Emotions, Emotions and more emotions!

We all know them: emotions. We wake up with them and go to bed with them. Throughout the day, we feel a variety of emotions based on the situation around us and how we feel about it. Emotions influence our actions and send a message to the outside world. So it's important to be familiar with emotions and know how to deal with them. But did you know that this already starts at birth? Emotional development starts on day one and slowly grows with you. While you're reading this, your little one may be busy expanding his or her world. Depending on their age, they will become more aware of their own emotions and those of their caregivers. In this blog, we'll take you through your child's emotional development: how does it start and what can you expect?

In the belly

Even before the baby is born, it feels everything with you. The baby experiences from the inside how you feel and what is happening outside the womb. To some extent, they share the same emotions that you experience and react to loud noises outside the womb. The emotions you feel, and therefore they also feel, can have an effect on the baby after birth. So it is important to pay attention to your feelings and your mental health.

The first few months

There he/she is: your newborn baby! In the first few weeks, not much happens and they mostly sleep, but that doesn't mean they don't have emotions yet. Babies are able to have basic emotions. In the beginning, it will be a matter of satisfaction/dissatisfaction, but in the second month, emotions such as happiness, joy, and sadness are added. They express their feelings directly when they are present. This can cause your little one to suddenly cry, or the very first smile appears on their face. Emotions guide your baby in their actions. They are not yet able to regulate them.

When your baby reaches the age of three months, the actions of others will affect their emotions. Babies may start smiling or showing their satisfaction in response to something you do or to their toys. They will also imitate people around them by mimicking sounds. They are fascinated by their own voice and yours.

Months 4 - 6

In the second quarter of the first year, your baby will communicate more and better. They will let you know when they want to be picked up by raising their arms. Emotions also become more intense as time goes on; the difference between positive and negative emotions will increase. In addition, interest in the emotions of others increases. Your little one will try to mimic the emotions and facial expressions of others.

Their responsiveness is growing; the baby reacts to your emotions and those of others around them. For example, they may become sad when you are angry, and look away when you are sad. Actions also influence the baby's mood – for example, your baby will start crying when you stop playing.

In month five, your baby starts laughing. Furthermore, they expand their emotions with anger and frustration. Both emotions will be readable on the face. It is good to remember that babies don't mean anything personally, but simply live 'in the moment'. Everything they do is in response to a situation.

Babies also start to have more and more preferences or dislikes for certain things or situations. They may react negatively to food they don't like, or become frustrated when they want to do something that doesn't work yet.

When month six arrives, your baby may experience mood swings – they can become grumpy from one moment to the next. Fortunately, there are also plenty of positive milestones to spot this month: babies will stick out their tongues and divide their attention. This allows them to pay attention to more than one person and follow your gaze. There is also a chance that they will turn their head when you call them by name.

Month 7 – 9

During this period, your baby will experience a new emotion: fear. Babies can now react anxiously when a stranger approaches them or when you disappear from view. This is because babies in this phase can distinguish acquaintances from strangers. They become attached to a selection of people they prefer to stay close to. As a result, your baby may no longer want to sit on the neighbor's lap, even if that was different before. This is also called 'one-sidedness'. Another word for this is 'stranger anxiety'.

This can be a difficult time for you as a parent because it becomes challenging to go anywhere. Another development that comes after stranger anxiety is separation anxiety. Babies realize that they and you are not one. In other words, they develop their own consciousness.

When you disappear from sight, your child may suddenly start crying. Your baby doesn't understand that you will eventually come back; they think you're gone forever. This can cause crying fits and requires a calm, reassuring approach. It is important to take your little one's emotions seriously.

No worries! Experiencing separation anxiety is part of emotional development. It usually happens in children aged eight to eighteen months, although exceptions are possible.

In these phases, babies will have more need for signals of emotional reactions from you. They see this as a measure of whether something is 'safe' and use it to be reassured. They also use it to see what they should think of something. For example, if you pull a disgusted face when eating asparagus, there is a chance that the baby will do the same. Their preferences are based on yours. And if you get emotional from a visit to a store or doctor, or dropping the baby off at daycare, it may be that your child will associate the locations with sadness. This is known as 'social referencing'. This phenomenon mainly occurs in babies.

Besides stranger anxiety, separation anxiety, and social referencing, there is more room for games, and your baby is increasingly able to link their facial expressions to emotions. They are now familiar with all the basic emotions: interest, joy, surprise, anger, sadness, disgust, and fear. And they increasingly enjoy games like 'peek-a-boo'. Now is a good time to play social games with your baby!

In addition to expressing their own emotions, they are increasingly better at reading the gestures and facial expressions of others to understand how someone is feeling. They are also able to point to something and then check if you are really looking at the object too. This is a follow-up step in the area of dividing attention, which was already discussed in month six.

Month 10-12

The end of the first year is in sight, and this comes with even more milestones for your little one. The baby's awareness increases, and he/she can show more and more emotions. The emotion 'shame' now comes into play when they do something they are not allowed to do. Furthermore, the baby becomes even more sensitive to the approval and disapproval of others.

Around the twelfth month, a new era begins: your baby's emotional development expands with their first words. Babies can then communicate with physical gestures and small words. However, emotions will still feel just as intense as before for the time being. This will only decrease later in life when they have learned to regulate their emotions.

But for now, you will have to make do with unregulated emotions. Look at it from a positive side: you can already communicate with your child, even before they are a year old! That is certainly a milestone to celebrate and to be proud of. Your baby will surely share this emotion with you, just like the previous emotions!