This is an excellent position paper from the Australian Association for Infant Mental Health (AAIMHI) on the importance of timely and appropriate response to babies’ cues (“Position Paper 2: Responding to Babies’ Cues”).

Based on their research, the AAIMHI highlight that “Babies become distressed if left to cry alone, and this can precipitate negative long term psychological consequences if done repeatedly.” Also, “AAIMHI maintains that babies’ upset feelings are to be taken seriously… When parents help babies to manage their difficult feelings, their babies learn how to do this for themselves as they grow older, thus they develop a healthy autonomy.

The paper also provides a comprehensive list of resources to support new parents in learning to interpret and respond to their baby’s cues, thus enhancing their attachment relationship.

To read the full report click here…