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The NEWBORN
The
NEWBORN BABY was initially thought to be so
immature he is unable to see until he is about a month old, or so helpless and
so deaf that he would be unable to communicate his needs to others nor respond
to the voices and sounds adults make.
FROM STUDIES MADE OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS, we now know a few more things about newborn infants:
although they do not see as clearly as the older infant, they see enough to be able to distinguish masks from human faces, and consequently gaze preferably at their parents and other caretakers than at non-human approximations. They also imitate expressions and facial movements, such as blinking, or sticking the tongue out. They may even imitate hand gestures, taking a few seconds to produce the motions, often missed if the adult does not look for them.
Many of these infants focus longer on their mothers' faces than on those of other people in their immediate line of vision. They also recognize things they are seeing for the first time and spend a bit more visual time on those. It is a wonder how they and older infants can spend so long a time looking into other people's eyes without blinking!
The familiar voices of their intrauterine existence get them to stay still and listen, although they do prefer the higher-pitched female voice. Interestingly, mothers also raise their voices instinctively when talking to their infants, in a special language called 'motherese', expanded to 'parentese' to include the father's attempts at establishing communication and setting up the basis for language. This early pattern of speech, with the lilt of that particular language, is programmed early into the infant. When they start babbling, they already take on that peculiar pattern in the 'melody' of their early sounds, distinguishable by ears trained to listen to several language patterns.
If the baby has had music played to him while in the womb, those particular selections are more likely to catch his attention than something he is hearing for the first time. He may show an early preference for classical music or for certain nursery songs, protesting when the player is turned off or if another musical rhythm is substituted. Babies also appear to have some memory of intrauterine sounds that may have startled them, and display unusual or exaggerated reactions to those, such as firecrackers on New Year's Eve that may have made their mothers nervous at the time.
Even nursery stories read to him by his as-yet-pregnant mother will be preferred to that read by somebody else, as documented by a study where the now-born babies sucked faster at a pacifier in order to get to the the taped portion where their mothers were the readers. The pacifier was connected to a tape player, and the baby could accelerate the tape to get to a preferred portion by changing his speed of sucking. Most of the babies sucked furiously to get to the part where their respective mothers were reading 'The Cat in the Hat'. The first reader on these tapes was another female who was not the mother, followed by the mother reading the same thing. (I am still trying to find the text of this study and will put up the link as soon as I do.)
Although bathed in amniotic fluid all the time he is in the womb, his nose submerged in that watery medium, the baby's nerve endings for smell are developed well before he comes out to inhale room air. When he does, it is with senses equipped to distinguish his mother's smell and the smell of her milk from that of others. (Another study years ago documented this, showing that babies preferentially turned to cloth moistened with their mothers' milk, as opposed to those with a salt solution).
This facility is so well developed that early on the infant associates his experiences with the smell wafting into his small nose at the time, a memory peg that becomes a part of his complicated neurologic function.
Some cultures use this smell facility and association with other things to soothe infants -- when the mother goes to work, for example, or leaves the house for several hours, she may leave her used blouse or dress folded beside the baby who will then not fuss too while she is away.
The baby's skin and body surface are sensitive to touch and changes in temperature. Babies who are stroked and gently massaged appear to be de-stressed and exhibit a decrease in heart rate and breathing rate, much like that noted after yoga or meditation. They may become less colicky, possibly obtaining assurance that someone is there to take care of them and hold them as often as they need to be held.
The premature infant who is given a regular massage in the nursery is also noted to gain weight faster than those not provided this extra 'treatment'. This could mean earlier discharge from the nursery and translate into savings for parents and insurance companies!
Newborn infants are on their way to becoming little gourmets. They can distinguish sweet and salty as well as sour and bitter, but they have a preference early on for the sweet. One only has to observe the reaction of most babies to the giving of vitamin C and multivitamin drops to confirm this ability. Babies generally prefer the uncomplicated sweet taste of vitamin C to the multi-layered taste of the multivitamins, which also comes with a stronger odor. Some doctors caution mothers not to introduce sweet liquids this early so as not to prime infants to want sweets later on when they are older.
There are many newborn infants who reject their mother's milk temporarily following mother's ingestion of certain substances. Sensitive infants may find the breast milk taste somewhat altered, or maybe, they smell unusual food or antibiotics in the breast milk and become fussy during feeding.
Different infants exhibit different personalities even as newborns. Behavior patterns have a general similarity, but feeding times, number of stools, sleeping hours, reactions to noise and temperature changes and even types of cries vary among these individuals. Babies learn that the world is a nice and pleasant place when someone responds promptly to their signals of distress. They become 'insecure' when they cry and people do not check out the reason in the mistaken notion that crying is good for these babies' lungs, or that 'spoiling' will result if the adults run to pick the baby up every time he opens his mouth. Parents need to remember that babies always cry for a reason and not because they want to lord it over the adults in their world. Perhaps they do want to be picked up; it can get pretty lonely in a crib. After all, babies spent their previous nine months secure and hidden, swimming but increasingly snug in someone else's body. One may not get used to not hearing his mother's rhythmic heart beat right away.
BREASTFEEDING is to be desired for all infants, if possible. Breast milk is known to supply the newborn and growing child not only with the best substances for optimum physical growth but also those for mental -- brain -- development. The actual breastfeeding also improves mother-child interaction and makes for better learning opportunities.
Mothers who are unable to breastfeed for whatever reason may opt for formulas that claim to be 'closest to mother's milk' and to hold the baby close when bottle feeding, simulating the physical situation that is assumed to contribute to the statistical superiority of breastfeeding in terms of IQ improvement. While feeding the baby, the mother can talk to him, kiss him, stroke his cheek and arms, even sing or tell him stories, thus offsetting whatever difference formula and breastfeeding may have.
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This page was last updated on April 22, 2002
Copyright 2002