By Sr Teresa Hayward (RN, RM, Lactation consultant, Infant & Paediatric Nutritionist, Baby Sleep Consultant)
Rocking and Movement
So often I hear moms being told not to rock their babies or not to hold and cuddle their babies.
In utero, your baby has already got used to being rocked and to constant movement. Every time you moved your baby was rocked. This was soothing for them. Taking this away from them, especially when it is what they need, can be very stressful for a small baby.
It has actually been proven that babies that are rocked are less likely to have colic and reflux and are happier babies than those who are not rocked.
Here are the benefits of rocking your baby:
· It triggers the calming reflex
· Helps their circulation
· Promotes respiration and eases lung congestion
· Stimulates muscle tone
· Gives baby a sense of relatedness
· General cellular stimulation
· Cools baby down when they are too hot and heats them when they are cold
· Soothes the nervous system
· Aids functioning of the digestive tract
Some different calming movements
· Jiggle baby on your knees
· Hold baby on your shoulder with their tummy on your collar bone and pat their bum
· Sit with baby in a rocking chair
· Bounce on an exercise ball with them
· Walk with baby
Tips for rocking your baby
· Forward and backward rocking is more effective than side to side
· Babies head must wobble slightly to trigger the calming reflex in the brain
· Vigorous, small movements work better than broad, slow swinging
· Reduce the pace of rocking as baby calms down
· It’s ok to rock after feeds but ensure that you have head higher than bottom
Sucking
Babies need to suck to survive, but it’s not just a tool for survival, it is also soothing.
In utero your baby is already sucking on something whether it is a thumb, hand, finger or cord. It is cruel to take away their self soothing mechanism just because they are out in the big wide world.
Babies must be allowed to suck, whether they use breast, dummy or their hands, finger or thumb. A bottle however should not be given as comfort. A baby that sucks on the breast for comfort uses a different type of suck to that of feeding.
Benefits of sucking:
· Triggers the calming reflex
· Lowers blood pressure and heart rate
· Stimulates the secretion of pain relieving chemicals in the brain (in NICU for example, whenever the nurses put up a drip or take blood or any other painful procedure, they offer baby a dummy)
· Sucking a dummy lowers the risks of SIDS (cot death) – sucking stimulates babies to breathe
· Sucking plus rocking is a winning calming combination
Tips for sucking
· If baby is already hysterical, first swaddle, add soothing sounds and rocking and then offer her something to suck
· Never dip dummy in any sweet liquids such as glycerine, honey or syrup
Swaddling
This is an ancient and very effective soothing strategy. Swaddling alone doesn’t trigger the calming reflex but it prepares the baby’s brain for calming
Swaddling helps because in utero your baby has got used to having a little wall around them and every time they move there was some resistance. Swaddling simulates this affect as well as applying firm pressure to the tummy
Benefits of swaddling
· It prevents baby’s arms and legs from flailing
· Prevents baby from spiralling out of control
· It gives continuous touch
· It prepares baby’s brain for other soothing strategies
Babies should be swaddled from birth until 3months, even if they resist. It must not be a straight jacket, so allow them to be able to move especially their arms
Soothing sounds
The womb is a very noisy place. There is constant loud shushing, sloshing sound of your heart beating, blood circulating and your tummy digesting as well as the outside noises.
Benefits of wombs noises
· It triggers the calming reflex
· It can drown out other unpleasant noises.
Different soothing noises
· “shhhh”
· Womb noises
· Heart beating of mom
· Vacuum cleaner
· Humming
· Ticking clock
· Water
· White noise
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