How to understand what a baby wants by gestures and sounds

Remember the joke that the most difficult life for a mother with a child is the first 40 years? In fact, every mother of the first child will say that the most difficult are the first couple of months. No matter how you prepare for the appearance of the baby, at first he will seem to you as something like an alien. Why is he screaming? Why is he silent? Why does it bother with its legs? What is it trying to show? You will have to look for answers to these and a thousand more similar questions by trial and error.

To make life easier for a mom with a newborn baby, pediatricians have compiled a list of basic sounds and gestures that an infant uses to demonstrate her needs. The prompts will not always work with an accuracy of 100%, but in many situations this checklist will help you figure out what exactly the child needs at the moment.

Language of the body

Body language can reveal many of your baby's needs and concerns / photo moieptashenia.com

Baby's reflex movements can tell a lot about their well-being and needs. Pay close attention to your baby's body language and learn to interpret the most common baby gestures correctly:

He clenches his hands into fists. Relaxed and open palms indicate that the child is comfortable. But if he clenches his hands into fists - most likely, he is hungry. Noticing this sign in time and feeding the baby, you can avoid hungry crying. By the way, during the feeding process, you may notice how the baby's hands spontaneously unclench - this is a sign that he has satisfied his hunger.

Bends the back. In the first months of life, babies often bend in an "arc". At the age of two months, this sign indicates that the baby is worried about the tummy. If a child constantly arching his back after eating, it is quite possible that he has acid (or gastroesophageal) reflux: a phenomenon in which food from the stomach can be thrown back into the esophagus. For babies, this is considered the norm and passes as they grow up. Try to feed him more often, but less.

Also, arching the back before two months of age may indicate that the baby is having gas or colic. In this case, all that you can help the kid, Is to go through a difficult period with him. Often undress the baby and put it on you (the so-called skin-to-skin contact), wear it in your arms, sing songs and stroke your tummy.

Babies older than two months (when the colic stage has passed) arch their backs from fatigue or discontent. Analyze the situation - it may be time for your baby to sleep.

Presses the legs. This is another sign of abdominal discomfort caused by reflux, gas, or colic. Thus, the baby tries to reduce pain.

Pulls his ears. This gesture is often found in babies of the first and second months of life. With its help, the child simply studies his body. However, pay attention: if the movement is repeated often, and at the same time the baby is crying, it is possible that his ear hurts, and you need to see a doctor

Sharply throws up her hands. This gesture indicates that the child is frightened. There can be many reasons - a loud sound, a bright light, a sudden awakening from sleep, the sudden appearance of a familiar, and even more so, a stranger. In this case, take your baby in your arms and try to restore a sense of calmness to him.

Crying tongue

A baby has at least 12 different reasons for crying / photo moieptashenia.com

There are at least 12 reasons that can cause a baby to cry. You can read more about each of them. here. We will list the basic conditions that a baby can signal by crying. And yes, in each case, crying will be different in strength, intensity and tone.

Hungry crying. The first reason for a baby to cry is, of course, hunger. When the baby wants to eat, he makes special sounds: crying can begin with a whimper, followed by an increase in low and intermittent sounds. In this case, the child can smack his lips and twist his head in search of a breast.

Calling cry. A crying call occurs when a child wants to be picked up. At the very beginning, it is characterized by short episodes: the baby can cry for 5-10 seconds, then pauses in anticipation of someone coming up to him, and then cries again. If there is no reaction for a long time, such crying develops into continuous crying.

Sleepy crying. When a child is tired and wants to sleep, at first he makes sounds similar to displeased grunting. At the same time, he can arch his back, rub his eyes or fiddle with his ears. If he is not put to bed at this time, crying grows and can end in real hysteria, which speaks of overwork.

"Uncomfortable" crying. It happens that the baby is worried about a dirty diaper, he is too hot, clothes rubs his skin, or there are other reasons that give him discomfort. In this case, he will inform you about it with intermittent demanding cry. At the same time, he will spin, spin and demonstrate in every possible way that he is uncomfortable

Crying in pain. If the child is in pain, crying will be monotonous and continuous, with periodic intensification to hysterics. In this case, it is impossible to reassure the baby: at the moments when you take him in your arms, crying may become quieter, but it will not stop. Note that crying from pain does not have to be loud: a sick child may simply not have the energy to make loud sounds.

The language of sounds

Some of the baby's desires can be recognized by the sounds / photo moieptashenia.com

Only in the first few days will it seem to parents that the sounds that the baby makes are the same. Then the sensitive mother's ear can catch and distinguish up to several dozen of the most different sounds and tones with which the child grunts, gurgles and babbles. Australian researcher Priscilla Dunsten has compiled a kind of "baby dictionary". Mothers who tried it say that in 8 cases out of 10 everything fits together.

"Nya" ("not") - "I'm hungry." This sound precedes hungry crying and the phase of clenched fists. His baby begins to publish at the first sensation of hunger. The sound is generated by the sucking reflex when the child presses the tongue to the palate.

"Uh" ("ei") - "I will regurgitate." This sound is formed due to the fact that the child reflexively tries to push the excess air out of the esophagus. Hearing him, the mother should lift the baby vertically and position it so that his chin rests on her shoulder. This can make it easier for your baby to regurgitate.

"Heh" - "I'm uncomfortable." This sound resembles the grunt of an old man, and signals that the child is disturbed by some external factors. It can be a full diaper, cold or heat, a tag on clothes that scratches the skin. The kid is spinning, spinning and jerking with handles, and just such sounds fly out of an open mouth.

"IEO" ("IEU") - "Stomach hurts." This sound, similar to a moan, is emitted by the child on exhalation, while straining the tummy. This usually happens when he is bothered by gas or colic.

"Ay" ("oh", "oi") - "I'm tired." A sound similar to yawning tells the parent that the baby wants to sleep. Such a "sound of fatigue" is formed from the fact that the baby folds his lips with a tube and at the same time pushes the air out. In this case, without waiting for sleepy crying, you can begin to lull the child.

You will also be interested to read:

Why diarrhea in babies is dangerous: how to prevent dehydration

How to play with a toddler under one year old: tips for every month