This week Maureen (Roots of Empathy tutor) visited us. We recapped on last week’s baby Eabha, visit. We discussed what Eabha liked/did not like and linked this to temperament traits.
Week two's session is more about feelings. We discovered that initial temperament does not change with age but we certainly learn to deal with it.
- Managing our feelings is what is IMPORTANT. We need to understand that everyone is unique and different feelings are alive around us all the time. How one person feels may differ to another.
- We linked our feelings to EMOTIONS. Different emotions such as happiness, sadness, excitement, surprise, sorrow and love are all a part of going up. We will encounter at least one, if not all of these in our lives.
Theme 2 – Crying was then introduced. We learnt that ‘crying’ is a baby’s main means of commutation. Crying babies are not BAD babies; they are babies with a problem who need our help. We discussed reasons why a baby might cry. Hungry? Thirsty? Cold? Hot? Lonely? Scared? Uncomfortable?
- Each baby has his/her unique mix of temperament traits. How often or how long a baby cries depends on temperament. Babies like, children and adults, react in different ways to different people and things.
- We then looked closely at the dangers of shaking a baby and learning NEVER to hit a baby. A baby’s brain is so delicate and may be bruised if it hits off the hard skull.
- Newborns start out with about 100 billion neurons and about 50 trillion synapses among them. Most of a baby’s brain development is between 0-3 years old.
- Over the coming year we all will see a third of baby Eabha’s brain developing.
