Last week I kept getting asked if I had seen the “crying baby” episode of Oprah. A co-worker brought in a video tape, a few friends e-mailed me about it, and then we were at the grocery store and Ben began to fuss. An elderly woman urgently grabbed my arm and said “Did you see Oprah on Monday about the crying babies? Fascinating.”

OK OK I broke down - I’ll watch the Oprah segment!

The guest was Priscilla Dunstan who has a photographic memory for sound. She claims to have unlocked the secret to understanding what newborn babies need through the 5 universal sounds they make during their “pre-cry”  from 0-3 months. She said the key is listening for the sounds they make before the cry escalates and that will clue the parents in to what the baby wants. Neh-Owh-Heh-Eair-Eh No, Ben didn’t just throw his sippy cup at my keyboard, these are the 5 magic “words” Dunstan says will help you better understand what your baby needs.

Neh = I’m hungry

Owh = I’m Sleepy

Heh = I’m Experiencing Discomfort

Eair = I have lower gas

Eh = I Need to Burp

She did the experiment with a set of crying newborns on the show, and it appeared to work like a charm.

When I was in the hospital, one of the nurses said. “There are only so many reasons a baby cries, and you just have to use the process of elimination to figure out what is wrong.” Hungry, wet, tired, gas, comfort. If Dunstan is correct in her theory it would definately help a parent cut to the chase when their baby cries.

I’m all for anything that helps you navigate through the first few foggy months of parenthood. But when it comes right down to it what is important is that the parent’s are paying attention to the baby and attentive to it’s needs.

Did you see the show or has anyone put her theory into practice - what do you think?  

To read more about the Oprah segment and see video/audio of the different cries.  Click Here

This entry was posted on Monday, November 20th, 2006 at 9:19 am and is filed under Main, Parenting, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.