If The Baby Cries

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Dear mothers, little children, do you know how important crying is for your baby? No, I'm not at all in favor of making children cry! But I am in favor of not panicking at the sight of a crying child and not taking this desperate, often prolonged cry as a sign of my incompetence.

I often hear from young mothers complaints that the baby cried for half an hour, or even all night, and panic and confusion are heard in their voices. And I've seen moms call the ambulance if the baby cries for more than 40 minutes. But what can I say - I myself was once a young inexperienced mother who cried night after night with her desperately crying baby and died of guilt in front of him.

Nobody told me then, 20 years ago, that the best way to help a baby is. first of all, calm down yourself.

Then, alas, I did not know that the psyche of a small child is still in the process of formation. He is just learning to capture and express his emotions.

The most important instinct - the survival instinct - forces the baby to notice the negative things first. Negative (hunger, cold, pain) can be dangerous, life threatening. Therefore, it is so important for the crumbs to quickly eliminate these factors. And he screams desperately, calling for help from his mother or other adults.

He does not reproach you with his cry! He simply informs that he is uncomfortable (or even bad) and asks for help!

As the mental processes improve, the child will begin to capture positive emotions, and then express them with a smile, a look, new sounds and laughter. But crying will be an important signaling component for a long time to come.

Research in the psychology and physiology of babies confirms that the crying of a baby during the first months of life performs the following important tasks:

- signals the presence of negative (uncomfortable or dangerous factors), that is, reflects the negative emotions of the baby;

- is a means of communication with adults - the crying child attracts your attention and tries to communicate something important (and this is important - not always pain, hunger or physical discomfort, often it is a desire to be closer to you, to understand that he is not alone)

- is a way of interactive interaction - through a whole series of sounds (from whimpering to screaming), the child interacts with the adult, reacting to his action and what is happening around. He tells you what his state (sensations, emotions) is right now, at the moment.

- is a physiological mechanism on the basis of which speech will begin to form in the future, that is, with the help of crying, the child learns to control the sounds he makes. Gradually, he learns to be aware of these sounds, to publish them in different cases in different keys and with different loudness, to put a certain meaning and emotions into them.

In other words, the cry of your baby is, first of all, a way of communicating with you. And the first thing to do when a baby cries is to start interacting with him: talk, ask, try to understand and eliminate the cause of his discomfort. Despite the fact that the child cannot yet fully respond, he attentively listens to your speech, catches intonations, identifies the emotions embedded in words and, as best he can, reacts to them with different sounds. He cries - you are talking, while eliminating the cause of discomfort or pain.

By crying, he tells you that you NEED him, and not at all that you are a bad mother! The moment you approached him, grabbed him, smile, explain the possible reason for his bad mood and say in a calm voice that this is temporary and will definitely pass - you are the best mother in the world, because you help him cope, adapt, survive discomfort.

The younger the baby, the more reasons he may have for discomfort and anxiety. And sometimes, for a long time, it is not possible to eliminate the cause of the pain, for example, cramps in the tummy. But this is not a reason to feel guilty, it is a reason to be as close to your child as possible and give him maximum support during this period.