If you are feeling stressed by your baby’s crying, calm yourself first (e.g. by deep breathing). Your baby can sense your stress when you hold them. Zero to Three. (2019). Early Literacy: Retrieved from: https://www.zerotothree.org/early-learning/early-literacy Wass,S, Smith, C, Clackson,K, Gibb,C, Eitzenburger,J., Mirtza,F. (2019). Parents Mimic and Influence Their Infant’s Autonomic State through Dynamic Affective State Matching, Current Biology 29, 1–8.
Positive parenting practices impact the development of children’s attachment and self-regulation abilities. Parents who are sensitive and responsive to children’s moods and emotional states help calm them. This makes children feel secure.
A study on naturalistic arousal patterns in infants and parents found that they can affect one another’s emotional states. Hence if the parent is stressed, the baby will sense it and become stressed. The more responsive the parent was, the faster the infant could be soothed.