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Parents' perceptions of temperament in their three-month-old infants were examined in relation to prenatally measured parental characteristics and to objective indices of infant behavior at three months. Infant behavior and parental characteristics appear to make independent contributions to parents' perceptions in early infancy.
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A study evaluating the treatment of colic by modification of the parent-infant interaction was carried out in a private practice setting. The study population consisted of 30 normal colicky infants and 30 control infants matched for age in weeks, sex, and the presence of siblings. The two groups were similar with regard to sociodemographic and other variables with the exception that mothers of colicky infants were older (P less than .005). Quantitative measurements of crying were obtained using prospective diaries of infant behavior. Colicky infants were found to cry 2.6 +/- 1.1 h/d as compared with 1.0 +/- 0.5 h/d for control infants (P less than .001). The treatment of these infants was based on the assumption that colic results from inappropriate parental responses to the baby's crying and consisted of counseling the parent on more effective responses. This resulted in the infants' crying decreasing from 2.6 +/- 1.1 h/d to 0.8 +/- 0.3 h/d (P less than .001), no different from the average of the control group. It is concluded that a major cause of colic is the misinterpretation of infant cries leading to ineffective responses, and that this can be managed by counseling parents on how to respond to infant crying.
The chief purpose of this study was to identify characteristics that distinguish approach as an attachment behavior from approach serving other behavioral systems. Locomotor approaches of 16 male and 10 female white middle-class infants to an attachment figure (the mother) and to a nonattachment figure (the visitor-observer) were examined under naturalistic conditions at home. Observations were made during 4-hour home visits at 3-week intervals; those from 26 to 54 weeks were used. When approach was examined in a free-choice situation and without regard to behavioral context, infants approached the mother proportionally (though slightly) more often than the visitor (p less than .05). In 2 behavioral contexts, however, spontaneous infant approaches were sharply differential to the mother; approaches accompanied by crying and approaches terminating in a pickup appeal were directed almost exclusively to the mother (p less than .0001 for both). Touching upon completion of the approach was not differential, except in the context of a pickup appeal. Object-oriented approaches were more often directed to the visitor than to the mother (p less than .002) and may be either exploratory or affiliative. It is suggested that neither approach nor touching can be assumed to serve the attachment system without consideration of context- both environmental and behavioral.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore mothers' perceptions of their experiences in feeding their preterm infants in the early weeks after hospital discharge. SUBJECTS: Twenty-seven mothers whose preterm infants were part of a larger study of feeding readiness participated. DESIGN: A qualitative, descriptive approach was used to explore mothers' experiences in feeding their preterm infants after hospital discharge. METHODS: A convenience sample of mothers of preterm infants were interviewed 2 to 3 weeks after hospital discharge. Data were generated by semi-structured interview and analyzed by searching for thematic patterns in the data. Mothers were asked to describe their experiences feeding their infants, their perceptions of how their infants' feeding ability had changed since discharge, and the meanings they gave to these changes. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. Agreement of themes between the investigators was achieved. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Three themes emerged from the interviews: interpreting infant behaviors, managing the feeding process, and realizing knowledge gaps. PRINCIPAL RESULTS: Mothers struggle with infant feeding in the first few weeks after discharge and experience a period of transition before comfort develops. CONCLUSIONS: Nursing interventions should include anticipatory guidance to mothers about feeding their infants after discharge and more concrete information regarding infant cues of hunger and satiation. Follow-up visits after discharge should include a review of the current feeding regimen, information regarding feeding progression, and reinforcement about changing infant behaviors as the preterm infant approaches 40 weeks postmenstrual age.
BACKGROUND: The amount of alcohol ingested by a breast-fed infant is only a small fraction of that consumed by its mother, but even this small amount may have an effect on the infant. We investigated whether the ingestion of alcohol by a lactating woman altered the odor of her milk and whether exposure to a small amount of alcohol in the mother's milk had immediate effects on the behavior of the infant. METHODS: Twelve lactating women and their infants were tested on two days separated by an interval of one week. On each testing day, the mother expressed a small quantity of breast milk and then drank either orange juice or orange juice containing a small quantity of ethanol (0.3 g per kilogram of body weight). Additional milk samples were obtained at fixed intervals after the ingestion of the beverage and analyzed to determine their ethanol content. The samples were also evaluated by a panel of adults to determine whether any difference in the odor of the milk was detectable after alcohol ingestion. The infants were weighed before and after nursing to assess the amount of milk they ingested, and their behavior during breast-feeding was monitored by videotape. RESULTS: Short-term alcohol consumption by lactating women significantly and uniformly increased the perceived intensity of the odor of their milk as assessed by the panel; this increase in the intensity of the odor peaked 30 minutes to 1 hour after the alcohol was consumed and decreased thereafter. The alteration in the odor of the milk closely paralleled the changes in the concentration of ethanol in the milk (mean range, 0 to 6.9 mmol per liter [0 to 32 mg per deciliter]). The infants sucked more frequently during the first minute of feedings after their mothers had consumed alcohol (67.0 +/- 6.5 sucks, as compared with 58.4 +/- 5.9 sucks for feedings after the consumption of the nonalcoholic beverage; P less than 0.05), but they consumed significantly less milk (120.4 +/- 9.5 ml vs. 156.4 +/- 8.2 ml, P less than 0.001) during the testing sessions in which their mothers drank the alcoholic beverage. CONCLUSIONS: Although the mechanisms underlying this reduction in milk intake remain to be elucidated, this study shows that short-term alcohol consumption by nursing mothers has an immediate effect on the sensory characteristics (odor) of their milk and the feeding behavior of their infants.
An experimental crib has been designed for use in studying the effect of visual feedback upon the exploratory behavior of the human infant. It can be easily adapted to older children, to some animals, and to problems other than the development of exploratory behavior.
The behavioral and cortisol responses of Japanese infants and Caucasian American infants, 4 months of age, were observed during and following routine inoculation. The Caucasian American group showed a more intense initial affective response and a longer latency to quiet than the Japanese group; the Japanese group showed a greater cortisol response. A 4-group taxonomy was created based on high or low behavioral and cortisol response: high behavior-high cortisol, low behavior-low cortisol, high behavior-low cortisol, and low behavior--high cortisol. There were significant differences between the 2 groups of infants using this taxonomy: Infants in the Caucasian American group were more likely to fall in the high behavior-low cortisol group, while infants in the Japanese group were more likely to fall in the low behavior-high cortisol group.
This study compares behaviors that differed across levels of established (e.g., nonprocedural) infant pain with those that differed between periods of greater and lesser distress within any level of infant pain. Sixty-four videotaped infants of two ages (0 to 3 months and 7 to 12 months) and four levels of established infant pain (none, mild, moderate, and severe) were used. Pain was from medical or surgical causes. Behaviors were compared between the most distressed (HI) and the least distressed (LO) video segments per infant and across the four levels of infant pain using a two-level (distress and level of pain) MANOVA. Many behaviors were indicative of high levels of established pain and greater distress. Others increased with greater distress but lower levels of pain. Findings suggest that many behaviors indicative of high distress that constitute the immediate infant pain response are not good indicators of levels of established infant pain.
Maternal vitamin B6 status correlates birth weight with infant behavior and maternal infant interactions.
Squirrel monkey infants reared on surrogates showed an increase in vocalizations, but no change in plasma cortisol levels when the surrogate was removed from the home cage for .5 hr. When the infant was exposed to novelty during separation, there was a further increase in vocalizations, as well as increases in movement and plasma cortisol. Placing the surrogate with the infant in the novel environment reduced the behavioral reaction and led to high levels of infant-surrogate contact; however, plasma cortisol levels were as high at .5 hr as when the infant was in the novel environment alone. With longer (2-4 hr) exposures to the novel room, cortisol elevations were attenuated by the presence of the surrogate. When the infant was alone, levels of cortisol, but not protest behavior, increased with length of exposure to the novel room. These results indicate that the physiological reaction to separation procedures in infant primates may not be safely inferred from behavioral responses, and, together with earlier findings, suggest a deficiency in the attachment of surrogate-reared infants.
Nursing behavior of 56 singleton infant pigtail monkeys (Macaca nemestrina) was monitored. Infants over 1 mo. of age showed strong preferences for one of their mothers' nipples, while few infants less than 1 mo. old did so. The infants which had the lowest birthweights for each sex showed no clear preference even though they were older than 1 mo. A trend toward lateral preference (for the right nipple) was identical for male and female infants. Analysis of the development of preference for nipple may provide useful information of assessing development progress.
Infant Syrian golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) do not exhibit endogenous heat production before 3 weeks of age and do not huddle effectively during cold exposure, gaining little thermoregulatory benefit from the presence of multiple littermates. In contrast, infant Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) produce heat endogenously and are effective at maintaining elevated body temperatures by huddling. Therefore, the ineffective huddling of infant hamsters may be due to the absence of endogenous heat production. The huddling behavior of infants in mixed huddles of 8-day-old hamsters and weight-matched 4-5-day-old rats was observed to explore this possibility. The results indicate that hamsters, even when cold, effectively gain access to heat-producing rats, supporting the idea that endothermy contributes to the behavior of huddling by providing heat to each individual and thermal stimuli to other infants to support aggregation.
This study was designed to assess the potential convergence of 3 approaches to the description of temperament in the first month of life and to identify which aspects of early temperament are most meaningful to mothers. 48 newborns were tested with the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS). 2 weeks later, mothers responded to the Rothbart Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ). 2 weeks thereafter, mothers were interviewed in accordance with the Thomas, Chess, and Birch New York Longitudinal Study (NYLS) clinical guidelines while the NBAS was again administered to their infants. A number of significant and/or marginally significant correlations were established among the 3 instruments, suggesting that early measures of infant behavior may implicitly or explicitly reflect aspects of functioning associated with the construct of temperament. The findings argue for an increased emphasis on temperament research in the first postpartum months, for the development of more age-appropriate assessments, for the simultaneous use of multiple measures in such research, and for the continued inclusion of mothers as credible observers of infant behavior.
This study documented communication behaviors of hearing mothers and infants with a hearing loss that had been identified before 9 months of age (Group HL). Their behaviors were compared with those of mothers and infants without hearing loss (Group H). Each group was composed of 18 dyads videotaped during mother-infant play with toys at 12- and 18-months. Group HL mothers produced more gestural and tactile communications (but similar numbers of vocal communications) compared to H mothers. In contrast with earlier reports, infants with and without hearing loss were similar in quantity of gestural and vocal expressive prelinguistic communication behaviors. Despite group similarities in quantity of prelinguistic communications, H infants as a group surpassed HL infants in expression of formal language by 18 months. There was considerable variation within each group in formal language expression, however, with performance of some HL infants matching that of H infants.
Medically high-risk (HR), low birth weight (LBW) preterm infants (n = 11) with significant degrees of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) were seen at 12 and 24 months of age. This HR group was compared with a low-risk (LR) LBW preterm group (n = 16) with respiratory distress syndrome or mild grades of IVH, and a normal full-term (FT) group (n = 12). Infants and their mothers were observed in a 10-min toy-centered play interaction to determine if more advanced exploratory play occurred in association with specific maternal attention-directing behaviors. Results showed that the FT infants were able to respond with advanced exploratory play to unstructured as well as structured strategies, but that higher level play for the LR infants was associated with structured strategies. The HR infants showed fewer play responses than the other two infant groups regardless of whether mothers used structured or unstructured strategies. All infant groups showed more exploratory play behavior in relation to mothers' maintaining versus redirecting behavior.
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OBJECTIVE: To explore racial differences in reporting of early postpartum depressive symptoms. To explore whether racial differences in early postpartum experience (such as mother's health status and social context) might account for racial differences in reported postpartum depressive symptoms. METHODS: This was a telephone survey of 655 white, African-American, and Hispanic mothers between 2 and 6 weeks postpartum. Mothers reported on demographic factors, physical symptoms, daily function, infant behaviors, social support, skills in managing infant and household, access, and trust in the medical system. We explored racial differences in report of early postpartum depressive symptoms using bivariate and multivariate statistics. RESULTS: African-American and Hispanic women more commonly reported postpartum depressive symptoms (43.9% and 46.8%, respectively) than white women (31.3%, P < .001). Similar factors (physical symptom burden, lack of social support, and lack of self-efficacy) were associated with early postpartum depressive symptoms in white, African-American, and Hispanic mothers. In a comprehensive model including other demographic factors, history of depression, physical symptoms, daily function, infant behavior, social support, skills in managing infant and household, access, and trust, the adjusted odds ratio for reported postpartum depressive symptoms remained elevated for African-American women at 2.16 (95% confidence interval 1.26-3.70) and Hispanic women at 1.89 (95% confidence interval 1.19-3.01) as compared with white women. CONCLUSION: African-American and Hispanic mothers are at higher risk for reporting early postpartum depressive symptoms as compared with white mothers. Factors associated with these symptoms are similar among African-American, Hispanic, and white mothers.