Thoughts about baby crying!

Crying is one of the most basic reactions and communications skills an infant develops. Cries provide an array of information from “Change Me” to “I’m Breathing” to the caregivers supporting the infant and essentially allow infants to communicate with the world around them. According Dondi, Simion, & Caltran in 1999 babies have at leas three types of cries. The first type of cry, known as the basic cry, has a rhythmic pattern of a loud cry, followed by a silence, which then continues with a high pitched whistle, followed by another silence. This pattern will continue until the infant receives what he or she is looking for such as food. The second type of cry is the angry cry consisting of the same rhythmic pattern as the basic cry, but with the addition of excess air being forced though the vocal chords. The final type of cry is the pain cry which consists of an initial loud cry, followed by breath holding with no moaning present. This type of cry must be provoked from a very intense stimulus.