section 4
How do we respond to the baby?
6-9 months
meeting
23
Let’s review:
Once the meeting starts, welcome everyone and ask the participants: • Who can help us remember what we talked about in our last meeting? • Who was able to do the activity at home that we asked you to do at the end of the meeting? How did it go? • Does anyone have questions or concerns after doing the activity?
What are we going to learn? How to meet our baby’s physical and emotional needs at this age.
LET’S TALK ABOUT IT! We are going to look at some pictures so we can talk about what we know about the topic.
Why do you think 6-9 month-olds cry?
What can you do as a parent to calm down your baby when he or she is crying?
What do you do to stay calm when your baby won’t stop crying?
section 4 / 6-9 months • meeting 23
90
Activity:
“The calm response” We are going to share ways to stay calm while we try to sooth our baby.
What we’ll need: • Big sheets of paper
WHAT WE’LL DO: • Markers • Ask the parents who already have children to share a few stories of when their babies wouldn’t stop crying. What did they do to handle the situation? What worked and what didn’t? • Remind them that babies cry because it’s the only way they can communicate that they have a problem. But even though we know this it can be hard to stay calm while trying to calm your baby. • Next divide the participants into two groups. Ask one group to write on a big sheet of paper ways in which a parent can sooth and care for a bay who is crying. Ask the other group to write down ideas for how to stay calm when a baby won’t stop crying. When both groups are done, they can share their ideas with each other. Other suggestions: • If the group is very participative you can ask them to make a small skit to illustrate one of their ideas.
Summing Up:
What did we learn today? Now, we’ll review what we discussed today. • How do you feel after this meeting? Why? • What are the two most important things you’ve learned today? • What will you do differently based on what you learned during the meeting? • What did you like the most? Are there things you didn’t like? • Do you have any remaining concerns or questions about what we talked about? To finish, what would you recommend to improve today’s meeting when we do it again with another group. (Explain that answering this question will help the meeting be even better in the future for parents with small children.)
To do at home:
• Parents should practice at least one way of staying calm while taking care of a crying baby.
Facilitator’s Manual
91
Basic information for the facilitator: Learning more about how to respond to the baby: Babies’ emotional development: • The first basic need of the young baby is for security and acceptance. The baby gets this from the continued love, warmth and support of the immediate caregiver. • Most babies cry less in the second half of their first year than they did earlier. They seem better able to cope with everyday life. Sudden loud movements make them laugh now instead of cry. Displeasure, worry or alarm is expressed through facial expressions and whimpering sounds. • Although babies cry less than before, various aspects of their development will lead to considerable crying if they are not understood. While more confident about life in general, it is not uncommon for babies this age to develop intense fears about one or two things. These fears, while often completely irrational, should be respected and accepted. Soothing babies: • Some babies are easily soothed and it may be difficult to distinguish the need to suck from the need to feed. • Sucking provides the baby with regular and rhythmic stimulation of the mouth. • Babies can be comforted by sucking their own hands and fingers. If she is going to suck something her own hands are the best. They are always available and are more hygienic than anything else. • Mothers and others who care for babies all over the world know that they settle down once they are rocked and cuddled. Researchers have also compared the different ways parents move and carry crying babies by moving them so that they are lying with their face down, sitting them up or picking them up and holding them to the shoulder or to the breast in an embrace. They found that holding babies to the shoulder is by far the most effective way to stop them crying. An added benefit of holding a baby to the shoulder is that they are more likely to become attentive to their surroundings. • Other soothing activities include massage, soft talk, quiet music, meeting physical needs and offering a favorite toy or blanket. • All family members including fathers, grandparents and siblings can soothe baby, not only mothers.
section 4 / 6-9 months • meeting 23
92
Facilitator’s Manual