How to Increase Infant Stimulation

Host: Is it important to have a lot of stimulation with a child and everybody around. What are some of the tips you could give to increase that thing called stimulation?

Steven Shelov: Stimulation when it comes to fostering development of babies can be overdone and certainly underdone. This has become a sort of sense of if you don't really stimulate your baby then the baby won't develop that's not true. Babies have developed perfectly fine when they are not overly stimulated but appropriate interaction between mother and baby or father and baby recognizing the cues of engagement to that baby or providing the kinds of other tools whether it be toys or riddles or things that are developmentally appropriate are all part of the baby learning about the environment, but the most important stimulation is you, the mother or the parent, it's the face, it's the smile, it's the language, it's the soothing tone, all that connection is the most important stimulation that can be done with the newborn baby.

As the newborn baby gradually grows and becomes more receptive to more other things that might go on, there are other opportunities whether it's colors or shapes or sounds or reading, all that is sort of led by the baby but needs to be responded to by the mother or the caregiver and then as the baby's developmental stages go into the second and third month as they start to be able to lift their head up and their smile is now truly interactive then lots of other things can be done in the crib or in the play area that can allow a child to simply begin to recognize what is out there in the world. These stages of development and incredibly sort of finding those things that the baby will respond to are very important to growth and development of the baby but don't over do it. We don't need flash cards if four months of age.

There is a tendency that parents get sort of so over involved that they think that if something is not going all of the time then there is going to be a lack. That's not the case. Remember, the most important stimulation for that baby is you, your words, your looks, your feel, your touch, your interaction and engagement throughout. That's the most important thing.

Host: Now lot of -- how you feel is also -- in your hands you should be very gentle, you should be soothing, that counts in baby too sometimes, is that something you figured about?

Steven Shelov: No question, there is lots of research to show the importance of infant touch on stimulation, on receptivity activity, on growth of brain, on development of a sense of attachment. We sometimes forget that the touch and the feel of the skin, it is a two way street, you get something from it and the baby gets something from it. Tiffany Field at Nova University in Florida has done extensive research on touch and infant massage but it doesn't have to be formal massage, just pressing, holding, touching, all of that skin to skin stuff, really is important to the baby developing a sense of security. What's amazing is those first videos of babies as they are crawling up the mother's belly in the very first minutes of life, it's the skin to skin connection that stimulates hormonal response in the mother. All the hormonal responses that are necessary to shrink the uterus and to begin to have milk flow that starts, a lot of that is stimulate by skin to skin. So if to extend that into the early weeks and months of the baby's life, the skin to skin touch is a tremendously important stimulus for the baby and the mother and the father to sort of connect and it's enjoyable for both.

Host: People most think the kid has to do something exactly by the fourth month or by the sixth month, the baby just crawls evenly, is that true?

Steven Shelov: Absolutely, the key to development is that there is continuity, that it's moving forward, that's progress. When we first designed and created the childcare book at the Academy of Pediatrics, we were worried about having sort of developmental milestones that parents would regard must happen by such and such a time. We built in. There is a range. The key is, has there been progress? Has there been movement? If it didn't happen at seven months and it's happens at eight months, it's okay and not to get so sort of frenetic or crazy about if it doesn't hit a certain immediate time. There meant to be ranges of normal and keep that in mind. If a baby pulls to stand at eleven months and some others don't do it till 13 months that's okay, as long as there has been a gradual growth and development of that skill, so that walking and moving around on their feet becomes the next step of development.

I know sometimes parents have come to me and said, my baby is not walking by one and the important question is, well, what is your baby doing? Well, actually she is rolling over, she is pulling to stand, occasionally she let's go, I say, that's the first step. I promise you, she, your baby will walk and therefore it's important to reinforce the fact that there are no absolute guidelines in which it is not happening at a certain point, then you must start to worry. Now that's not the same, that something babies fall outside the range and the developmental progress is slow or is not happening appropriately. So at some point, there can be recognition that okay, it's not going in the right direction but that's a small number of babies, the vast majority are within a range of normal and not to get worried if it doesn't sort of hit a specific.