The Baby Whisperer
Oh, Oprah. What will you come up with next? This week Oprah had on a woman who says she has cracked the secret language of babies. Um, it’s not as silly as it sounds. On the November 2006 Expecting Club board, cl-tracib23 posts: “I am watching Oprah and thought this was amazing...I can hear the cries from Teagan but never really noticed the sound she made till now.”
From Oprah’s website: “After testing her baby language theory on more than 1,000 infants around the world, Priscilla says there are five words that all babies 0–3 months old say—regardless of race and culture….Those ‘words’ are actually sound reflexes, Priscilla says. ‘Babies all around the world have the same reflexes, and they therefore make the same sounds,’ she says. ..Priscilla recommends that parents listen for those words in a baby's pre-cry before they start crying hysterically. “
Mother of three lharnish22 posts: “Don't you just feel like you discovered gold????”
And krilerby, mother of four, writes: “I was amazed too!! I just finished watching it. While she was on, Riley started ‘owh,’ I gave him his paci, and off to sleep he went!! I am going to really have to start listening to him now!!”
pianobabe chimes in: “I could totally hear those noises made by the babies come from Zoe! I just need to memorize each sound and hopefully we'll be happier!”
j8nny: “It is amazing. I can now recognize his “eh” -- upper gas/burp sound, and it is great -- now I know to burp him right away! The other sounds are harder for me to pick up but I am definitely listening!”
I know, they sound like infomercial testimonials, right? But that’s just honestly how excited these moms are to discover that their babies are actually communicating with them. Has anyone ever had a “baby whisperer” moment? Or does this sound like a lot of hooey to you?
Hey, if dolphins and whales can talk to each other, I guess it’s not that crazy to think that babies talk in their own way.
Now if only they could learn to change their own diapers…
(Oh my god, and then, keep clicking through Oprah’s slideshow for a boy who echolocates, a bionic woman, and a soldier who carried around her skull in her abdomen. Fascinating. Completely fascinating.)
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This is pretty amazing - we've got the video clip in the feedroom library now http://ivillage.feedroom.com/?fr_story=74a68110e667aed8f207e14c5d7592e19d9a068a click here and then look down a few blocks to the crying baby... or look under the Today Show® section of the iVillage video library. I've often heard a baby & thought "oh my ... somebody's sleepy" but I never really thought about it the way Dunstan put it all together. Pretty wild!
I'm happy that someone actually took the time to do this study. I've heard every sound from Senai and know I don't feel so incompetent when it comes to taking care of her.
When i saw this I was thinking "duh". I think most mothers know the basic sounds that their babies make nad have half a clue what they mean. She's just the first person who actually catalogued and classified them.
These are NOT news to anyone who actually has a memory. Why? Because for many decades, adults would refer to kids food as "num-nums" (the sound babies make when hungry). Parents would ask, "Do you want more num-nums?" or "do you like your num-nums?".
As far as the burping sound, it is the baby trying to attempt to burp itself, but it is not able to do this, as it does not have the muscle strength or muscle control, yet.
I find it funny that you can communicate with your dogs/cats, but you never thought to listen to an actual human being (your babies).