Secure and smiling !

Not all infants spontaneously smile while seated in the mother’s lap. This infant resting his hand over mother’s  palm and feeling secure in mother’s lap is smiling away in delight and gladness. It is a sight that would capture anyone’s attention! 

It is such scenes that help any child watcher to take note of the  significance of emotional quotient, which of late, has often been referred to, as a deciding factor in the development of the temperament of an infant.  

An infant has three obvious emotional states. 

Satiety after feed or good sleep which is expressed through self play. It is a state of contentment lasting for a short while, but definitely conditioned by the previous experience of fulfilment. It is a state of wellness. Infants who convey such a state of wellness are well adjusted and rooted in a milieu of relationships. 

Another state is of expression of different needs of hunger, thirst, wanting to play or carried, etc. This is often expressed by vocalisation of sounds, body movements such as kicking legs or attempting to move around, which when not noticed would end in crying. Such a cry is distinct in tone, loudness and duration. Any mother would, on hearing the tone of the cry would sense it to be a sign of a need. Even when the baby cries, it is a communication of a need and not an expression of anger. When the need is met, some infants would return to a state of wellness and some others would resort to recurring cycles of needs, hardly settling into a state of wellness. Those infants are emotionally labile and less secure. 

A third emotional state is anxiety, often referred to as stranger anxiety. Most infants after an initial guarded response of an apparent engagement of a stranger, would turn away from a stranger and hold on to the mother or familiar care giver and would even refuse to respond to the gesturer of the stranger wanting to carry the infant. Some in that state would even cry. Such a cry has a tone of distress or pain. This is usually seen intensely around nine months of age, beginning from six months or so. Even here, an infant who has been used to be in a state of wellness predominantly, would overcome the stress of a stranger and return to be sociable after an initial period of adjustment. 

The bottom line is, the state of wellness determines or influences the other emotional states.

Are all infants secure and smiling! This is worth pondering over! It is linked to parenting styles! 

I am open to explore this further!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)