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Babies’ language is so interesting, at the end of day, the best person who knows whether it is colic, crying or fussiness is the mum. Babies also giggles, grunts or babbles, and the more time parents spend with their babies, the better they know what their babies are actually expressing.
Priscilla Dunstan an Australian former mezzo soprano has developed the what we call now the Dunstan baby language. According to her hypothesis, new borns between 0-3 months have 5 sounds or vocal reflexes. Let us dive into a bit more into these 5 sounds:
1. Neh: This means I am hungry for babies. The sound is produced when the sucking reflex is triggered and the tongue is pushed up on the roof of the mouth. Babies may also try to gnaw or suck at their hand or reach towards your breast (or in that general area). If your baby begins to cry, it’s rhythmic and intense. As with all cries, the sooner you can give your baby attention, the quicker they will be to soothe and settle.
2. Eh: Means I need to be burped. This is when a baby feels a large air trapped in his/her chest causing distress, and need to release this air through his/her mouth. A pained facial expression, squirming, kicking feet, shaking arms and moving hips are all indications that your baby needs to burp. Your baby may also turn away when you offer the other breast or some more bottle as he/she doesn’t wants more of what has already made them feel discomfort.
3. Eairh: This sound indicates that the baby has flatulence or an upset gassy tummy. And this happens when the trapped air from a burp was unable to be released and travels to the stomach. Here the muscles of the intestines tighten to force the air bubble out. This sound may also mean that a bowel movement is in progress.
The cries will become very loud if you past the earlier stage to sooth and comfort your baby. And then your baby may raise their legs to their tummy, arch their back and be generally fidgety. If a bowel movement is in progress, you child will bend their knees and bring their legs towards their torso to help the process along.
4. Heh: Your baby indicates that he/she is feeling stress, discomfort such as Hot, cold or wet, or needing a nappy change. This sound is triggered as a response to a skin reflex, such as a sweaty or itchy feeling.
5. Owh: This is a sound similar to yawn And can be easily noticed as your baby may already showing the signs of sleepiness such as rubbing his/her eyes which my baby girl usually does, or simply closes his/her eyes along with a big yawning like opening of his/her mouth.
Babies experiences many sound reflexes，when sound is added to these, a distinct pre-emptive ‘cry’ will occur before it breaks into hysterical ‘cry’. Preemptive cries indicate the baby’s needs such as uncomfortable, hungry, sleepy and so on. And these cries will break into hysterical cries If not answered. As the babies mature past 3 months age, their vocalization will evolve to more elaborate babbling.
For my personal experience being a mum so far, I do relate to Dunstan’s baby language. For example, my baby girl’s first sound is en-neh which she expresses as soon as she was born, And now she is 18 months old and still using this sound to express that she is hungry.
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