Health & Fitness
Reading Your Baby's Cues
Watch 2-week-old Vanessa show you how babies let you know they are hungry. No ... it's not about crying. You'll see!
Welcome to my blog! Learn about baby cues, and see 2-week-old Vanessa demonstrate the cue known as "rooting."
What is Rooting?
Just moments after birth, and certainly many moments thereafter, your newborn's behavior may mimic the baby's behavior in the picture "Rooting." This body language, known as rooting, is a signal to you that your baby is hungry.
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The Cues
Rooting is an early hunger cue that involves flailing hands, sucking on fists, and turning the head to the side with an open mouth as if looking for something. This natural response to hunger is easy to understand because your baby truly is looking for something ... food!
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Video
Here is the video, "Rooting," from my ebook Newborn Baby Manual to help you see rooting in action. Notice the short bursts of crying out mixed together with sucking and flailing hands. Baby Vanessa added sound to her body-language cues to let her mother know she wasn't really interested in a diaper change, she was asking to be fed. Babies are smart! Hunger cues can happen anytime, even during a diaper change, but the message is always the same.
Body-Language Cues
The many body-language cues your baby uses are early signals to let you know what your baby needs. The body language of rooting is an early cue that lets you know your baby is hungry without your baby needing to cry to give you that message. Responding to these early body-language cues, in this case feeding your baby, may eliminate the need for your baby to cry to get your attention. Less crying is beneficial for both of you, in many ways. We'll explore those benefits in a future blog.
Tips to Help You Notice
You may remember from the last blog that wearing your baby will help you notice these early body-language cues right away. Because your baby will be in physical contact with you, you will easily notice the squirming, rooting, and other early signals that let you know what your baby needs. Recognizing these cues will get easier and easier, because your baby will use the same ones to mean the same things, over and over again. Rooting will always be associated with hunger. That helps! Thank you Mother Nature!
For you and yours,
D. Fravert, RN
Music "Touching Moments Two" Kevin MacLeod www.incompetech.com. Video D.Fravert, RN www.newbornbabymanual.com.
