Crying is the only form of communication that the baby has. When he still can't express himself in words, he communicates through nonverbal language. He will tell us that he likes something with a smile and that he dislikes something with crying. It is usually associated with something negative, but crying is a claim, a way of saying "I need your help."
We wonder then, Why can't a baby's cry be ignored (nor should it be)?. Just as we don't ignore someone who comes to talk to us, much less can we ignore the crying of a baby who can't stand alone.
The crying of a baby generates a powerful response in people's brains. A recent study by the University of Oxford has shown, from a scientific point of view, why it is really impossible to ignore the cry of a baby, even in people who have no children.
When both an adult man and a woman hear a baby cry, instantaneously, long before hearing the cry of an adult or an animal, two regions of the brain are activated that are involved with the emotional response.
One is the middle temporal region, an area involved in emotional processing and speech, the other area is the orbitofrontal cortex, an area known for its role in rewarding and processing emotions.
The sound produced by the crying of a baby is something that captures attention in a way that few other sounds can do. It makes us alert. Therefore, it is impossible to sleep on a plane when a child is crying, for example.
It is activated in adults a response to the survival instinct, since crying is the baby's way of expressing that he is facing a dangerous situation, whether he is hungry, cold, hot or needs the protection of mom's arms.
The impossibility of ignoring the crying of a baby is therefore linked to a primary reaction, unconscious. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't block that answer, because our brain says that helpless baby needs to be treated.
Calm baby crying
Of course, the cry of a baby should not be neglected. He is telling us through crying that he needs something and not responding to that mechanism has physiological and, of course, psychological consequences, such as being ignored in his basic needs and feeling that not even his parents, his protectors, are able to comfort him.
The first thing to do is try to recognize the reason for the baby's crying. When we meet our baby, we already know how to distinguish when she cries out of hunger, from sleep, because her triplet hurts or for whatever reason.
Even so, sometimes, even if your basic food, sleep and shelter needs are covered, the baby may still cry. Most of the time it is due to the need for physical contact, since the little one needs our warmth and our protection. Therefore, the first option is to take it in your arms.
There are also other ways to calm the baby's crying like wrapping around her body with a soft blanket with her arms and legs inside the cooing, balancing it, using white noise or putting it on her chest, since even if she isn't hungry with sucking, don't Nutritious the baby feels comforted.
