Questions about actions of child

misecmisc1

Hi All,

i am having a small kid. i recollect somethings like when my child was born, i think after 1 hour she felt hungry, we provided milk to her in a spoon as my wife had a cezarian operation and the child opened its mouth and inhaled the milk. So some questions just arose in my mind:
1. how did the child know that she was hungry and that crying was a mechanism to tell everybody that she was hungry?
2. how did the child know that we eat through mouth?
3. moreover when she was only 2 or 3 months old, then when we tried to make her laugh when she was awake, then she rarely noticed us and never laughed on our attempts to make her laugh. But when she was asleep, then she smiled sometimes. How did she smiled in sleep as we say that in sleep we see only the things which we have seen in daily life and at that small age, she did not noticed our actions when she was awake, so what happened in her sleep?
4. Moreover, sometimes without any reason, abruptly she wake up screeming and we thought she had a nightmare - but how does this happen to such a small child of less than 2 - 3 months old, who does not know anything in the world currently?

May be my questions are again idiotic. But these questions came to my mind. So can anybody please help me to understand these questions. Please suggest.

Cinorjer

The human brain comes prewired with some basic instincts and an ability to learn as it grows and develops. A baby begins on the pre-conscious behavior level and the sense of self gradually emerges as the brain matures physically.

Developmental psychology is a fascinating field. For instance, it seems that a person's brain is genetically predisposed to basic personality types, but there's a lot of argument about how much of that is learned from observation and how much inherited, and just how binding this predisposition is on who you become.

AMH

Babies are so interesting aren't they? Is your baby still 2-3 months or older?

So much of what you asked about it how we come into the world with things that help us survive, instincts, and body knowledge. So knowing hunger and crying is normal and necessary to survive. Others will not know to feed you. Animal babies have many many more of these things they can do when born than human babies.

When babies are in the womb they have food all the time, no waiting. They also are the perfect temperature and they held close all the time. They are comforted by never being alone because they hear moms heart beat all the time, hear sounds around them, and get used to the movements of life. Then they run out of space, mom is tired of being kicked and huge, so they have to come out into the world. For the first 2-3 months their needs are very close to what they were in the womb and only slowly changing to more indpendant baby needs. There are several baby soothing techniqes that help, close swaddling, a pacifier, being held a lot rather than in a crib. One of the instinct moves is 'rooting', just touch their cheek and they will turn their head towards you with their mouth open looking for food.

Meanwhile their muscles are practicing movement but they do not have a lot of control. So smiling in their sleep is common. Also waking and realizing they are not in the womb anymore so they scream is common.

At 4 months I always thought babies 'woke up' more. They didn;t need swaddling, they respond to facial movements like smiling, their bodies are able to hold food a bit longer and so they sleep longer. They begin to grab for things, notice the world around, and it just builds from there.

i think it is great to just observe baby moves, maybe take notes on a calendar so when your child is older they can read about how they acted as a baby.

ajnast4r

1. those instincts are per-programmed into the brain, they are not learned behaviors.

2. same as above.

3. in her dreams she was probably smiling from experiencing pleasant memories.. maybe a hug, food, a smell... anything her little brain has labeled as pleasant. she probably just hasn't made the pleasant associations with your behavior (trying to make her laugh) yet.

4. she may just be dreaming about being hungry, or alone or something. she has the ability to feel pleasure and pain long before she was born, who knows what she may be finding pleasant or painful... could be memories of birth.