Can you help? Crying game and baby talk

[Isa]

Hello,

My name is Isabel and I am doing a research on babies’ communication as part of my Children’s Services course. As part of the course, I have to take part in work placement but because I’m in the early stages of pregnancy (my first) I had been strongly advised that I shouldn’t do the work placement due to health reasons. Unfortunately, I only know a couple of mothers and I need to gather information from parents of a young baby up to 12 months and parents of toddlers aged between 12 months to 3 years. I am hoping that you would be able to help with the questions below. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. :)

Child’s age:
Do your baby’s cries sound the same?
How can you tell the difference what each cry means?
How does your baby or toddler let you know he/she is feeling when he/she is:
Hungry
Uncomfortable
Fearful or anxious
Tired
Angry
Frustrated
Bored
Interested
Happy
Contented

[Chickadee]

Child’s age: 2 years (28 months)
Do your baby’s cries sound the same? No
How can you tell the difference what each cry means? Different pitch and intensity, as well as looking for other body signs

How does your baby or toddler let you know he/she is feeling when he/she is:

Hungry Verbally tells me what she wants, and/or points to her tummy, and/or drags me to the kitchen and/or points to what she wants.
Uncomfortable Sad face, may point to a hurt or tell me something hurts.
Fearful or anxious Big eyes, asks to be picked up or clings to my body
Tired Yawning, rubbing eyes, may be clingy to me or ask for her dummy
Angry Yells and hits out
Frustrated Yells ("No") and may push away or throw the source of frustration
Bored Wanders away :rolleyes:
Interested Bright eyes focused on task/object, smiles, reaches out to touch and join in, talks about it.
Happy Laughs, smiles
Contented Laughs, smiles, cuddles, talking about things around us.

[Supermum]

Child’s age: 3 (he) and 22 months (she)
Do your baby’s cries sound the same? Absolutely not – and you get to know their cries so intimately that you can tell your babies cry a mile away … even in a room full of other babies you know if it’s yours who is crying.
How can you tell the difference what each cry means? Practise! Pain, fear and hunger are the easy ones and your gut tells you … the other ones you work out through trial and error in the early days. The more you get to know your child and tap into their psyche, general disposition and posturing, the quicker you can ascertain what the problem is.
How does your baby or toddler let you know he/she is feeling when he/she is:
Hungry – He tells me, she signs (she knows basic sign language) hungry, thirsty, finished, toilet but she’s talking more now so the need to sign lessens as her grasp of language increases.
Uncomfortable – He tells me he’s sad, She whinges, gets clingy and I work it out!
Fearful or anxious – Very obvious with both of them … they both cling to my leg or ask to be picked up. If they are very fearful they both have their own cry or scream which tells me how heightened the sense of fear is.
Tired – He gets hyper and fractious, She rubs her eyes and I ask her if she’s tired and she answers honestly with a ‘yeth’
Angry – I can see it in his face as it’s very expressive, he grits his teeth and lashes out, she furrows her brow, looks cross and says no ALOT!
Frustrated – He jumps up and down on the spot and whinges, she jumps up and down on the spot and whinges or throws herself on the ground saying NO .. ALOT.
Bored – He whinges, she whinges
Interested – They pay attention – he will ask lot’s of what’s and why’s … she will stand and watch and point.
Happy – he laughs out loud and his whole demeanour is infectious, she giggles a girly giggle and twirls around on the spot or shows me how clever she is with her latest trick.
Contented – he comes and sits on my lap and buries his head or talks quietly to me, she sits on my lap and buries hers … ahhhhhh. They both ask for lots of hugs.

I’m very intuitive by nature anyway, but you soon learn as a parent, to trust your instincts. They are powerful and invariably right.

[mylittletwins]

Child’s age:
4.5 months twin boys
Do your baby’s cries sound the same?
No they are different
How can you tell the difference what each cry means?
Instinct and listening
How does your baby or toddler let you know he/she is feeling when he/she is:

Hungry
Crys alot
Uncomfortable
Moves around and moans
Fearful or anxious
Has a worried look on their face
Tired
Rubs eyes and arms start to shake abit
Angry
Mouth scrunches up and starts crying
Frustrated
Crys get longer and louder
Bored
Twin 1 makes a Boo sound and Twin 2 starts to get uptight
Interested
There eyes just light up and stay focus and may even smile
Happy
Lots of smiles and squeals
Contented
Smiles, Squeals and laughs

[MrsMiggins]

Hi! Congrats on your pregnancy & good luck with your research!!

Child’s age: 5.5 months
Do your baby’s cries sound the same? No
How can you tell the difference what each cry means? I think my baby has 4 stages of crying. This is how I'd describe the different stages (listed in order of increasing urgency): Whingeing, grizzling, crying & screaming. The different intensities are a good way of knowing the difference, but she also has a different tone, depending on why she is crying. Eg: she might grizzle when she is both tired & hungry, but has a different tone for each of these. There are also other signs that accompany each different cry, which helps identify the reason she is crying & you also get to know when in their routine to expect different things.

How does your baby or toddler let you know he/she is feeling when he/she is:

Hungry: Starts grizzling almost immediately.
Uncomfortable: Wriggles & grizzles
Fearful or anxious: Depends on how scared or anxious. Often it'll start with her bottom lip sticking out & a wail will turn into a cry or a scream.
Tired: rubbing eyes, sucking thumb, long blinks, pushing her head into my shoulder, moaning quietly to herself & depending on how tired, she can whinge, grizzle or cry. Sometimes when she's overtired, it can work up to a scream pretty quickly!
Angry: A yell! Sometimes a scream. It's a bit hard to judge this one at this age as babies this young don't really experience a true anger.
Frustrated: Thrashing arms about, grizzling or yelling/crying, moving head side-to-side.
Bored: scrunching face up, whingeing, wriggling
Interested: wide open eyes, remains fairly still & fixated, unblinking
Happy: giggling, smiling, cooing, moving about excitedly, squealing (has just started tis in the last few weeks!)
Contented: happy to sit still on my lap, sighs.

[razzle]

Child's age: 2
Do your baby’s cries sound the same? Definitely not
How can you tell the difference what each cry means? Experience! Ditto what Supermum has said!

How does your baby or toddler let you know she is feeling when she is:
Hungry - Verbally asks for food, or grizzles until I give her some.
Uncomfortable - General winge
Fearful or anxious - Calls me and clings to my leg or arm, asked for a cuddle
Tired - a monotone whine/cry, rubbing of eyes
Angry - high pitched yelling
Frustrated - high pitched yelling
Bored - basic whineing and asking for cuddles or she wanders off and finds something more interesting!
Interested - happy, laughing, pointing at things
Happy - laughing, singing, twirling, running
Contented - talking quietly to herself, or singing, humming, cuddling

[veve]

Happy to help :D


Child’s age: 4 months

Do your baby’s cries sound the same? absolutely not!

How can you tell the difference what each cry means? the tone.. the duration.. the volume!

How does your baby or toddler let you know he/she is feeling when he/she is:
Hungry- louder cry that often can not be discouraged (with redirection or toys)

Uncomfortable- a general whingey cry - lots of body wiggles

Fearful or anxious- big change in facial expression - a huge pout and what I call a huffy puffy cry - followed by a long cry

Tired- lots of eye rubbing.. more of a whimper - yawns- he also talks (babbles) more when he is tired

Angry- I dont think he has BEEN angry yet?? do 4 month olds get angry??

Frustrated- lots of short noises - which escalate to a cry if I dont help him

Bored- he uses his arms and repeatedly hits himself on the stomach (as if waving his arms around in an unco-ordinated manner) - he is rarely bored though... he is happy watching tv or the ceiling fan :rolleyes:

Interested- tends to 'shut down' - no noises... just big open eyes!

Happy- giggles? big smiles... lots of eye contact .. often dribble too!! :)

Contented- occasional sighs .. very little movement (good time for cuddles)

[Ange&Seth]

Child’s age: 5 and a half months
Do your baby’s cries sound the same? no
How can you tell the difference what each cry means? just a learning curve. When we first brought Seth home it was very much 'trial and error' as to what his cry meant but within a few weeks we just knew the difference
How does your baby or toddler let you know he/she is feeling when he/she is:
Hungry - bit of a funny noise and sucking on thumb
Uncomfortable - start to cry for about 2 seconds then stop. If we don't come straight away he'll do it again until we do
Fearful or anxious - high pitched squeal, face goes beet red
Tired - rubs at eyes
Angry - don't know that he has been!
Frustrated - bit of a sooky cry
Bored - no emotion shows on his face at all
Interested - raised eyebrows, eyes wide open
Happy - giggling and talking very loudly
Contented - smiles and goos

[Kaileysmum]

Hi I did the same course and Loved it!!! Im a kid person.


Heres my answers:

Child’s age: Almost 6mths

Do your baby’s cries sound the same? No

How can you tell the difference what each cry means? Sound, pitch, also experience

How does your baby or toddler let you know he/she is feeling when he/she is:

Hungry - Gets wingy, looks at bottle all the time/trys to grap it (if one is around)

Uncomfortable - Looks at you and winges then it soon turns into a cry

Fearful or anxious - Changes facial expression very quickly then crys intantly

Tired - Rubs eyes, winges constantly

Angry - Grunts, moves around a lot

Frustrated - Grunts

Bored - Puts on a cry and looks at mummy

Interested - Raises eyebrows, wriggles, smiles a lot and has an open mouth expression

Happy - Smiles, giggles, baby talks, squeals a lot!!!

Contented - Sighs, smiles, talks baby talk, lays and looks at you sweetly!!!

[mumoftwoboys2005]

I think you will get all the information you need from the ladies on this site. They are marvellous. :smiliedance:


Child’s age: 9 months

Do your baby’s cries sound the same? No

How can you tell the difference what each cry means? Generally by the body language that goes with his crying/whinging

How does your baby or toddler let you know he/she is feeling when he/she is:

Hungry: He sits at the baby gate that blocks off the kitchen from the Lounge Room and whinges/screams depending on how hungry he thinks he is.

Uncomfortable: Loud long cry and shows his backside.

Fearful or anxious: Squealy and hides his face in my neck.

Tired: Sits and sings to himself (in the car he has one long ahhhhhhh) Can go for miles.

Angry: Very Red Face and leans over and pushes his big brother (because he is usually the one that caused the anger)

Frustrated: loud growling sound

Bored: Looks up at me with Puppy Dog Eyes and pleads with me to drop everything and play with him.

Interested: Wide Eyed look of anticipation. This happens especially when Playhouse Disney is on in the morning.

Happy: Great Big Laughs that go for ages.

Contented: Sighs and lays his head on my shoulder.


I hope this has been enough information for you. :fingerscrossed:

[Imogensmum]

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Child's age: 8mths Girl
Do your baby’s cries sound the same? No very distinct differences
How can you tell the difference what each cry means? Having spent practically 24/7 with bub for 8 mths!!! I think instinctivly as a mum you know the subtle differences in cries- even before you realise you do! IYKWIM

How does your baby or toddler let you know she is feeling when she is:

Hungry - Smacks her lips together, grizzles and holds her arm out in front of her and up-side down claps (like the come here sign)

Uncomfortable - Whinge- moves around a lot

Fearful or anxious - Eyes give it away- and comes straight to me to be picked up!

Tired - rubs eyes, gets cranky/frustrated easily, will put her head down on things, cries easily

Angry - growling... clenching

Frustrated - as above also throws/bangs things down

Bored - ??? I am not sure- i guess just ???I really dont know

Interested - Smiles, gooing, looking/exploring items

Happy - Smiling, giggling, babbling etc

Contented - fairly quiet, intereested, snuggly