Many people wrongly believe that babies do not notice or remember traumatic events. In fact, anything that affects older children and adults in a family can also affect a baby, but they may not be able to show their reactions directly, as older children can.
If it is, the event is recorded in the child's brain as a traumatic memory, and research concludes that if it is still remembered after about age 2.5, children do not forget it.
While it may be true that a child won't remember their birth, they will nevertheless be shaped by the experience. Birth trauma is, unfortunately, common, and it leaves lasting effects on the babies who endure it.
In 1998, Harvard research showed that babies who cried excessively were susceptible to stress as adults, and sensitive to future trauma. Chronic stress in infancy can also lead to an over-active adrenaline system, causing anti-social and aggressive behavior, and even affect physical illness far into the future.
Newborns don't remember the details of their early days, but within the first six months they develop a conditioned response to repeated painful procedures.
“For instance, a baby may not remember explicitly the time they were yelled at in the kitchen booster seat when they were 6 months old, but their body remembers the way it recoiled, the way it pumped blood to increase oxygen to the muscles in response to feeling unsafe,” Keith explains.
A baby can detect anger in a voice as early as 5 months.
Parental arguing causes stress in the baby, elevating their heart rate and increasing their blood pressure.
When babies or toddlers are exposed to life-threatening or traumatic events, they become very scared – just like anybody else. Some common reactions may include: unusually high levels of distress when separated from their parent or primary carer. a kind of 'frozen watchfulness' – the child may have a 'shocked' look.
Now researchers say they have found that leaving infants to cry has no impact on their behavioural development or their attachment to their mother, but may help them develop self-control.
A baby's development at 18 months old is not adversely affected by being left to 'cry it out' a few times or often in infancy, researchers at the University of Warwick have found.
Infants and young children (under age 4) can develop post-traumatic stress disorders after events, according to a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
Our brain is not fully developed when we are born—it continues to grow and change during this important period of our lives. And, as our brain develops, so does our memory.
They follow your voice
Young babies start to reciprocate the bonding process by turning toward the voices they know (and love) the most. As early as 16 weeks in utero, babies have been listening in on Mom, Dad, siblings and anyone else Mom is around frequently—even the family dog.
Summary: On average the earliest memories that people can recall point back to when they were just two-and-a-half years old, a new study suggests. On average the earliest memories that people can recall point back to when they were just two-and-a-half years old, a new study suggests.
Trauma-induced changes to the brain can result in varying degrees of cognitive impairment and emotional dysregulation that can lead to a host of problems, including difficulty with attention and focus, learning disabilities, low self-esteem, impaired social skills, and sleep disturbances (Nemeroff, 2016).
Hearing a baby cry activates a physiological response that cannot be controlled. MRIs taken of a mother's brain when she hears her baby's cries show that the brain lights up in response within a second. Those areas that light up are associated with empathy, compassion, and notably alarm.
A baby "should simply be allowed to 'cry it out'. This often requires an hour, and in extreme cases, two or three hours. A second struggle will seldom last more than 10 or 15 minutes and a third will rarely be necessary."
Letting babies cry themselves to sleep has been viewed as cruel or even dangerous by some parents due to fears that such nighttime turmoil could raise an infant's stress levels and provoke future behavioral problems. But moms and dads needn't lose sleep with worry, according to research.
"Basic research shows that young babies even five months old can remember that a stranger came into room and scared them three weeks before. Even though the babies were pre-verbal, they can later remember traumatic events that occurred to them," said Lieberman.
Traumatic experiences can initiate strong emotions and physical reactions that can persist long after the event. Children may feel terror, helplessness, or fear, as well as physiological reactions such as heart pounding, vomiting, or loss of bowel or bladder control.
The myth: We used to think that babies and toddlers are too young to understand when adults are fighting and that they don't remember fights even when they are loud and stressful. The facts: We now know that parental fighting has an impact on babies, toddlers, and even babies still in utero.
Babies are born innately seeking safety and building trust that their needs will be met, she continues. “Yelling or aggression is felt by the baby as being unsafe, which releases stress hormones, leaving them with a general feeling of unease.”
When infants display anger and aggression, it is often due to discomfort, pain or frustration. Older babies will use aggression to protect themselves, to express anger or to get what they want. When your baby is aggressive, it is because he has not learned a better way of behaving.
Toddlers do not hold grudges.
The tantrum may even last half an hour. But once they calm down (sometimes with help), they go back to being their cheerful, curious selves— unlike adults, who can wake up on the wrong side of the bed and be cranky all day. Toddlers are also amazingly forgiving.