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Chandigarh, June 20, 2020 :
Dr. Chetan Ginigeri
Father’s Day, observed on the third Sunday of June every year and is a great opportunity to honour and recognise the contributions which fathers make to the lives of their children.
Fathers have a crucial role, particularly in the cognitive, behavioural, general health, and overall well-being of their children’s lives. A Child model themselves on the behaviour and practices of his/her father and hence, fathers not only have responsibility towards themselves but also their children as they are being watched.
Therefore, in order to encourage healthy habits among their family members and their children, modern day fathers can adopt following habits on this father’s day to ensure the health and wellbeing of their family :
- Healthy diet, moderate exercise and good sleep forms the cornerstone.
- Alcoholism, smoking and substance abuse among dads can lead to mirror babies with similar issues.
- Stress is a very important factor in working dads – they need to be mindful and intentional about resolving and coping with it. This prevents the transfer of anxiety to the children.
Additional inputs on the challenges which new age fathers face while managing a new born child during the corona crisis :
Due to the breakdown of joint family structure, most of the new age fathers these days have little to no experience in managing their first baby. There is usually a learning curve while managing your first baby and it usually takes time for the respond and bond with its parents.
Amid the corona crisis, a mother and child relationship can go through a lot of anxiety and loneliness which can also lead to resentment towards the baby. Hence, during such trying times, it is important for new age fathers to actively participate in child care activities and adopt mindful practices which can not only help the mother in overcoming the stress and anxiety issues, but can will also strengthen the child’s bond with both the parents. Fathers need to realise that their child depends on them for 3 Ls – Love, Laughter & Learning. Therefore, in order to harmonize a baby’s arrival into the family and graduate it into a happy toddler fathers can adopt the following practices –
- Get hands-on from the beginning: Helping with feeding, diaper changes, taking turns to make baby sleep
- Learn your baby’s cues: respond better through touch and talking to the baby
- Help Mum with Breastfeeding: holding the baby, getting an additional pillow or a glass of water
- Read up, get help, interact positively with Mum and help her through this.
Author :Dr. Chetan Ginigeri, Lead Consultant – Paediatrics & Paediatric Intensive Care, Aster CMI Hospital
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