How Newborns Communicate in the NICU: Understanding Baby's Cues

There are multiple cues baby gives to let you know if they’re happy and engaged, disengaged and need a slight break, or disengaged and need you to stop the interaction. These cues are especially important to know if baby was born premature and in the NICU.
We’ve broken these cues into three categories: Go, Slow and Stop cues. Keep in mind, preemies use their hands to communicate a lot, and this is a great place to start to understand if baby is engaged or disengaged. Watch to learn more about all these cues, and see real life examples of these cues in action to learn how to react when baby moves through the various stages.
1. Go cues tell you if baby is engaged and can continue the interaction or massage. Some of these engagement cues include wide eyes, a happy face, and hands open. Baby may bend their fingers, or their eyes look around. Their face may also be focused or they may hold eye contact with you. These are all signs of engagement.
2. Slow cues let you know if baby is disengaged and needs a slight break. These may include frowning, yawning, eyes tightly shut, refusing eye contact, or if baby has struggling movements. These cues don’t mean you need to stop playing, but slow down what you’re doing to give baby a break from all the stimulation.
3. Stop cues let you know that baby is disengaged. When you notice these cues, stop what you’re doing and give baby time to adjust back to a calm state. Some of these disengagement cues include crying, whining, or fussing.
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00:00 Baby’s cues
00:39 Preemies use their hands to communicate a lot
00:53 Go cues
01:30 Slow cues
02:29 Stop cues
03:12 Taking away extra stimulation can help baby get back to a calm state
03:31 Knowing baby’s cues helps to bond and communicate
03:42 Matches and mismatches
04:00 Mismatches occur far more often than matches
#nicubaby #preemie #preemiebaby #prematurebaby #bondingwithbaby #playingwithbaby
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