The Happiest Baby on the Block and The Happiest Toddler on the Block 2-Book Bundle pdfdrive com

Colic in preemies starts about two weeks past their due date.
If a mother’s anxiety caused her baby’s colic, crying would
occur earlier and more often in preemies. After all, these
fragile babies can turn even calm parents into nervous
wrecks.
Colicky babies seem to be in pain. Even if your baby could
sense your anxiety, why would she cry as if she had pain?
Colic is as likely to occur with a couple’s fifth baby as with
their first. This is the most powerful argument against a
connection between anxiety and colic. Since experienced

---

parents are more confident, their fifth baby should be less
prone to colic than their first, but that just isn’t the case.
Trina didn’t need to worry that her stress had invaded Tatiana’s tender
psyche. In reality, the opposite is usually the case. Your baby’s wail can
trigger red alert in your nervous system, making you feel tense and
anxious!
Theory #4: Is a Baby’s Immature Brain the Cause of Colic?
During medical school, I was taught colic was an intestinal problem.
Soon thereafter, that theory was pushed aside by the concept of brain
immaturity. As we discovered more about our babies’ nervous systems,
we came to believe colic resulted from their immature brains getting
overstimulated by all the new experiences babies encountered after
birth. It’s no wonder this theory became popular because, let’s face it,
babies are so … immature!
Babies have the coordination of drunken sailors and the quick wits of,
well, newborns. But what exactly is immature in your baby’s brain, and
how might that predispose him to uncontrollable crying?
Mental Abilities Your Baby Was Born With
Imagine you’re taking a very long trip but can only bring one suitcase
with you. Now imagine that your suitcase is tiny. In a funny way, that’s
the situation your baby was in as he was preparing for birth. He could
only fit into his small brain the most basic abilities he would need to live
outside the protection of your womb.
If you could have helped him pack, what abilities would you have
considered important for him to be born with? Walking? Smiling?
Saying “I love you, Mommy”?
Over millions of years, Mother Nature picked four indispensable
survival tools to fit into our babies’ apple-size brains:
1. Life-support controls—the ability to maintain blood pressure,

---

breathing, etc.
2. Reflexes—dozens of important automatic behaviors that help
newborns sneeze, suck, swallow, cry, and more.
3. Limited control of muscles and senses—once babies can breathe and
eat, these very limited abilities allow them to touch, taste, look
around, and interact with the world.
4. State control—after babies start interacting with their families and
their exciting new world, state control helps them turn their
attention on (to watch and learn) and off (to recover and sleep).
Of all of these abilities, state control is the most important in
determining whether or not he gets colic.