Editing Infant (section)

==Care and feeding==
{{Further|Newborn care and safety}}
{{Further|Infant bathing}}
[[File:初土俵入2.gif|thumb|Crying baby<!--This is not a [[Naki Sumo Crying Baby Festival]] where you win or lose based on whether you cried or not.-->]]
Infants [[Infant crying|cry]] as a form of basic instinctive communication.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eEsyCgAAQBAJ&q=Infants+cry+as+a+form+of+basic+instinctive+communication&pg=PT35|title=The Calm and Happy Toddler: Gentle Solutions to Tantrums, Night Waking, Potty Training and More|last=Chicot|first=Rebecca|date=2015-12-03|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1-4735-2759-1|language=en}}</ref> A crying infant may be trying to express a variety of feelings including hunger, discomfort, overstimulation, boredom, wanting something, or loneliness.

Infants are [[Precociality and altriciality|altricial]] and are fully dependent on their mothers or an adult caretaker for an extended period of time.<ref>{{cite journal | pmc=8455097 | date=2020 | last1=Faust | first1=K. M. | last2=Carouso-Peck | first2=S. | last3=Elson | first3=M. R. | last4=Goldstein | first4=M. H. | title=The Origins of Social Knowledge in Altricial Species | journal=Annual Review of Developmental Psychology | volume=2 | issue=1 | pages=225–246 | doi=10.1146/annurev-devpsych-051820-121446 | pmid=34553142 }}</ref> [[Breastfeeding]] is the recommended method of feeding by all major infant health organizations.<ref name="AAP_Policy">{{cite journal |vauthors=Gartner LM, Morton J, Lawrence RA, Naylor AJ, O'Hare D, Schanler RJ, Eidelman AI | title = Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk | journal = Pediatrics | volume = 115 | issue = 2 | pages = 496–506 | date = February 2005 | pmid = 15687461 | doi = 10.1542/peds.2004-2491 | s2cid = 263051578 | doi-access =  }}</ref> If breastfeeding is not possible or desired, bottle feeding is done with expressed breast-milk or with [[infant formula]]. Infants are born with a sucking reflex allowing them to extract the milk from the [[nipple]]s of the breasts or the nipple of the [[baby bottle]], as well as an instinctive behavior known as ''rooting'' with which they seek out the nipple. Sometimes a [[wet nurse]] is hired to feed the infant, although this is rare, especially in developed countries.

Adequate food consumption at an early age is vital for an infant's development. The foundations of optimum health, growth, and neurodevelopment across the lifespan are established in the [[first 1,000 days]] of life.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicef-irc.org/article/958-the-first-1000-days-of-life-the-brains-window-of-opportunity.html|title=The first 1,000 days of life: The brain's window of opportunity|last=Innocenti|first=UNICEF Office of Research-|website=UNICEF-IRC|language=en|access-date=2019-03-28|archive-date=2019-03-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328061358/https://www.unicef-irc.org/article/958-the-first-1000-days-of-life-the-brains-window-of-opportunity.html|url-status=live}}</ref> From birth to six months, infants should consume only breast milk or an unmodified milk substitute. As an infant's diet matures, finger foods may be introduced as well as fruit, vegetables and small amounts of meat.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wells|first=Dilys|title=Infant Feeding|journal=Nutrition & Food Science|date=January 1995|pages=42–44|doi=10.1108/00346659510078312|volume=95|issue=2}}</ref>

As infants grow, [[food supplement]]s can be added. Many parents choose commercial, ready-made [[baby food]]s to supplement breast milk or formula for the child, while others adapt their usual meals for the dietary needs of their child. Whole cow's [[milk]] can be used at one year, but lower-fat milk is not recommended until the child is two to three years old. Weaning is the process through which breast milk is eliminated from the infant's diet through the introduction of solid foods in exchange for milk.<ref>{{cite book |last=Marriott and Foote |first=L.D. and K.D. |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofhu0001unse_f8u2 |title=Weaning of infants. (Review) |publisher=Academic OneFile. |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-4129-0475-9 |series=88.6 |author-link=Archives of Disease in Childhood |url-access=registration}}</ref> Until they are toilet-trained, infants in industrialized countries wear [[diaper]]s. The transition from diapers to training pants is an important transition in the development of an infant to that of a toddler. Children need more sleep than adults—up to 18 hours for newborn babies, with a declining rate as the child ages. Until babies learn to walk, they are carried in the arms, held in slings or baby carriers, or transported in baby carriages or strollers. Most industrialized countries have laws requiring [[child safety seat]]s for babies in motor vehicles.

===Common care issues===
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Baby colic]]
* [[Bassinet]]/[[infant bed|crib]]
* [[Cradle cap]]
* [[Day care]]
* [[Diaper rash]]
* [[Infant massage]]
* [[Immunization]]
* [[Pacifier]]
* [[Paternal bond]]
* [[Swaddling]]
* [[Teething]]
{{div col end}}

===Benefits of touch===
[[File:Georgia National Guard (38100696265).jpg|thumb|A baby being hugged by a [[soldier]]]]
Experiments have been done with infants up to four months of age using both positive touch (stroking or [[Hug|cuddling]]) and negative touch (poking, pinching, or tickling). The infants who received the positive touch cried less often and vocalized and smiled more than the infants who were touched negatively. Infants who were the recipients of negative touch have also been linked with emotional and behavioral problems later in life. A lower amount of physical violence in adults has been discovered in cultures with greater levels of positive physical touching.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Field|first1=T.|year=2002|title=Infants' Need for Touch|journal=Human Development|volume=45|issue=2|pages=100–103|doi=10.1159/000048156|s2cid=144155181}}</ref>

=== Language development ===
[[File:A Proper Space Book for Babies (50879866102).jpg|left|thumb|An infant holding a space-themed [[baby book]]]]
Caregivers of an infant are advised to pick up on the infant's facial expressions and mirror them. Reproducing and empathizing with their facial expressions enables infants to experience effectiveness and to recognize their own actions more easily (see [[mirror neuron]]s). Exaggeratedly reproduced facial expressions and gestures are recommended, as they are clearer forms of expression. The baby's babbling should also be picked up and repeated. By imitating each other's sounds the first simple dialogues are initiated.<ref name="Kasten">{{cite web|title=Entwicklungspsychologische Grundlagen der frühen Kindheit und frühpädagogische Konsequenzen|url=https://www.kita-fachtexte.de/fileadmin/Redaktion/Publikationen/KiTaFT_kasten_2014.pdf|last=Hartmut Kasten|language=de|access-date=2020-12-31|archive-date=2020-12-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204225924/https://www.kita-fachtexte.de/fileadmin/Redaktion/Publikationen/KiTaFT_kasten_2014.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Accentuated pronunciation and melodic [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]] make it easier to recognize individual words in a sentence.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Erik |last1=Thiessen |first2=Emily |last2=Hill |first3=Jenny |last3=Saffran |journal=Infancy |title=Infant-Directed Speech Facilitates Word Segmentation |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=53–71 |date=January 2005 |doi=10.1207/s15327078in0701_5
|pmid=33430544}}</ref> However, it is not advisable to use simplified "[[baby talk]]" (e.g. "Did you 'ouch'?" instead of, "Did you hurt yourself?").<ref>{{cite web|work=Gehirn&GeistSerie Kindesentwicklung No. 1 |date=February 2014 |url=https://www.spektrum.de/inhaltsverzeichnis/babys-verstehen-und-foerdern-gehirn-und-geist-serie-kindesentwicklung-nr-1/913150 |title=Püppi, muttu AA machen? |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200202180540/https://www.spektrum.de/inhaltsverzeichnis/babys-verstehen-und-foerdern-gehirn-und-geist-serie-kindesentwicklung-nr-1/913150 |archivedate=2020-02-02 |page=63}}</ref>

Even if parents cannot yet understand infants' [[babbling]], a timely response by parents to babbling leads to faster language acquisition.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|title=Parents, listen next time your baby babbles|url=https://now.uiowa.edu/2014/08/parents-listen-next-time-your-baby-babbles|date=2014-08-27|access-date=2020-12-31|archive-date=2020-11-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127115705/https://now.uiowa.edu/2014/08/parents-listen-next-time-your-baby-babbles|url-status=live}}</ref> This was confirmed by researchers who first studied mothers' behavior towards 8-month-old infants and later tested the infants' vocabulary when they were 15 months old.<ref name=":1">{{citation|first1=Julie |last1=Gros-Louis |first2=Meredith J. |last2=West |first3=Andrew P. |last3=King |periodical=Infancy|title=Maternal Responsiveness and the Development of Directed Vocalizing in Social Interactions|volume=19|issue=4|at=pp.&nbsp;385–408|date=July 2014 |doi=10.1111/infa.12054
}}</ref> A first important development of infants is the discovery that they can influence their parents through babbling (development of intentional communication).<ref name=":1" /> Parents can encourage this by engaging with their infants in babbling. This in turn promotes further language development, as infants then turn to their parents more often.<ref name=":0" />

Previous studies have shown that the infant's speech is encouraged when parents, for example, smile in the infant's direction or touch the infant every time the infant looks at them and babbles. It also helps if parents respond to what they think their baby is saying (for example, giving a ball or commenting when the baby looks at the ball and babbles).<ref name=":0" /> Responding to sounds produced when the baby looks at an object (object-directed vocalizations) thus provide an opportunity to learn the name of the object. In this way, babies also learn that sounds are associated with objects.<ref name=":1" /> However, language development is only achieved if parents react positively (e.g. smile) in response to the infant's babbling. A high response rate without a connection to the infant's utterances does not lead to language promotion.<ref name=":1" /> It is detrimental to language development if a mother instead tries to divert the infant's attention to something else.<ref name="pmid30387273">{{cite journal | vauthors = Smith J, Levickis P, Eadie T, Bretherton L, Conway L, Goldfeld S | title = Associations between early maternal behaviours and child language at 36 months in a cohort experiencing adversity | journal = International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders | volume = 54 | issue = 1 | pages = 110–122 | date = January 2019 | pmid = 30387273 | doi = 10.1111/1460-6984.12435 | hdl = 11343/284733 | s2cid = 54389163 | hdl-access = free }}</ref>

=== Sleep ===
{{Main|Infant sleep}}
[[File:Sleeping baby (6410829477).jpg|thumb|A sleeping infant]]
A 2018 review analysed 146 studies on infant sleep behavior and listed several factors that show an effect on sleep duration and the number of night awakenings.<ref name=":2">{{cite journal|first1=Cláudia Castro|last1=Dias|first2=Bárbara|last2=Figueiredo|journal=Early Child Development and Care|title=Sleep-wake behaviour during the first 12 months of life and associated factors: a systematic review|at=pp.&nbsp;1–33|issn=0300-4430|date=2019-03-06|volume=190|issue=15|doi=10.1080/03004430.2019.1582034|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03004430.2019.1582034|access-date=2020-11-01|hdl=1822/59691|s2cid=151246725|hdl-access=free|archive-date=2022-06-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220621075905/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03004430.2019.1582034|url-status=live}}</ref> However, research has indicated that frequent wakings are protective of SIDS.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Ramirez |first1=Jan-Marino |title=Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Sleep, and the Physiology and Pathophysiology of the Respiratory Network |date=2018 |url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513387/ |work=SIDS Sudden Infant and Early Childhood Death: The Past, the Present and the Future |editor-last=Duncan |editor-first=Jhodie R. |access-date=2023-11-23 |place=Adelaide (AU) |publisher=University of Adelaide Press |isbn=978-1-925261-67-7 |pmid=30035952 |last2=Ramirez |first2=Sanja C. |last3=Anderson |first3=Tatiana M. |editor2-last=Byard |editor2-first=Roger W.}}</ref>

Infant sleep is not linear, ebbing and flowing with developmental milestones and age.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/142/6/e20174330/37494/Uninterrupted-Infant-Sleep-Development-and?autologincheck=redirected |title=Uninterrupted Infant Sleep, Development, and Maternal Mood |date=December 1, 2018 |access-date=2023-11-23 |website=publications.aap.org}}</ref>

The National Sleep Foundation gives a rough recommendation on sleep hours, that commonly decreases with increasing age.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hirshkowitz |first1=Max |last2=Whiton |first2=Kaitlyn |last3=Albert |first3=Steven M. |last4=Alessi |first4=Cathy |last5=Bruni |first5=Oliviero |last6=DonCarlos |first6=Lydia |last7=Hazen |first7=Nancy |last8=Herman |first8=John |last9=Adams Hillard |first9=Paula J. |last10=Katz |first10=Eliot S. |last11=Kheirandish-Gozal |first11=Leila |last12=Neubauer |first12=David N. |last13=O'Donnell |first13=Anne E. |last14=Ohayon |first14=Maurice |last15=Peever |first15=John |date=December 2015 |title=National Sleep Foundation's updated sleep duration recommendations: final report |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29073398/ |journal=Sleep Health |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=233–243 |doi=10.1016/j.sleh.2015.10.004 |issn=2352-7226 |pmid=29073398}}</ref>

=== Maternal sensitivity ===
[[Maternal sensitivity]] plays a particular role in the relationship with the infant and for favorable emotional development. This means being attentive to the infant's behavioral expressions, not misinterpreting the infant's expressions because of one's own moods, reacting immediately to the situation and finding a response that is appropriate to the context and the expressed needs. A secure [[Attachment theory|attachment]] is promoted through empathetic and adequate as well as prompt responses.<ref name="KS2010">{{cite web |first=Kathrin |last=Keller-Schuhmacher |year=2010 |url=http://www.f-netz.ch/files/downloads/bdd914a66d88396709589536fbf79ede/bindung-text-mit-folien-referat-freiburg-10_11_08.pdf |title=Bindung – von der Theorie zur Praxis: worauf kommt es an? |at=Presentation at the AWO Symposium of 8 November 2010, Freiburg im Breisgau |access-date=31 December 2020 |archive-date=23 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623122611/http://www.f-netz.ch/files/downloads/bdd914a66d88396709589536fbf79ede/bindung-text-mit-folien-referat-freiburg-10_11_08.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Johnson2006">{{cite web |first=Helmut |last=Johnson |year=2006 |url=http://www.institut-johnson.de/pdf/bindungsstoerungen.pdf |title=Bindungsstörungen Material zur Systemischen Arbeit in Erziehung und Betreuung |access-date=2020-12-31 |archive-date=2011-11-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111120050434/http://www.institut-johnson.de/pdf/bindungsstoerungen.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Kasten" /> In accordance with their basic needs, infants show an inborn behavior of seeking closeness to the mother – or to another primary caregiver – and thus in turn foster an attachment. When separated from the mother, infants protest by crying and by body movements.

=== Other ===
[[File:Umwotsi.jpg|thumb|An infant from Uganda playing with stoves]]
[[Babywearing|Wearing]] has a calming effect on infants. A 2013 study showed that infants placed in a [[Cradle (bed)|cradle]] cried and kicked more often and had an [[increased heart rate]] (so the infants were stressed), while those picked up and carried by the mother while walking around calmed down significantly. The effect of being held motionless in the arm was intermediate between that of being carried around and that of being put down.<ref name="pmid23602481">{{cite journal | vauthors = Esposito G, Yoshida S, Ohnishi R, Tsuneoka Y, Rostagno Mdel C, Yokota S, Okabe S, Kamiya K, Hoshino M, Shimizu M, Venuti P, Kikusui T, Kato T, Kuroda KO | title = Infant calming responses during maternal carrying in humans and mice | journal = Current Biology | volume = 23 | issue = 9 | pages = 739–45 | date = May 2013 | pmid = 23602481 | doi = 10.1016/j.cub.2013.03.041| doi-access = free | bibcode = 2013CBio...23..739E }}</ref> That carrying (e.g., in a [[baby sling]]) makes infants more content and makes them cry less had already been shown in a randomized study in 1986.<ref>{{citation|surname1=Urs Hunziker, Ronald Barr|periodical=Pediatrics|title=Increased Carrying Reduces Infant Crying: A Randomized Controlled Trial|volume=77|issue=5|at=pp.&nbsp;641–648|issn=0031-4005|pmid=3517799|date=1986-05-01|url=https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/77/5/641|access-date=2020-02-02|archive-date=2020-02-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200202182047/https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/77/5/641|url-status=live}}</ref>

For infant feeding, [[breastfeeding]] is recommended by all major infant health organizations.<ref name="AAP_Policy" />

Many [[airlines]] refuse boarding for all babies aged under 7 days (for domestic flights) or 14 days for international flights. [[Asiana Airlines]] allows babies to board international flights at 7 days of age. [[Garuda Indonesia]] disallows all babies under the age of 14 days to board any flights.

[[Delta Air Lines]] allows infants to travel when they are less than 7 days old when they present a physician travel approval letter. Skywest will not allow an infant less than 8 days old on board.<ref>[http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/special-travel-needs/children.html Infant Age Restrictions] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160326172029/http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/special-travel-needs/children.html|date=2016-03-26}}. Delta Airlines. Retrieved on 2013-04-27.</ref>