Show Notes
The term ‘self-soothing’ gets thrown around a lot on the internet, but what does it actually mean? In its simplest form, self-soothing refers to the behaviours humans use to calm themselves when feeling upset. For an adult this might mean meditation, deep breathing, or debriefing with a friend, and for a baby this could mean sucking their thumb or fingers, stroking their ears or nose, or rocking their head back and forth.
There are a huge number of ways humans can self-soothe. You might have heard that it’s impossible for a child under the age of 3 years to self-soothe, but this isn’t quite true – even tiny newborns can show some self-soothing behaviours, like sucking their hands – however, it’s their capacity to self-soothe that is also tiny and takes time to develop – so we can’t expect too much, too soon.
In episode 86 of Brand New Little People, Dr Fallon & Dr Laura (PhDs) dive deep in to self-soothing, to dispel some myths and help you to recognise your little one’s attempts to self-soothe.
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