The Newborn Weeks
The fourth trimester is a framing, not a diagnosis, and it helps anyway
The idea that a newborn spends three months finishing something it started inside is not a clinical category. It is a way of…
Shalu Prasad
Editor, My John Baby
Shalu edits My John Baby and checks every piece for anything that reads as medical advice.
Contact Shalu through our contact page — mark your message for their attention and it will be passed on.
34 articles
The Newborn Weeks
Nobody warns you about the two-week visitor wave
Everyone who wants to meet the baby wants to meet it at roughly the same time, and that time is the fortnight you are least able to…
The Newborn Weeks
The first fortnight at home is a logistics problem nobody set up for you
Almost none of the difficulty in the first two weeks is about the baby. It is about a household that was arranged for two competent…
The Newborn Weeks
Crying often peaks in the early weeks before it eases
Crying in many babies increases over the first weeks, reaches a high point and then declines. Almost nobody is told this in…
The Newborn Weeks
Nappy changes take four minutes on day three and forty seconds by week six
The nappy change is the most repeated task of the first year, and almost all of the speed comes from layout and sequence rather…
The Newborn Weeks
The paperwork of a new baby, and why nobody does it in week one
A birth generates registration, benefits, leave, insurance and identity documents in most countries. All of it lands in the…
The Newborn Weeks
Leaving the house with a newborn takes ninety minutes the first time
The first outing with a baby bears no resemblance to the twentieth. Almost all of the difference is preparation that can be done…
Sleep
Newborn sleep comes in short blocks, and the range between babies is enormous
Total sleep, block length and how it is spread across a day vary so widely between newborns that averages are close to useless.…
Sleep
The four-month sleep change, and why regression is the wrong word for it
Sleep frequently gets harder somewhere around the middle of the first year, and it is usually described as a regression. The…
Looking After Parents
Recovery after birth is a matter of time and rest, not willpower
The body that gave birth needs weeks of actual recovery, and the household usually schedules none. Treating it as a practical…
Feeding
What a feed actually costs in time, and why the arithmetic surprises people
Nobody counts the hours before the baby arrives. Multiplying a single feed by the number in a day explains most of why the first…
Feeding
Feeding in public: the practical version rather than the political one
Most of the writing on this subject is about rights and attitudes. The thing parents actually need is where to sit, what to wear…
Feeding
Expressing is a separate skill with its own kit and its own learning curve
Expressing milk is not a shortcut to feeding, and it is not the same activity. It has its own equipment, its own timings and its…
Feeding
Allergen advice has changed more than once, so check the current version
Guidance on introducing common allergens has been revised substantially, which means confident advice from a relative may be a…
Growing & Milestones
A percentile describes a position, not a grade
Growth charts are among the most misread documents new parents encounter. The number is a location in a population, and almost…
Growing & Milestones
Sitting up is a balance problem the trunk solves over weeks
Sitting looks like a single achievement and is actually a gradual accumulation of trunk strength and balance reactions. That is why…
Growing & Milestones
Peekaboo stops being boring the week memory arrives
The moment a game about disappearance becomes funny is the moment a baby starts holding onto things that are no longer in front of…
Growing & Milestones
The first tooth arrives whenever it arrives, and the spread is enormous
Some babies are born with a tooth and some reach their first birthday without one, and both are ordinary. Almost everything else…
Gear & Nursery
Decoding the washing symbols on very small clothes
Baby clothes arrive with labels that assume you can read a language nobody teaches. Getting it wrong once turns an expensive gift…
Gear & Nursery
Baby clothes sizing is measured in months and means nothing of the sort
A label saying three to six months describes a manufacturer's idea of a body, not an age. Buying by age is why half the wardrobe…
Gear & Nursery
The kit that never gets used, and why it sells so well
Every household ends up with a shelf of unused baby equipment. The pattern of what goes unused is consistent enough to predict…
Gear & Nursery
A nursery does not need to exist in the first six months
Decorating a room is one of the few enjoyable parts of preparing for a baby, and it is also the part with the least urgency…
Gear & Nursery
Baby monitors: what they do, what they do not, and the anxiety loop
A monitor is bought to reduce worry and frequently increases it. Understanding what the device can actually tell you is the…
Gear & Nursery
Slings and carriers: the fit matters more than the brand
A carrier that suits your body and your baby is transformative, and one that does not sits in a cupboard. Almost nothing about that…
Gear & Nursery
Highchairs, bibs and the state of the floor under a weaning baby
Weaning generates an amount of mess that nobody describes honestly in advance. Most of the equipment decisions are really decisions…
Gear & Nursery
Borrowing, secondhand and what is safe to take from a friend
Most baby equipment is used briefly and passed on in good condition. A short list of exceptions is where the caution actually…
Looking After Parents
Accepting help without feeling useless
Offers of help arrive in volume and most of them go unused. The obstacle is rarely the offer and almost always the parent's…
Looking After Parents
Two adults will keep score, and there is a better system than counting
Every household with a new baby ends up comparing contributions, usually silently and usually inaccurately. The fix is not fairness…
Looking After Parents
What weeks of broken sleep do to an adult, and what helps a little
Sustained sleep disruption is not just tiredness. Knowing roughly what it does explains a great deal of behaviour that otherwise…
Looking After Parents
In the first six weeks the freezer is the entire catering strategy
Two exhausted adults will not cook, and takeaway becomes expensive and depressing within a fortnight. Food prepared in advance is…
Looking After Parents
Postnatal mood: who asks, who to tell, and why waiting helps nobody
Mood difficulties after a birth are common, recognised and treatable. Almost everything that makes them worse is connected to how…
Looking After Parents
The household admin that quietly stops, and the three parts that matter
Everything administrative pauses when a baby arrives, and most of it can pause indefinitely without consequence. A short list…
Looking After Parents
Leaving the house alone for the first time
The first outing without the baby is a small event that almost everybody finds strange. Planning it deliberately works considerably…
Looking After Parents
Money in the first year: what changes, and when it changes
The financial shape of a first year is uneven rather than steadily expensive. Knowing where the costs cluster makes the whole thing…