The following are actions, sounds, and behaviors that express the feelings and emotions of a living being.
Research tells us that communication is divided into three areas.
1. Body language - 55%
2. Tone of voice - 38%
3. What we say - 7%
If this is true, when we learn to interpret what body languageis saying, we will know at least 55% of what the person is trying to tellus. When it pertains to a baby, what we have to do is realize we onlyhave two lines of communication because they cannot express what they are feeling through words. Once you realize how important body language is and that ittruly is telling you something, then to assume that your baby is fussy for noreason doesn't really make much sense.
What I have learned from my experience of treating over 1,000 babies is that if a baby is crying, there has to be a reason. I believe there are two main reasons an infant or baby will cry.
1. The baby has some physicaldiscomfort, such as pain or just anuncomfortable feeling. Examples could include lying too long in one place, headache, fever, aches, or even the sensation of moving its bowels. There could bemany other reasons too, however, if any of these occur, the body language will tell us two things.
a. Where the pain or discomfort is
b. How bad it is
If there is pain, it will generally cause the baby to move. The key is to watchclosely to see what is moving and then watch to see if the motion is fast or slow. Ifthe pain or discomfort is mild, the motion will be slow. If the movement is fastand much more aggressive, the pain level is much greater. Ifthe pain is mild, you will normally see the baby's eyes somewhat open orcompletely open. If the pain is more severe, the eyes will be squinted, or in most cases, tightly closed. In this case, you will see the face roundand red and the baby will have an increased heart rate and increased respiration.Your baby will be breathing faster andmuch more forcefully than normal with moreforceful inhalations and exhalations.
In my experience, babies are not fussy for no reason; they cry if they arehurting or hungry. If a baby is tired and wants to sleep, he/she gives theappearance of fighting sleep, which is an uncomfortable feeling for him/her. Have you ever been so tired that all you wanted to do was sleep but for some reason you just couldn't? Ifyou thinkabout it, you will realize that severe fatigue can be a very uncomfortable feeling.
2. The second reason a baby will cry is if they are hungry. Can hunger pains be a discomfort? Of course. If you don't think so, try going without eating for even twenty-four hours. How would you act if you were hungry? If you couldn't speak words, how would you let someone know you were hungry? You would probably bend over and flex your torso. You would probably groan or make noise with the volume and intensity of the noise being in direct proportion to how hungry you were.
When a baby is hungry, it shows very similar body language. The motions will be more in the upper torso, arms and head. The legs will not kick as fast or as hard as they would if there were a lot of pressure in the intestine with excessive gas or flatulence. If your baby is kicking excessively with an arched back, scratching the face, pulling the ears or hair, or has a very hard abdomen, the baby will most likely be in pain. If the baby is just hungry, the motion has more to do with the upper body where the arms will move but not as stiff and severe as you would see with abdomen pain. The back will not arch as much and the head will not go back as with abdominal pain. They won't be scratching at their faces or ears and they won't be pulling their hair. Always realize the more intense the hunger, the more body language you will see.
The second form of communication is tone of voice, which we previously said consists of 38% of the baby’s communication. There are two distinct cries, one being a cry of pain and the other being a cry of hunger. A hunger cry can be identified as one single tone or pitch, however, if the baby is in pain, the cry is a distinctpattern of highs and lows. You can think of this as the teeth on a saw blade, where the pitch rises and falls with the blade. When they are in severe pain and scream, the volume of the scream changes according to howoften they feel the surge of pain. If the pain is very severe anddoesn't seem to let up, you typically hear a long, loud scream and baby appears as if she isn't breathing. This can be a scary time for the parents and I have heard of adults blowing into their children's faces as a desperate attempt to get them breathing again. I don't know if this is helpful orhurtful, but when the baby runs out of oxygen, it will certainly take another breath. A mother and grandmother told me that they started CPR on the baby because they thought it had stopped breathing.
How important is it to learn body language and tone of voice? It is extremelyimportant because you will not only be able to help your baby more byunderstanding its needs, but you will also prevent causing your baby harm. There are times whenyour baby is hurting and at the same time hungry. This makes it more difficult to read thebody language and tone of the cry because the two different tones and two different body languages can begin to mix.
One way you can determine which cry you hear is to try feeding the baby. If the baby is only hungry, it will latch on, suck, and usually stay latched on until they become satisfied. If you attempt to feed a baby who latches on fast, sucks quickly but can't stay latched on, you know the crying is due more to pain than hunger. This is where the body language of root and suck comes from. If the baby is breastfed, he/she will root against the mother very aggressively, sucking very quickly and hard, while pulling the nipple away and then latching back on. The cry will be loud while the pitch and volume both increase. If the baby is bottle-fed, it will act very similar by not keeping the nipple in the mouth due to the severe pain outweighing the hunger. If the baby is more hungry than in pain, you will see the baby latch on and suck quickly and hard until it begins to feel satisfied. What is actually happening to satisfy the baby? Is it how much milk is in the stomach? I don 't think so. I believe it all has to do with the balancing of blood sugar levels.
Appetite is controlled by blood sugar levels. Think about how you feed when you know your blood sugar is dropping. Several symptoms can occur.
1. You begin to get fussy or irritable.
2. You start feeling a sensation in the stomach and the intestine. Have you ever experienced your stomach growling?
3. Your emotions begin to change. You feel more anxious. You now begin to focus more on eating and less on what you are doing or saying.
4. Your tone of voice can change.
5. You may get a weak or sick feeling in your gut.
6. You start noticing cravings, many times the hungrier you get, the more you begin to crave foods high in sugar and fat.
Your baby goes through all of these same symptoms. Now think about how you feel when you see food. Do you become more anxious? Do you become more aggressive? What happens when you finally eat?
You stuff your mouth full, chew faster, swallow faster and usually eat more than if you had eaten earlier. Don't they say it is better for us eat six healthy, smaller meals per day than three full large meals? The same is true for babies. Why is it that blood sugar always goes up and down? It is not only caused by the type of foods we eat, but also by the amounts. It is also affected by everything else going on in our bodies. Not only is the pancreas producing the hormone insulin to help regulate our blood sugar, but we also have the thyroid, adrenals, and sexual hormones, which are all consistently affecting blood sugar and producing hormones. Babies not only produce their own hormones, but if the baby is breastfed, the mother's hormones are also affecting the baby.
Think about what happens when the blood sugar dips too low. We usuallyeat too fast, too much, and don't stop in time for the blood sugar to leveloff.In the case of babies, being satisfied withhow much they eat isn't regulated by the volume, but rather by the bloodsugar. If the baby eats enough for the stomach to be full of milk, it will cause a lot of pressure against the stomach due to the bloating of thelarge and small intestine. The baby will usually end up crying due to the pain of the pressure. They may not burp very well and eventually you may see projectilevomiting. Parents wonder why the baby keeps spitting up even after it has projectile vomited. The answer is that there is just too much milk in the tank (stomach).
The key to stop projectile vomiting and continued spit up is:
1. Relieving the pressure in the intestine
2. Feeding the baby only when it is hungry
3. Stop feeding when the baby slows down
4. Burp the baby regularly
5. Give the baby a pacifier and it will go to sleep
6. Don't put the baby on a regular feeding schedule (three ounces every three hours, etc.) and instead, listen to the baby's body language and tone of voice.
7. Be aware of the previous feeding with regards to the amount and/or time. People don't always get hungry at the same time or rate due to the hormones, which regularly affect our blood sugar. This being said, your baby will vary in how much it eats and how long it will take. Don't expect the baby to eat the same amount at the same time every day, it all varies. As a side note, later on we will be discussing the methods of breastfeeding, bottle, and formula feeding.
