How Stimulation Can Effectively Calm Fussy Babies

Often when their babies are fussy, parents try various techniques to calm them , including feeding, movement, and the use of a pacifier. Sometimes, though, babies fuss because they want stimulation, and techniques designed to stimulate the baby, rather than calm it, are more suitable. Generally anything that involves teaching the baby or exposing it to new experiences is stimulating. Words, pictures, movement, and a wide variety of games can be used to satisfy a baby's need for stimulation.

Any and all kinds of games can be designed to make a bored, fussy baby more stimulated and therefore happier. Activities that center on the baby's developing ability to use words, voice, movement, and logic can be fun and stimulating for both the baby and the parents.

By playing with words, you can teach your baby parts of speech. You can teach words with your voice: "Nose! My nose, your nose!" You can also teach written words by pointing to the word and saying it out loud. Look around and you'll probably see that lots of things have nouns written on them; finding and reading them with your baby is something you can do almost anywhere. Nouns can be taught by pointing to the specific objects they refer to, but other parts of speech can be taught as well. Adjectives and adverbs can be modeled: "We're walking. We're taking little steps. We're taking BIG steps", or "You're drinking from the red cup. I'm drinking from the blue cup." Prepositions, which modify things as well, can be indicated by demonstrating: on, under, behind, next to, above, below, and the like. By involving your baby in this sort of word play you will not only be providing stimulation but also developing important verbal abilities.

Besides just words spoken, the voice itself carries a wide range of stimulation and meaning. Talk to your baby using your voice in a stimulating way, by using a variety of pitches, intonations, speeds, and rhythms. Sing not only to, but with, your baby. Encourage your baby to make a wide variety of sounds and you can even stimulate them by introducing some white noise such as a running washing machine or a very loud, ticking clock.

Exercise movement skills by playing imitation games. Teach your baby to imitate facial expressions, postures, and movements. Playing in front of a mirror can add an extra dimension of stimulation and fun. So can dancing. Listen to all different types of music, and in general stimulate as many of your baby's senses as you can while doing this type of play. And don't forget that movement also allows you to change your location and hence change your scenery, which can be stimulating in and of itself.

A baby's logical skills can be exercised by games involving patterns, numbers, and counting. Give them a pattern of sounds, movements, or touches to respond to, and become excited as they figure the pattern out. Use something like "One, two, PEEP, one, two, PEEP..." You can also involve patterns in the form of rhythm and music. Make music with your baby! You can exercise number skills by counting. One way to do this is to count something as it is happening, like counting dots that the baby makes on a piece of paper. Drawing skills can be exercised in conjunction with logic and counting by incorporating paper and crayons.

Babies are naturally curious and eager to soak up the world, and we should feed this quality with stimulation and learning wherever possible, and quite a few of us could probably benefit from the extra stimulation ourselves.

Sources:

*Elizabeth Pantley, "How To Calm Your Crying Baby", Pregnancy.org

*Elearn-University, "White Noise and 10 other Soothing Sounds for Calming an Infant", elearn-university.org