Babies are born with a brain which is about one quarter the size of an adult brain. They will make connections and increase their brain size as they learn more about the world around them. Initially the limbic or primitive brain controls their actions. Babies have no experience to bring to the world other than the experiences within the womb and these have little relevance in the wider world.
The most interesting experience that babies have is a sense of the tastes of their mothers diet. While floating in the amniotic fluid, which is changed on a daily basis, they have some diluted taste of mum's diet delivered through this fluid. When the time comes to actually taste these foods, it can be the texture which is foreign rather than the flavour.
The things which soothed baby while in the womb will still soothe baby for the first few weeks in the wider world. These things are;-
The most interesting experience that babies have is a sense of the tastes of their mothers diet. While floating in the amniotic fluid, which is changed on a daily basis, they have some diluted taste of mum's diet delivered through this fluid. When the time comes to actually taste these foods, it can be the texture which is foreign rather than the flavour.
The things which soothed baby while in the womb will still soothe baby for the first few weeks in the wider world. These things are;-
- Being held, this can be actually holding baby or swaddling them to provide firm boundaries without the need for constant carrying/holding.
- Sound, baby has heard digestion, breathing, heartbeat and external noise through the abdominal wall. A world which is suddenly silent can be quite alarming.
- Sucking, baby may have been sucking hands, fingers or thumbs before birth and afterwards sucking is associated with feeding, feeling warm, full and comfortable.
- Movement baby has felt mum rise from sitting to standing, walking, going up and down stairs, so gentle up and down movement is also comforting.
- Skin to skin being skin to skin with a parent allows the baby to hear heartbeat and breathing of another person, smell a familiar and trusted carer and generally be comforted by not being alone.
Infants live in the moment. If they are cold, uncomfortable, or even just lonely, the only way they can tell us is to cry. To babies in the first two months of life, how they feel at this moment, is how life is always going to be. It takes about three or four months before the child learns that their actions result in their parents reaction. By six months babies can predict how their parents will react in some situations. They are starting to learn about routines then too. By six months babies know what particular event a chain of events should lead to. This can be something as simple as recognising that they are going to be fed, go out with mum for a walk, or put down for a nap. Routines are soothing they help the child to learn his/her place in the world.
Babies learn by repeated demonstration. Once they recognise a routine they also recognise what is expected of them. Changes need to be repeated a number of times to move these from the front of the brain, where this is an experience, to the back of the brain when this is a behaviour which is accepted as normal at the end of a chain of events. The number of times this demonstration has to occur to allow a new behaviour to become an accepted "norm" is individual. For some children it can be very quick, three to seven repetitions, other children take longer.
Babies need parents to be consistent during these repetitions. If you change your own reaction then you naturally, although sometimes inadvertently, alter your child's perception of what is required of them.
If you would like to learn more about altering your child's behaviour
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