Babies in the Workplace

Responsive Care

Responding immediately and effectively to your baby's needs is an important part of raising a contented and well-adjusted baby. Highly-responsive care is an important part of keeping a baby content in a work environment. As you become more confident as a parent and more skilled in discerning what your baby is asking for, you and your baby are likely to develop a happy rhythm. The more quickly you meet your baby's needs, the less time she will spend crying to communicate them. This means she has more time for her primary job of learning about her world, and you'll have more time and energy for getting work done and playing with your baby.

Providing your baby with love and responding immediately to her basic needs will make your baby far more content, since she'll quickly learn that she doesn't need to resort to full-out crying to get your

attention. Although it may sometimes seem like more work in the short-term to respond so quickly to your baby's whimper, the rewards for you and your baby are immense.

In cultures in which the concept of "too much holding" never affected people's views, parents raise their babies according to their parental instincts and in a way that allows the parents to accomplish their daily tasks as effectively as possible while keeping their babies happy. They hold their babies nearly constantly and keep their babies close even while sleeping, which makes the babies feel safe, warm, and secure. Mothers breastfeed according to the babies' desires--not according to a "schedule." The babies feel part of the social world because they are able to see and be part of the social interactions of their parents.