What are the symptoms of a baby startling? How to soothe a baby's startle reaction?

When babies startle, mothers think they are frightened. In this case, how should mothers comfort them? What should you do when your baby startsle? Don't worry, mothers, let's take a look at the coping methods~

How to soothe a baby's startle reaction

When a baby is just born, many careful parents often find that when the baby's blanket is opened or there is a little noise not far away, the baby's whole body will shake rapidly. Is the baby too timid or scared by the sound? In fact, it is not the case at all. Due to the incomplete development of the newborn's nervous system, the excitement caused by stimulation is easy to "generalize", which is manifested as opening the newborn's blanket or loud noises, strong light, vibrations, and changes in his body position will make the baby shake, have tremor-like spontaneous movements, or slow, irregular, twitching movements of the hands and feet, and sometimes even shaking of the ankles, knees and chin. These unconscious and uncoordinated movements are usually called startle.

Since these are controlled by the subcortical centers of the cerebral cortex, there is no pathological significance in the neonatal period, and parents do not need to be nervous. When a newborn baby starts to startle, an adult can calm him down by gently pressing any part of his body with his hand. For newborns who are not wrapped in blankets, you can also calm him down by holding his shoulders or holding him in your arms. Newborn startles generally do not require any special treatment.

Baby startle reaction

The scientific name is "Moro's reflex", which means that in the two situations of "sudden sound" and "feeling falling", the baby will suddenly raise both hands as if startled to wake himself up. This reflex will disappear at the latest in four or five months. Many elderly people say that the child is frightened, but in fact, it is not. It is a nerve reflex that all newborns have, which is normal.

What stimuli can cause the startle reflex?

Auditory stimuli are most common, most often unusual noises.

Visual stimuli are also very sensitive, such as sudden bright light stimulation or stimuli approaching the eyes quickly, which will cause a blink reflex and a series of defensive reactions.

Since the human body has tactile receptors distributed throughout the body, the startle reflex induced by tactile stimulation is more common and is often not easily noticed by adults.

Proprioception: The infant's nervous system is not fully developed, and proprioception can only cause unconscious chaotic reflexes. If you tie them too tightly or position their limbs incorrectly, it will cause abnormal reflexes and affect their sleep.

Visceral sensations, such as abnormal gastrointestinal digestion, can cause a baby's special startle reflex and affect sleep.

Therefore, when we look for the reasons why babies startle, we should search and analyze from all the possible triggers mentioned above until possible stimuli are eliminated and the baby can have a good sleep.

How to deal with your baby's startle reaction

There are ways to deal with these factors that cause the Moro reflex.

suggestion

1. Sudden sound

The quieter it is, the more obtrusive small sounds will be. And absolute silence is impossible to achieve.

Therefore, the way to deal with "sudden noises" is not to keep quiet, but to keep "noisy". Play white noise, music, etc. for the baby, so that there is always sound in the environment, and the baby will not be scared by "sudden noises". Don't worry about white noise affecting hearing. The baby has been listening to it for several months in the mother's belly. You may have forgotten that the mother's belly is very noisy.

2. The feeling of falling

If you coax your baby to sleep and then put him down, he will probably wake up because of the feeling of falling. Therefore, there are some rules for how to "put him down":

First: Be careful not to let the baby's head land on the bed first;

Second: It is best to lay it down sideways and then lie flat;

Third: Everyone understands, just slow down.

Of course, it is best not to put the baby down before he falls asleep. Let the baby slowly get used to being put down in bed and coaxed to sleep, and you won’t have to invent a thousand and one ways of “putting the baby down”.

"Putting the baby on the bed and coaxing him to sleep" can also avoid another reason why the baby wakes up when he falls to the ground. Read on.

Lack of security

What is lack of security? It is the inability to adapt, fear and terror of "sudden changes".

For example, I was tightly bound in my mother's belly, how come I'm not bound anymore? Wow~Wow~Wow~

For example, I was held when I fell asleep, how come no one is holding me now? Wow~Wow~Wow~

Just think about it, if you fell asleep on the bed and woke up to find yourself on the kitchen floor, would you get furious?

Therefore, swaddling is very important. Many mothers have said that their babies will wake up if they are not swaddled, but they can sleep for two hours if they are swaddled. If the baby is very resistant to swaddling, you can try to use a pillow to clamp his body, or sew a pocket with millet or beans to press his arms.

Therefore, it is very important to let your baby practice falling asleep in bed. Even if he cannot do it for the time being, please don't give up trying. Facts have proved that holding and coaxing your baby will not work in the long run.

Another good way to keep your baby feeling safe is to develop a comfort object, which will be of great benefit to your baby's ability to fall asleep on his own in the future.

During the newborn period, I encourage mothers to use pacifiers. This is the easiest way. You can slowly stop using pacifiers after 6-9 months without any problems. Of course, if your baby doesn't like pacifiers, there is nothing you can do about it.