Don’t Neglect A Baby When He Cries, Know What Happens To Him

There are people who still believe that it is good to let babies cry from time to time so that they do not ‘spoil’ themselves. Although the reality is not like that, babies need the love and attachment of their mothers and fathers to feel safe and protected, both physically and emotionally. A baby has spent 9 months in the womb of his mother and when he arrives in the world, he needs her constant protection to have a good physical and emotional development. 

The task of motherhood can be exhausting, but when you understand that a baby needs you all the time, you will find that it is also wonderful. Letting a baby cry just to ‘learn to calm down’ will only make them feel abandoned and resign themselves to the fact that their crying will go unattended, so they feel they cannot trust their primary caregivers.

A baby (and young child) does not know how to calm down on his own, he does not have the ability to self-regulate his most intense emotions and for that reason, he needs constant physical contact with his parents. You need to feel the warmth and love of your parents so you can calm down and know that everything is okay. That he is well protected, safe and that he can trust the people who have given him life.

What happens to a baby when he cries

When a baby cries it is because he is hungry, because he is sleepy, he is irritable, something hurts, he needs the love of his parents… But when he cries, he always cries for a reason. He does not cry so that you spoil him in your arms, he cries because he needs you, because you must attend to his demands since he has no other way to communicate with you. Their cries are the only means of communication so that you can attend to them.

When a mother worries about knowing what happens to a baby and takes care of him, he will stop crying because his needs have been attended to and also, he has seen that his environment can be trusted. Motherhood is fragile, it is sensitive and also, it is necessary to understand it as a basic need for the development of babies from the moment they are born and are in your arms. 

The silence of neglected babies

There is a heartbreaking story for anyone with empathy that will make you wonder what it is that babies need. The story is that a missionary visited an orphanage in Uganda, and entered a room where he saw that there were 100 cribs with babies. But something caught his eye: no babies were crying. The room with more than 100 baby cots was completely silent. How could that be possible?

The missionary did not understand that strange silence, but a worker from that orphanage told him that after spending a week in the orphanage and after crying day and night, they suddenly stop crying when they realize that no one is attending to them. They discover that they will not be cared for, they feel abandoned, they know that no one will attend to them … That they are alone. 

This neglect and abandonment in babies leaves consequences on their identity, they stop being babies and somehow they feel that they must give up crying because they cannot trust anyone. This is horrible for the emotional development of babies and therefore, no adult should ever let a baby cry, because they need to be cared for, always.

Your baby’s crying When your baby cries, he doesn’t want you to be upset. Crying is just a way to communicate with you at any time of the day. It is possible that you are exhausted and that you lack strength, but your baby needs your unconditional love and that is essential for his development and to take care of your emotional bond. Your baby needs to know that you are by his side, that he is not alone, that abandonment does not exist for him. 

Babies need their parents to commit to taking care of them, to attend to their needs, to give them their unconditional love, to let them know that they are by their side at all times. They need their parents to make a promise to them that they will not leave them alone, that they will not let them cry, and that they will understand that crying is just their way of communicating with them.