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What Does Your Baby’s Cry Mean?

 

Today, I have some simple yet very profound advice I received from my own mother years ago.

You know those times when someone else is holding your baby, she starts crying, they hand the baby back and say, “well she must be hungry”. My question is this… Is hunger the only thing a baby has the ability to communicate?

A newborn baby has one form of communication and that form just happens to be crying.

In my experience, that can mean several things such as, pain, tiredness, hunger, the need for physical comfort, boredom.

What do you think would happen to a child if whenever it presents a need to its parent the only response is food. “Oh so you are sad? Here’s a cracker. Enjoy!” “You need to go to the bathroom? Here’s a slice of pizza. Have fun with that!” “You hurt your finger? How about a cookie?” You get the point.

When a newborn is crying, it does not necessarily mean she needs to be fed. But how would you know that?

Here’s one answer.

Know your baby’s cry. Study it. Learn it.

Let me tell you something. You will not always know what your baby is trying to communicate, but you can take steps to become more familiar with what she is trying to tell you.

How do you do this you ask? Its simple really. Listen. Listen to how she is crying and then mentally record what the correct solution to the problem was.

Lets say you lay her down for her nap and she begins crying. Many things could be happening. For instance, she could be tired and just soothing herself to sleep. She could be hungry. She could have a poopy diaper.

Investigate a bit. Let her cry for a while and see if she falls asleep. Check her diaper. But don’t assume that she must be hungry!

Nursing is not the solution for every problem, its just not.

In fact, it is simply unhealthy to respond to every problem with food as the answer. Lets begin to change the way you think about nursing. Nursing is for nourishment.

When you can understand that, then you will begin to understand how to recognize what your baby may be crying about. And who better to know the language of their child than you, their mom!

This is the first small step to communicating well with your child throughout their life: know your baby’s cry!

Have a blessed day Mama!

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