HAVING A BABY IS EXCITING—and watching your bundle of joy grow into a little being with their own personality is
fun, wonderful, and stressful all at once. While fulfilling, parenting is a job that doesn't come with a manual, and new
moms and dads often turn to friends and family for sage advice. Though well-meaning, recommendations for raising a
strong and healthy baby have changed greatly throughout the years, and what was good for a baby 20 years ago may
not hold the same value today.
Here, we debunk some common first-year myths with straight-up facts—and let you know when you can expect certain
behaviors in your baby's development.
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M Y T H : EXCESSIVE CRYING IS BAD.
FAC T: Babies cry—a lot. On average, newborns cry for about two hours each day (not consecutively). At the newborn
stage, crying is a baby's way of communicating. Crying may signal that the baby is hungry, tired, overstimulated, too hot
or cold, or needs to be burped or changed. During the first months, parents may begin to identify different cries for
different needs: a "nah" cry for hunger and a "wah" cry for a dirty diaper, for example.
M I L E S T O N E : Keep cool. Most newborns reach a crying peak at about six weeks, and then it starts to decrease. By
three months, they usually only cry for about an hour a day.
Ra i s i n g L i t t l e s
First-year
milestone
myths versus
facts.
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