Interaction With Your Baby

If you don't quite know how to interact with your baby, don't worry, you're not alone. It's a huge adjustment, and it takes new parents a while to figure out how. The first month is exceptionally difficult, because baby is not yet able to do much outside of eat, sleep, cry and poop. But their young personalities, as well as their love and affection for you as parent, will show through very soon, and the interaction will come naturally.

You will soon discover that baby is more capable of interaction as time goes by, and you will notice baby is capable of doing more things, giving more feedback, and expressing their desires a lot better every week. Interaction in the first couple months is especially important, because that is when baby is developing very rapidly, and will come to establish a secure attachment to the parent.

Advice to not let the baby become too attached or dependent is unwise. A baby is, after all, incapable of taking care of himself, and dependence on the parent is natural and good. Studies have shown that a secure attachment is the most important part of a baby's development, and a secure attachment in early childhood leads to greater confidence and security later on in life.

By paying attention to interaction, and taking an approach of what's known as attachment parenting, parent and baby will establish a good, healthy connection to one another and will be more readily able to understand one another, even before baby learns to speak. Advice by well meaning but misinformed acquaintances will focus around not "spoiling" baby, but in fact, it's only natural to become sensitive to your baby's needs and to try to address them, and interact with baby as much as possible. Contrary to what the "cry it out" proponents will say, you can't have too much interaction with your baby. The more interaction you have, the better baby will be able to communicate his desires and needs to you.

In other countries where parents interact more with their babies, colic is rare and babies crying for long periods of time is unknown, because parents will respond to the baby's needs immediately. In Japan, young children sleep between the parents. In Korea, infants are almost constantly held. In America however, babies spend the majority of their time alone, not being touched or held by a parent.