Nikki writes:

<     Dr. Karp posted, " However, for turning on the calming reflex of
upset
babies the movement needs to be vigorous (in addition to swaddling and
often
with white noise=added as well)."
    Doesn't sound like a reflex to me.>

Whatever you call it, I was reminded of one of my sons now 47. First two
children, (endomorphs like me) calmed easily using what I had learned
working nights in the newborn nursery:  swaddling, feeding and rocking,
and I felt like I was "natural" at mothering. My confidence was really
shaken and the household very tense, when he had me and his dad up 6-7
times every night for over 2.5 years with what I suspect would now be
called GER. (These first three were not breastfed past 5 days, due to
poor breastfeeding management instruction of the times.)

As years passed, he developed into a gifted child, a competitive athlete,
and a musician with perfect pitch, and is now successful in a very
challenging profession and a wonderful dad. All that patience invested
was worthwhile, even thoughI felt at time that he was "born angry" Didn't
want to be held to be fed. Quite a challenge to rear, and I was prepared
when I had another one on down the line. I have shared this experience in
speaking to many moms and dads of fussy babies, and suggest that who
knows? Wouldn't they be surprised if their baby turns out to be
gifted!.It gave them a new perspective and changed their attitude, and
until something more definitive came along, seemed like a harmless piece
of fiction at worst.

In trying to cope with the frustrating early days, I constructed my own
theory that perhaps some babies (ectomorphs) seem to have more nerve
tissue than others, and each of their senses seem very easily stimulated,
perhaps to the point of pain (bright lights, noises, etc.) I often tell
parents that the baby in his Garden of Eden, totally surrounded and
supported, floating and not subject to the feeling of gravity, and able
to reach out at any time and touch mom, never experienced thbright lights
and loud noises, but neither did he experience complete silence or total
lack of motion, due to being surrounded by the mother's body.

So I have taught many parents how to try to imitate the womb: swaddle to
contain the startle reflex and avoid heat loss to the surrounding
atmoshere, dim the lights, pat more slowly, to imitate the speed of the
mother's heartbeat (instead of the rapid patting that simply expresses
their own anxiety or agitation), and rock at a speed the baby would have
experienced during the mother's normal walking pace. However or whatever
made it work, it quite often did.

Maybe Dr. Karp's theory on calming reflex might have something to do with
vestibular stimulation??? Just a thought.

Jean
************
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, Ohio USA

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