The baby's first year
Sleep, growth, development and vaccines after the newborn period.
Care topics 4
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During the first year babies start to learn skills they will use all their lives: moving, using their hands, sensing, communicating and playing with others. Babies do not all develop at the same...
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Clinicians use growth charts to see how a baby or young child is growing. In the United States, CDC advises clinicians to use the WHO growth charts for children younger than 24 months. The WHO charts...
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How and where a baby sleeps affects the risk of sudden infant death and other sleep-related deaths. NICHD's Safe to Sleep campaign advises putting babies on their backs for every sleep, on a firm...
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Vaccines teach the body's defences to recognise harmful germs before a baby meets them. Babies get routine vaccines at well-child visits on a schedule, and in the United States CDC publishes that...
Conditions 3
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RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) is a common virus that usually causes a cold. In babies it can cause serious lung infections. Nearly all children catch RSV by age 2. There is no specific treatment...
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Sometimes a baby younger than one year dies suddenly and unexpectedly. When a full investigation finds no cause, the death is called sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Safe sleep steps can lower...
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Whooping cough is a very contagious infection that causes coughing fits. It can be especially serious in babies who have not had the vaccine. In babies the early signs can be different: they may...
Drugs 2
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A long-acting antibody against RSV, given to babies as an injection to help prevent severe RSV lung illness. In the MELODY trial it lowered RSV lung infections that needed medical attention in...
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The vaccine substance in Abrysvo: stabilised RSV prefusion F proteins of the A and B types in one vaccine. It is the substance tested in the MATISSE trial.
Fronts 2
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Pages about how care is organised: visit schedules, guidelines, campaigns, networks and the checks after leaving hospital.
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Pages about helping a newborn stay warm, breathe and feed, from help with the first breaths to breastfeeding.
Interventions 2
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A single RSV vaccine injection given to a pregnant person so that her baby is protected from serious RSV lung illness after birth. In the MATISSE trial the vaccine lowered severe RSV illness in...
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A Tdap vaccine (tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough) given to a pregnant person so that her baby has some protection against whooping cough in the first months of life. A US study of babies...
Products 3
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A vaccine against RSV made by Pfizer. In the United States FDA approved it in August 2023 for pregnant individuals at 32 through 36 weeks of pregnancy, to protect infants from birth through 6 months...
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A brand-name injection of the RSV antibody nirsevimab. FDA approved it in July 2023. The current US label covers newborns and infants in their first RSV season, and some children up to 24 months who...
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A bassinet with a swaddle-style Sleep Sack that clips to the bassinet to keep a baby on the back during sleep, with sound and motion. In 2023 FDA authorised it for babies from birth to 6 months who...
Technologies 1
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The WHO growth charts for children from birth to 5 years. They show how healthy children grow when they are breastfed and raised in conditions that do not hold growth back. CDC advises US clinicians...
Guidelines 1
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CDC's 2010 report advising US clinicians to use the 2006 international growth charts for children younger than 24 months and to keep its own growth charts for ages 2 to 19 years.
Publications 1
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The 2006 paper that explains how the WHO Child Growth Standards were built and presents the growth charts for children from birth to 5 years.
Studies 3
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A large international trial of an RSV vaccine given to pregnant women, with illness in their babies as the main outcome. Women were randomly given the vaccine or a placebo (a dummy injection). The...
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A large international trial in which healthy babies born at 35 weeks or later received one injection of the RSV antibody nirsevimab or a placebo before an RSV season. The antibody lowered RSV lung...
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A study in six countries of healthy breastfed children's growth. The study followed children from birth to 24 months and also measured a separate group aged 18 to 71 months. Its data were used to...
Resources 1
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The US public education campaign, led by NICHD, that teaches parents, caregivers and health workers how to lower the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related infant deaths. It offers free materials...
Reading paths 1
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A suggested reading order for a baby's first year: feeding, sleep, growth checks, milestones, and vaccines. It is a reading order, not medical advice and not a care plan.