your baby’s ears. Shhhhing comforts
him by mimicking the
whooshing noise of blood flowing through your arteries. This
rough humming surrounded your baby every moment during
his nine months inside you. That’s why it is an essential part of
the fourth trimester.
Many new parents mistakenly believe
their babies prefer the
gentle tinkling sounds of a brook or the distant hush of the
wind. It seems counterintuitive that our tender infants would
like
such a loud noise; certainly we wouldn’t. Yet babies love it!
That’s why many books recommend the use of roaring
appliances to settle screaming infants.
I have never met a cranky baby who got overstimulated by
the racket from these devices.
On the contrary, the louder
babies cry, the louder the shhhhing has to be in order to calm
them.
In a rush to get out of the house, Marjan put off
feeding her hungry baby for a few minutes while she
went into the bathroom and finished getting ready to
leave. Two-week-old Bebe didn’t care for this plan,
and she wailed impatiently for food. However, after a
few minutes Bebe suddenly quieted. Marjan panicked,
was her tiny baby okay? When Marjan opened the
bathroom door, she was relieved to see that her
daughter was fine. Then she realized that Bebe had
stilled the very instant she turned on the hair dryer.
Marjan shared this exciting discovery with her parents, but they
were not supportive. They warned her
it was dangerous to use the
hair dryer to calm an infant: “It’s so loud it will make her go crazy!”
Despite their concerns, Marjan used her new “trick” with 100%
success whenever her baby was crying (but only when her family
was not around).
