Knowing Hypersensitive Infant
Nevertheless, there are infants who are difficult to nurture. As one attempts to rock them gently, they stiffen and arch away. As they are rocked, they have a series of body startles which result in inconsolable crying. If one looks in the face of such a baby or talks to her, she arches, looks frightened, and turns away. Every attempt to reach out for this kind of infant seems to result in negative responses. She cries for long inconsolable periods in the day. Social stimuli seems to turn her off but not on. What can a parent do to reach such a baby?
Any caring parent will automatically blame herself for failure with such a baby. In turn, the efforts overload the baby even more, and she turns off even more dramatically. The stage can be step for feelings of failure on both their parts-in the mother, a feeling of having failed as a parent, and in the baby, an expectation to fail in reaching others.
How to Understand Hypersensitive Infant
For many of hypersensitive babies there is no available explanation. A mother who is handed such a baby will automatically feel this behavior is her fault.
In order to try to understand hypersensitive babies and this failing process, I have studied a group of babies who demonstrated what I saw as hypersensitivity to social stimuli even in the newborn nursery. In the noisy, overlit nursery, they lay with staring eyes, looking off into the distance and frowning. As I watched them, although they appeared to be awake, they seemed almost mesmerized and unavailable. If you talked gently to them or rocked them, they looked more worried. Their frowns would deepen, their eyes become more glazed as they stared doggedly away. As one tried to get a positive response, their respiration's would increase to become deep and regular. If one persisted, they often would turn actively away, their color would worsen and they might even have a bowel movement or spit up. Normal social stimuli seemed to be too much for these babies from the start. The kind of things from these babies brought stiffening, turning away, and withdrawal.
When I realized that these babies were demonstrating a kind of hypersensitivity as newborns, it began to explain other behaviors I saw in these babies. Their ability to control their state of consciousness was not as effective as it was in most full-term babies. Most such babies would come for sleep slowly and be reachable for interaction for a while; even in crying they could be reached temporarily by a voice or by holding and rocking them. If you tried to play with them at feeding times, they overreacted with their gastrointestinal tracts.
The baby could accept one stimulus at a time, but not more than one. And even that stimulus had to be turned down to her limits. The baby could settle down slowly to take in and respond to an auditory or visual or tactile stimulus, or the kinethetic stimulus of being picked up or rocked.
Most such babies would come from sleep slowly and be reachable for interaction for a while, even in crying they could be reached temporarily by a voice or by holding and rocking them. They would give one the feedback of having done the right thing for them
Since I have begun to understand these infants, I have been able to demonstrate this hypersensitive, over reactive behavior to their parents. Instead of feeling helpless and ineffectual with their babies, they can change their approach, slow down, cut down on stimuli around such a baby, and deal with her in low-keyed way.
Swaddling them helps at times. Using a pacifier or teaching them to suck on their own thumbs may help them gain a kind of control system of their own.
Feeding them in quiet, darkened room with as little stimuli around them as possible can also be a help. Keeping their days and night on a regular, predictable schedule and cutting down on too much activity is a help to both these babies and their parents.
These hypersensitive babies are at one extreme end of a spectrum of difficult to understand infants. Parent must exercise great sensitivity to be able to nurture them successfully. Parents who had expected a lovely, calm, easy to reach baby must adapt their rhythms, their level of stimuli, their whole day and night cycle to meet these babies needs. It is great challenge. to teach these babies to take in and respond to stimuli without losing control over themselves can be an enormous task
Instead of feeling helpless and ineffectual with your babies, you can change your approach, slow down, cut down on stimulate around such a baby, and deal with her in a low-keyed way. Swaddling them helps at times. Parents must exercise great sensitivity to be able to nurture them successfully. Parents who had expected a lovely, calm, easy-to-reach baby must adapt their rhythms, their level of stimuli, and their whole day-and-night cycle to meet these babies’ needs. To teach these babies to take in and respond to stimuli without losing control over themselves can be an enormous task. But when such a baby is reached and can learn over time how to manage her environment for herself, she is on her way to a successful future.
In order to understand more about this condition please refer to my colleague Dr blaise ryan - Chief Medical Advisor, Child Brain Health Research Institute because he has a 'communication "secrets" that help your child behave and listen better'
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