I do hope that as researchers look at the fussy babies who are later 
revealed to have particular difficulties, such as bi-polor disorder, that 
they will also look at possible environmental factors which could either 
cause both or be related to both. I look at the very high rate of depression 
in our society, fore example (and the rapidly increasing rates of depression 
in children - suicide among children in Canada has more than tripled in the 
past ten years or so) and strongly suspect there must be factors other than 
genetics involved.

For example, is it possible that our current high-intervention birth 
practices are contributing to this? Or foods, particularly the use of ABM or 
starting certain foods too early? Or environmental contaminants? Or 
parenting approaches? We know that a baby's brain is growing and developing 
significantly in the first few years and so anything that happens then could 
contribute.

In the field of child abuse/child protection, researchers have recently been 
studying "resilience." Some children who are severely abused nevertheless 
grow up to be emotionally stable and healthy people - in other words, they 
are resilient. The goal has been to identify what factors enable some of 
these children to grow up so well despite terrible childhood experiences, 
while other abused children suffer mental health and emotional problems all 
their lives. It makes me wonder if there is something similar happening with 
fussy babies - that they have some vulnerability that can lead to later 
difficulties, but that we might also find resilience factors which could 
help us prevent them.

Teresa Pitman 

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