Читать книгу The Good Behaviour Book: How to have a better-behaved child from birth to age ten - Martha Sears - Страница 28

Beginning in the early weeks, hold or wear your baby in a baby sling for as many hours a day as you and your baby enjoy. Since 1985 we have been studying how babywearing improves behaviour. Parents would come into our surgery exclaiming, “As long as I wear our baby he’s content.” Research has validated this parental observation: babies who are carried more cry less. For centuries parents have known that motion calms babies, especially the rhythmic motion of parents’ walking. Carrying modifies behaviour primarily by promoting quiet alertness – the state in which babies behave best.

Babywearing helps you know your infant.

Babywearing also improves the way babies feel. The carried baby feels like a part of the parents’ world. He goes where they go, sees what they see, hears what they hear and say. Babywearing helps the baby feel included and important, which creates a feeling of rightness that translates into better behaviour and more opportunities for learning. The brain is stimulated through motion, increasing the baby’s intellectual capacity, a forerunner to the child’s ability to make appropriate sensory-motor adaptations in the future.

Wearing improves the sensitivity of the parents as well. Because your baby is so close to you, in your arms, in constant contact, you get to know him better. Closeness promotes familiarity. Because your baby fusses less, he is more fun to be with and you tend to carry your baby more. The connection grows deeper.

Like breastfeeding, babywearing promotes eye-to-eye contact. As I watch babywearing pairs parade through my surgery, I notice that not only are these babies and mothers physically connected, they are visually in tune. What a wonderful way to learn to read each other’s faces. As you will learn throughout this book, the ability to read and respond to each other’s “looks” is a powerful discipline tool. Over the years I have observed that “sling babies” become children who are easier to discipline.