I don’t know if you happened to see this fascinating episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show about the secret language of babies. I saw it a couple of weeks ago (it was a rerun) and was just absolutely amazed by the lady that was being featured, Priscilla Dunstan. She claims to have found the secret language of babies. Apparently every baby, regardless of culture or language, says the same things with his cries. According to Priscilla there are five “words” a baby says. She listens to the pre-cry sounds that a baby makes to identify what the baby is asking for or telling her. The five words are “neh” which means hunger, “owh” which means sleepy, “eair” which mean lower gas, “eh” which means upper gas (needs to burp), and “heh” which means discomfort. She has studied and recorded thousands of babies making these sounds and has a dvd out so that parents can learn what their babies are saying to them and better tend to their needs (if you click on the picture above for more info on the dvd).
After watching the show and listening to the sounds the babies featured were making I decided that I would listen more closely to my newborn daughter’s sounds to see if I could pick up on the “words” Priscilla mentioned. Sure enough, immediately I heard the “neh” sound, it was time to eat so I knew to listen for that sound and it was very obvious. During the feeding my daughter pulled away and made the “eh” sound. I put her up on my shoulder and patted her back, she burped just like she said she needed to. It was truly fascinating. Throughout the rest of the evening my husband and I tried to figure out what our daughter needed based on the sounds she was making. We weren’t able to figure everything out, but it was a huge help. I haven’t purchased the dvd yet, but I’m definitely considering it.
Babies can be very difficult to figure out, they don’t come with instructions. Listening to them cry can be heartbreaking cause we know they need something we just don’t know what it is. Our instinct as parents is to tend to the needs of our child and make them comfortable and happy. If they are speaking a secret language that we can learn it would make tending to their needs so much easier. Be sure to stop by the
Oprah website and check out the video from the show if you haven’t seen it already, you’ll be amazed.
The Secret Language of Babies
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