Baby Care/Infant Care - Traditional method

Following my previous post about the Postnatal care for woman, the most interesting and challenging task is to handle is the infant. We would not know for what reason the baby is crying. Sometimes, the baby will behave restless.  I want to share few tips for the visitors first.

Avoid visiting the infant’s house at least for a month. When you go to the infant’s house, wash your legs, hands with soap. It’s better not to lift the infant at least for three months even if you are good at handling infants. Unless, it is necessary for those who shower the baby it is always better to avoid having physical touch with the baby. The baby will be very tender in all aspects. The immunity level is very low. The baby will undergo pain over the body while handled by many people. Any unknown infection the visitor has might get passed on to the infant.  Do not give money (rupee notes | dollars) in the baby's hand. As the money is handled by many people it is highly infectious. Give the money if you want to offer as gift to the mother and not to the baby. Also the mother and the infant require lot of rest at this stage. We can convey our wishes to the family members; inform them the reason for not visiting during the early stage. Nowadays, the doctors also advise the same to the family, which they find it difficult to tell their friends and relatives.

Kuli Murai for Boy and Girl Babies:

The turn to shower a girl baby (oil Bath) is on even days calculated from the date of Birth. However, initially after Punniyavachanam the turn starts on 13^th day followed by 15, 18, 22, 25, 28^th day and then alternate days.

The date when the woman gets eligible to enter the kitchen as per our traditions is on the 45th day for a girl baby. This we call as “ Satti thoduradhu “. On this day the woman will take head bath and go to kitchen formally touch the containers in which Salt, Rice and Tamarind are stored.

For the boy babies the turn to shower is on odd days.  It starts from 13^th day followed by 15, 17, 21, 23, 25, 28^th day and then on odd counts.

The family members are not allowed to go to temple or attend functions conduct any functions for 10 days if it is a boy baby and 3 days for a girl baby.  This we call as “Purundu”. Few people don’t take food in the house till the completion of this duration.

The medicines that our ancestors used to give to the baby those days includes Sukku, Sitharathai, Vasambu, Kadukkai,  Jadhikkai, Masikkai . These items are bought before the delivery. All these are washed and then put in milk and boiled for 15 minutes. Then take it out and allow it to dry completely in shade and not under sun. Usually it is dried inside the house and it takes a minimum of 15 days to get this dried properly. Keep it in a dry container.

On the day when the baby is given oil bath as per the above mentioned days these 6 medicinal valued items are slightly rubbed in a Sandal wood using mother’s milk and fed to the baby.

If the baby seems to have Stomach upset then the sukku is rubbed once in addition and added to the mixture. Similarly when there is sore throat Sitharathai is added, for Constipation kadukkai is added a bit more, when the baby is not Sleeping properly jathikkai and masikkai are used in addition. Vasambu  is usually added very less since it might induce stammering if used beyond the normal level.

The baby’s clothes are preferred to be washed by hands and by someone at home.  The clothes should  be washed and gently squeezed. Over squeezing is usually not preferred. The clothes are dried under shade and not under direct sun for a long time. Especially should not be exposed under open area after 5.30 PM.

The babies are also not allowed to be taken outside after 6 PM. I have had bad experience personally when I took the baby outside after 6 PM. The baby used to cry during night and gets upset. It is very tough to bring back the baby to normalcy.

Our grandmothers used to apply oil (preferably olive oil) over the baby’s body and take the baby under sun early in the morning around 7 AM. This is good for the baby and naturally allows the baby to get vitamin D. 

In olden days, we didn’t have the store bought food. Hence we used to prepare food at home for the kids and the ingredients depend on the age of the baby.

Usually for the first six months only Mothers milk is provided. The mothers should not compromise in terms of the posture for feeding. She has to sit and feed the baby and keep the baby on the shoulder till you hear a burp. Only then the baby is allowed to sleep. Otherwise the milk consumed might get vomited.

After 6 months the baby would require additional food. Usually the first food is very light since the child’s digestive system should adapt to the new food. At this stage Old Boiled rice 200 grams, 50 grams of fried gram, 1/2 tablespoon of Ajwain and sukku 1 pinch are mixed and grind nicely in a rice mill.

Then this soft flour is mixed in water. Initially once half spoon of this flour is added to 100 ml of water and boiled for 3 minutes till the flour gets cooked well. This can fed with a spoon. Slowly monitor the kids adaptiveness to the food (check the digestion, likeliness of taste). Then the consistency can be increased by adding flour.

When the 8^th month starts boil the vegeatables like carrot, beans, potato, toor dall and add little bit Rasam and ghee. Smash everything using a heavy ladle and feed the baby. 

At this stage, we can add Wheat, Moong dhal to the home made Rice mixture.

From 9 months we can give Sathu maavu in kanchi consistency can be given or in semi solid consistency adding ghee and sugar. Both my sons never had store bought food.  My Mil and my Mom brought up the kids by giving the above mentioned homemade food only.

Also refer my sisters website for Baby Food Recipe Ideas 

Hope this lengthy post was interesting and useful.