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The early crying paradox

A modest proposal

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Abstract

In contemporary Western societies, infants in the first 3 months cry more than at any other time during their life. Although this crying is believed to function to assure nutrition, protection, and mother-infant interaction thought to be essential for later attachment, it also predisposes to complaints of excessive crying (“colic”), discontinuing breast-feeding, and, in the extreme case, child abuse. A resolution of this apparent paradox is proposed based on evidence that elements of caregiving are important determinants of some aspects of early crying. It is argued that early human crying under caretaking conditions typical in Western societies is characterized by prolonged crying bouts, that it is specifically the length of crying bouts (rather than frequency or pattern) that is affected by caregiving practice, and that prolonged crying bouts are probably not characteristic with caretaking practices typical in non-Western societies and possibly in our evolutionary past. It is suggested that caregiving behaviors may recruit normal physiological functions that potentiate cry bout duration in Western caregiving contexts, but reduce it in others. Frequent, short bouts are sufficient, and probably better suited than long bouts, to promote all the positive and presumably adaptive functions claimed for infant crying. Furthermore, they may have provided a mechanism by which infants could enhance their own fitness.

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  1. Montreal Children’s Hospital, 2300 rue Tupper, H3H-1P3, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Ronald G. Barr

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Parts of this work were supported by Telethon Funds of the McGill University-Montreal Children’s Hospital Research Institute; the W. T. Grant Foundation Faculty Scholar Award; the Detweiler Travelling Scholarship of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Canada; and the Medical Research Council of Canada.

Ronald Barr is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at McGill University and Director of the Child Development Programme at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, Quebec, Canada. He received graduate training in philosophy at Toronto, his medical degree and residency training in pediatrics at McGill, and his fellowship training at The Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston, Mass. His research interests focus on biological and behavioral determinants of pain phenomena and nonspecific dysfunctional syndromes in infants and children.

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Barr, R.G. The early crying paradox. Human Nature 1, 355–389 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02734051

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