The Secret Language of Babies

More than a year ago I saw an Oprah show with a woman named Priscilla Dunstan on it that said all babies, no matter the race or ethnicity, had common cries that meant the same things. She said that if you could learn to recognize the sound of the cries (there are only five) then you could understand what the baby wanted. It's only supposed to be true for the very young babies- up to three months. At the time Sally was already becoming a toddler so I couldn't test it out on her but what Mrs. Dunstan was saying rang true. As a mother, I had naturally been able to distinguish between different cries and most of the time could figure out what my babies had needed, but it was an innate sense, rather than something I had consciously tried to learn. She said that sometimes mothers who don't have that innate sense can have a very difficult time caring for their babies and can experience a disconnect. I was intrigued by this notion but couldn't test it out until now. I had almost forgotten about the theory until recently when I was with my parents and Sophie started crying and my Mom thought she was hungry but I said no, her cry was more of an "I'm uncomfortable" than an "I'm hungry". So I tracked down the information on the cries (isn't the internet awesome?!) and I've been testing it today and it seems to be totally true with my eight week old. Very cool! I am going to recommend Priscilla Dunstan's theory to all first time mothers. Here is a link to find out more:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Why_is_my_baby_crying