Baby's cries: Dealing with the enigma
In order to communicate their needs to their parents, babies just have one way to converse, crying. Most often parents are led to believe that not attending to their baby’s cries can make them a strong grown up individual. Working on the advice of a third person, not even concerned with the baby, parents take the erroneous step of desensitizing themselves. By doing this they miss the chance to communicate with the baby. Here are a few tips for you to learn how to deal with your baby’s cries.
1. Do not desensitize yourself
Turning a deaf ear to your baby’s cries can widen the gap between you and your baby. Baby cries as he/she believes that his/her needs would be taken care of. The crying is not for seeking attention but just to caution the parents about something which is uncomfortable. At times, baby might just cry a little as he/she would want to communicate with the parents. However, ignoring the cries of the baby thinking he/she shouldn’t be hungry at this time is like imposing your perception on the baby. Desensitizing yourself would make the baby lose trust in this mode of communication.
2. Respond immediately
When you hear your baby cry, contrary to most beliefs, it is a good idea to respond immediately. Research shows that babies who are attended immediately by their parents, don’t consider crying as, a communication means, when they grow up. While the babies whose parents turn a deaf year, treat crying as an attention seeking tool as they grow. If the baby is taken care of with a light crying sound, he/she would know that his/her needs are well addressed and next time the cry would be softer. Not attending the baby immediately can imply sending the baby into physiological and psychological distress with abnormal heart rate and low oxygen levels in blood.
3. Communication link
Crying is the only language the infant knows. The sound of crying might be ear piercing and sometimes irritating but that is how the kid can communicate. The only way a kid can call his/her parents is through crying. By ignoring the cries of the baby, you would just be closing the communication link the child is trying to nurture.
4. Biological connection
The mother has a natural tendency to pick up the baby and nurse when the baby cries. It has been established through various studies, that when a baby cries the blood flow to mother’s breast increases and thus it becomes impossible for the mother to ignore the cries of the baby. Also, when the mother breastfeeds the baby her tension regarding the baby is released.
5. Regular communication
When the baby cries, listen and respond. By communicating now and then, you can make the tiny brain pick up particular responses helping him/her to become more precise in the signals the baby gives out.
