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Emotional Wellbeing
You created a nursery with happy colors on the walls. You added a splash of toys—plush toys, squeeze toys, vibrant toys that make all sorts of different sounds—bells ring, rattles shake, cows moo, dogs bark, musical strains fills the air.But wait a minute…
Where did your baby spend the first months of its life?
The womb was dark, not harsh. The womb was soothing, not startling.
Your baby’s first home was a muted, fluid, rhythmic oasis.
Now, be objective: how would you describe your baby’s new home? Your colorful nursery with all its stimulating toys?
When we create a baby’s nursery, we need to respect and protect the emotional needs of our baby. At this early stage of life when a baby’s eyes are just beginning to focus (and remember a baby is actually near-sighted at birth), why are so many parents focused on speeding up the development of their baby’s intellect? During this initial period of life outside the womb, a baby wants to feel calm, be caressed and cuddled. A baby isn’t dreaming of being at the head of its class.
Yet so many baby products and baby books (the ones written for moms and dads) urge new parents to give their baby an intellectual head start, not an emotional safety net. New moms rarely compare notes about first smiles and first coos; they compare notes about first indications of a superior I.Q. All too eagerly, parents choose products that promise to get their babies dancing through the alphabet, mathematical tables, and first-grade readers in a second language.
All this stimulation has created a new emphasis that ignores the baby’s emotional needs. Too much visual and aural stimulation in a nursery makes it difficult for a baby to settle down and go to sleep. Too much stimulation in a nursery interferes with a baby’s natural urge to follow a familiar cycle of activities that began in the womb. Babies prefer the comfort of eating, sleeping, playing, even peeing and pooping at regular intervals. A healthy nursery provides an emotionally-supportive environment for the baby, for the parents, and for quiet time. Is your nursery nurturing your baby’s emotional wellbeing?