you to shower all the love and affection on your baby. You may be feeling low and do not want your little one to catch the infection.

Solution: Ensure that you take good care of yourself while managing your home and taking care of the baby. If you fall sick, your entire routine can get dishevelled. Maintain a healthy lifestyle so that you can be there for your child when he needs you.

5. Relationship Problems

Situation: If you had a tiff with your partner or a relative or you hit a rough patch in other relationships that matter to you, it may a take a toll on bonding with your little one. You may not be able to focus on your baby as you will probably be upset and emotionally drained.

Solution: As soon as you become parents, you are burdened with a lot of responsibilities including financial, emotional and physical requirements. It is important for each partner in every relationship to understand the difficulties of the other individual and offer support in all possible ways. Don’t keep things bottled-up, but talk them out as soon as you can. The faster you deal with these emotional problems, the quicker you’ll be able to come back to your baby with a happy and relaxed mind.

So don’t pressurise yourself, just tend to your newborn’s needs in a positive manner and spend quality time with him. This way your baby will feel loved and wanted and will grow happy and healthily.