By Sr Teresa Hayward (RN, RM, Lactation Consultant, Infant & Paediatric Nutritionist, Baby Sleep Consultant)
After many years of experience with both my own children and hundreds of other babies as well as my training as a sleep consultant and feeding consultant, I have learnt to understand babies by their cries and body language. This enables us to fulfil their needs as quickly and accurately as possible.
The 1st key to any baby is to treat them as an individual and a little human. Always compare them to yourselves. Remember no baby is text book and will never do what the book tells you.
I have decided to write this article as a guideline to your baby’s body language. This will help you to tell whether your baby is tired, hungry, has reflux, cramps/colic or winds.
HUNGER:
Early signs
· Awakening
· Smacking or licking lips (not thrusting tongue)
· Open and closing mouth
· Soft sounds
· Sucking on lips, tongues, hands, fingers etc and gets frustrated (if they are sucking happily this is sign of comfort NOT hunger
Active signs
· Root towards breast (turns head and opens mouth) of however is carrying them
· Try to position themselves to feed
· Fidgeting and squirming
· Fussing and breathing fast
Late signs
· Moving head frantically from side to side
· Crying
CRY – make a NEH sound. This is the sound as their sucking reflux is triggered and tongue pushes up
OVERTIRED OR OVERSTIMULATED
· Legs – bicycle motion or stretch out straight
· Top half of body arches back
· Arms – wave arms widely with open hands, push away from you when you holding
· Hiccups in babies over 6wks that haven’t just fed
· Lots of sneezing
· Tongue thrusting – poking tongue in and out constantly
· Gaze aversion – will not make eye contact with you and will stare of into space or at lights or tv etc
Late signs (this means you have missed above and baby will now fight sleep)
· Rubbing eyes or rubbing face into you
· Pulling their hair or yours
· Yawning
· Crying
CRY –make an OWH sound. This is the sound produced like a yawn
REFLUX:
· pull legs into themselves
· arch the top half of their body back
· Pull arms into themselves loosely and clench fists
· make swallowing movements
· pull their face as though there is a bitter taste
· are unhappy most of the day but often settle at night
· do not sleep well when flat and like to be upright or in the arms
CRY – make a HEH sound. This indicates discomfort and communicates stress
CRAMPS
· pull legs into themselves
· pull the top half of body in
· pull arms tightly into body and clench fists tightly
· do not pull their faces except to scream
· are unhappy after feeds for a short period
· Colic only scream for 3hrs of the day, starts at 3weeks and lasts 3months and occurs at exactly the same time every day
· generally sleep well except in that period
CRY – is sudden and shrill
WINDS
· Squirm and grimace
· Pull legs up into themselves
· Often don’t want to drink
· Are miserable after feeds
· Greyish blue tinge under bottom lip
· Tongue to roof of mouth is not a sign of winds. It is actually a sign that baby is relaxed and is just a reflex.
Most breastfed babies do not get a lot of winds if they are latching properly. Breastfed babies also fart more than burb.
Winds are caused by feeding technique and not the milk. So it will be incorrect latching or incorrect bottle/teat type.
CRY – if they need to burb they will make an EH noise. This is because an air bubble is trapped in the chest. If they need to fart they will make an EAIRH nosie.
Always remember to only wind for 2min. Longer will cause reflux as you are pushing gastric acid up and will make baby irritable. If they start squirming ands pushing away, stop winding
These are problems that can be sorted out by me and not necessarily a paed. Feel free to contact me for an assessment of baby so we can sort them out and have a happy baby and mom.
Learning to understand your baby’s body language really helps parents in understanding their baby’s needs but also helps to prevent unnecessary trips to a doctor and unnecessary medication
If you are struggling with any of the above issues, please don’t hesitate to contact me for a full assessment of your baby. Sr Teresa Hayward 0824009501. A consult is R320.
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