Babies in the Workplace

understand just how much babies love being part of human interactions, I started to test this "boredom" theory. Whenever I was out in a store or in public and saw a baby crying in a stroller (I never actually saw one crying who was being held in someone's arms), I would go close to the baby (with the parent's permission) and start talking to the child. Every single time, the baby stopped crying, smiled, and made facial expressions in response. On one occasion, I was with a friend who was caring for a very fussy four-month-old baby. He was starting to work himself into a fairly distressed state, and my friend said, "Once he gets like this, nothing works to make him happy." I knelt down next to where the baby was sitting in a bouncy seat and started talking to him in a happy, excited voice. He immediately stopped fussing, smiled, and started making motions of trying to respond. As long as I interacted with him, he was happy. I suggested to my friend that the

baby appeared to have extremely high needs for new information--and she agreed that he did seem to remain happy as long as he had lots of activities to observe.

Our society tends to feel as though, because babies can't clearly express their desires for human interaction and contact, that they don't need it. The prevalence of keeping babies in covered strollers, even when they are awake, says it all--there seems to be an unconscious assumption that until babies are able to crawl or walk, that they are just little unemotional beings who only need food and to have their diapers changed. But the truth is, babies have tremendous potential and desire to learn about their world from the moment they are born--and the more opportunities we give them to make use of that potential, the happier (and more intelligent) they will be. Simply carrying a baby in a sling or in arms whenever possible is an incredible tool for raising happy, healthy, intelligent