Child Obesity in Middle Childhood

Parents does this sound familiar?  “Mom can I have a cookie…only if your good,”  “No time for dinner lets go to McDonalds,”  “Be good at the store and you can get a candy bar or soda,” or “Go outside and play…No I am watching TV and playing video games.”  Conversations like these are contributing to a social problem that has more than tripled in the last 30 years…Child Obesity, which is defined as a child that is well above normal weight for their height.  Child obesity has both immediate and long term effects on a child’s mental and physical health.  These children become a target for high cholesterol, high blood pressure, circulatory problems, diabetes, sleep apnea, and bone / joint problems, which will follow the child through adolescence and adulthood.  Along with a weakened immune system, a child can suffer from social and psychological dilemmas.  Children develop self-identity by noticing how others perceive them, unfortunately, adults and children tend to stereotype obese children as lazy, stupid, and ugly.  Peers tend to look down on them, which could lead to verbal or maybe even physical abuse.  A child’s self-esteem is greatly influenced by how others respond to them.   As the child enters middle childhood, they withdrawal themselves from a social life and are more at risk for behavioral problems than other kids around them.  If obesity follows the child to adolescence the child is more likely to suffer from severe depression.        

                Prevention is crucial for our kids.   Schools may provide time to teach kids about the importance of health and physical activity, but kids now associate pizza with a vegetable.  However, schools are doing the best they can with the resources they have.  More importantly, it’s the parents buying and cooking the food at home.  Health foods do tend to be more costly, but parents can limit convenience foods and meals as much as possible and don’t reward or bribe children with food.  Kids need to be encouraged as much as possible to get out and be active, not only to burn calories but to build strong, healthy bones and muscles.  Remember these are our children of the future.   

Mandy Lickteig                                    

Discipline VS. Positive Reinforcement in Early Childhood

Say for instance you are feeding your child dinner: They are spitting the food out saying they don’t like it even if they loved the exact same food just a few days earlier. What to do? There are discipline actions such as “no dessert until you finish!” or positive reinforcement, “If you eat this then I can give you a dessert when your plate is all gone!” It is all about what you say is what you get. Child behavior development a key to cognitive development and can partly determine the aggressiveness of the child. If you constantly fight with them, they will either fight back (because of being around the environment) or they will become an introvert feeling like they might disappoint their parents because they feel like they are always in trouble.  This can also determine how the child reacts to the disciplinary actions or the positive reinforcement.  The child’s mind is extremely absorbent in the early childhood stage and it is important to focus on the good things!  If a child makes a mess in the living room trying to build a castle for you with building blocks, you should try to focus on the fact that they meant well and calmly explain to them why it is important to put their belongings away and then give them praise when they play with toys again and clean up by themselves!  Positive reinforcement results in changes of brain chemistry or how a child thinks.  This has been proven in Pavlov’s experiment with the salivating dogs. The behavior changes with positive reinforcement. The dog produced excess saliva when he heard the bell meaning there would be food rewarded. A child will act the same way to receive praise from the parents. good behavior then would make more praise. If you were to slip (we are all human) and yell, they would understand that they should not do that anymore because as a child they would not want to be confronted with anger. 

Casey Epps

Bullying in Middle Childhood

Bullying in Middle Childhood

Moral development is very important during middle childhood; this is the time when children learn kindness, respect, tolerance, and honesty. It only makes sense that children lacking these qualities could become the dreaded bully. Over the years bullying has become less accepted in society. Bullying is now seen as a social issue. Children who live in communities that present more challenges then opportunities have a disadvantage at having positive moral development. Where children who like in communities that have peers and adults that model pro-social behavior are more likely to have better moral reasoning.

Many children may experience bullying; either being the bully themselves of the victim in middle childhood. Bulling happens in both direct and indirect fashion. Direct bulling is physically harming another person and indirect bullying includes verbal, psychological, and relational tactics. Studies show that relational bullying is on the rise between females.

In response to the negative consequences that have been linked to bullying, many school districts have implemented bullying prevention and intervention programs with reports of positive results.

By: Julie Lienard

Memory During Early Childhood

Preschool age children have difficulties in remembering lists of information such as directions, lists of numbers, or the proper procedure of how to to do something. The difficulty derives from their low level of skill to use memory strategies. Memory strategies are not only used by children, but adults as well. They are deliberate mental activities that improve the chances of remembering. Preschool age children have difficulty holding onto pieces of information and applying a strategy at the same time. Preschoolers are more inclined to remember repeated events such as preschool or dinner routines. A script is a general description of what occurs and when it occurs in a particular situation. As a child's age increases, their scripts grow as well in terms of number of mental entries in a sequence. Scripts support children's efforts at planning by helping them represent sequences of actions that lead to desired goals. Talking with your child on an eye level about his or her's own desires can allow parents to possibly understand their reasoning for wanting something in particular or acting in a certain way.

Jacob Hughes

Dramatic Play in Early Childhood.

Early Childhood

Dramatic Play

   Parents I am sure you have all at one time or another have seen your children either playing, and you have noticed them making up their own games or playing make believe.  Well according to the Association of Childhood Education International, dramatic play is imperative to a child’s growth and cannot be replaced by adult instruction. Dramatic play can benefit many of the child developments.

   Within the area of language, dramatic play encourages a child to communicate his thoughts through the eyes of any individual he chooses to.  The child is mimicking what they see the adults in their lives doing.  For example my little brother when he was younger he liked to play make believe that he was mowing the yard, so every day in the summer he would tell us he was going outside to mow the yard and he would get into his gator jeep and away he would go.  However, he got this from my dad because, he would hear my dad say he was going out to mow the yard and then dad would get the lawn mower out and start mowing the yard.

       Another benefit of dramatic play is emotional, dramatic play allows children to sort through emotions and situations that they may not understand. An example would be when a child pretends that someone he knows has died, this usually occurs shortly after someone else actually has.  This would be a child’s way of internalizing and sorting through emotions and situations that are difficult.

     The final child development that can benefit from the dramatic play is cognitive. Once a child engages in dramatic play, it can help develop cognitive function, the brain or academic portion of development. Free play develops self-regulation, this function allows a child to pay attention when need be and control their emotions.  Dramatic play also benefits the cognitive area of development in math, reading, writing, and more.

Amber Reinecke

Effective discipline in early childhood

As a child I was exposed to several types of discipline.  My father used more of the harsh punishment while my mother was more on the positive side of punishment. Like most children, I sometimes received a swat from my dad when I disobeyed. He never used any object, just a hand, but I hated it. My mom would discipline me in other ways such as: sending me to my room, "grounding" me for a certain period of time, not letting play with toys or friends, or not letting me watch TV. But which method was more effective? For me, the way my mother handled discipline affected me more than my dad's approach. Taking away privileges made me more upset than getting a swat on the rear. In households where physical punishment is the only form of discipline, serious consequences in children including: depression, aggression, antisocial behavior, poor academics, and other mental health problems can occur. Also, this type of punishment may transfer to the next generation. Harsh punishment may stop the unwanted behavior temporarily but will not put an end to it. The best and most effective way is to take the positive approach. I believe this is the most effective way to reduce opportunities for misbehavior.

-Chelsea Duncan

Media version of disappointment task

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YQpbzQ6gzs

Courtesy: Tina Parker

Fine-Motor Development in Early Childhood

Fine-Motor skills progress a lot during early childhood. I have seen a tremendous amount of difference between my 2 year old niece (almost 3) and my 5 year old nephew (almost 6). Both of them love to color and draw, so almost every time I am with them they will draw me a picture. My nephew also likes to show me his school work from his kindergarten class. Since we have been talking about this in our class, I have really noticed the difference between the two and how amazing it is that within just a couple of years they progress so much. My niece will sit down with me and make a whole bunch of scribbles on a blank paper. She will not tell me what she is drawing until she is done. I try guessing but I never get it right! The last picture she "drew" for me was a whole bunch of pink scribbles. When she was finished she said "Here Aunt Jill, it's a picture of a pretty pink princess for your fridge." My 5 year old nephew on the other hand will sit down and draw his idea of what represents people and will go into fine detail. The last picture he drew for me was of him playing basketball with his friends and his mom and I, along with other parents and friends, watching their game. He drew this for me shortly after I had gone to one of his basketball games. Although I didn't know that it was of a specific memory he had with me I could easily make out people playing basketball and others standing on the side "watching." The example of my niece and nephew and their drawing is typical for children of their age. Children of age 2 just scribble, by age 3 their scribbles start to represent things like my niece's pink scribbles, between age 3-4, children draw something that can usually be depicted as a person, and by age 5-6 their pictures become more realistic.

By Jill Fritter

Vocabulary in Early Childhood

At the age of 2, a child's vocabulary may consist of 200 words. By the age of 6 that child will have acquired 10,000 words. In order to accomplish this, children will learn up to 5 new words a day. Children connect words with their meaning after a short time of exposure. This is called fast mapping. Verbs are acquired especially fast in order to understand the relationship between and object and it's action. Children may create their own words in place of words that they may have not learned yet. For example, a child may call a gardener "plant-man". By contrasting words they already know, preschoolers are able to understand the meanings of new words. The first several hundred nouns learned will be organized by shape. This is known as shape bias. It has been found that preschoolers are most successful at learning new words when several kinds of information are available. Grammar usage begins between the ages of 2 and 3. Children will begin to use a subject-verb-object word order. In my opinion the best way to benefit the child's vocabulary at this stage is to actively converse with them. Expose them to as many people as possible and always encourage active communication.

-Jordan Milliken

Make-believe play

I have noticed while playing with my niece that she likes to pretend play. For example, she used a book light as a phone because it opened like a phone so she opened it up and said hello. Another thing she likes to do is get a plastic plate and put a toy on it so she can eat it or better yet give it to someone else so they can eat it. Pretend play not only reflects but also adds to children's cognitive and social skills. There are many studies that show that make-believe play strengthens a lot of mental abilities such as sustained attention, memory, logical reasoning, language and literacy skills, imagination, creativity, understanding of emotions, and the ability to reflect on one's own thinking, control one's own behavior, and take another's perspective. As you can see make-believe play is beneficial for your child so you do not have to buy expensive toys. Let them use their imagination and you can join in on the fun as well which is also beneficial.

By: Kristyn Farrice

Overcoming parental insecurities involved in raising a child in a non-traditional home during early childhood by James Parker

Raising a child in a non-traditional household can be difficult on the parent that the child may spend less time with. In most situations this is an arrangement that consist of a child residing with one custodial parent for a majority of the time, and staying with the other parent only during scheduled times. The most common schedule being bi-monthly, (in this context 2 times a month) and for longer periods of times such as summer visitation that could consist of weeks to months. These arrangements are seen in most custody agreements in the United States when the parents remain involved with the child’s upbringing, but no longer live in the same household.

For the parent that spends less time with the child, feelings of doubt may frequent their mind and worries that their child may not become as close to them or love them as much. It is very important to adhere to certain guidelines and consistencies in order for the child to grow to learn the routine and establish a sense of security with the non-custodial parent. The end result would be a strong and loving relationship between parent and child.

It is important to know that one of the first and basic needs a child seeks to obtain is a strong sense and safety and security. A parent must assure the child that they are safe while they are with them. This can be established by being present with the child consistently during their time. The opposite could be leaving the child alone for long periods of time or leaving and returning at inconsistent intervals. This also brings out the importance of a predictable routine. By conducting daily interactions the same way or in a similar way, the child will begin to learn the routine and if the routine is disrupted the child has become adapted and can return to the baseline with less emotional distress.

Frustration tolerance is also important for both the child and the parent. Using consistent forms of positive reinforcement and a predictable discipline policy will result in the child responding more positively and the parent will also learn more controled forms of redirection that result in a more productive outcome. An example would be that when the child receives a consequence for throwing a ball at the television, it is important the child receive the same consequence if the action is repeated.  The same is for praise. If a child is given a reward for a positive action, this should be followed through with again, at realistic intervals, when the action is repeated.

One final approach, that may be more difficult to achieve, but with help with the child learning the routine is co-parenting. Each parent must strive to be consistent with the routes taken be achieve positive goals in the child’s development. This can be difficult if one or both parents are not interested in this approach. However if co-parenting occurs with respectable efforts given by both parties, the child can know what to predict within each home and this reinforces securities. One example would be to construct a sticker chart with simple goals for the child. These could consist of taking a bath, or picking up toys. The child receives a star when the goal is met. This chart can be passed between household to assist in structuring a consistent routine. A positive outcome can be achieved even if one parent remains consistent, in that the child will have a strong secure bond when the stimulus they encounter within the household is predictable.

School's Cool

     My wife and I are foster parents and have been for the past four years. We have raised four daughters and now we have two sets of siblings that we have adopted. Let's start with Donald. Donald was in 1st grade when he first came to live with us. Donald is a very smart little boy, but when he first came to live with us he struggled in school and his hand writing was terrible. His parents didn't really get involved in his education and really their attitude was holding Donald back. We have always been very involved in our kids education and really pushed them to give their very best effort. So when Donald, came into our home, we really had to take a step back. It took a couple of months, but once we started working with Donald and letting him know school was important, his handwriting drastically improved and his grades turned around.
      Next came Melonie and Raymond. They too had came from homes where school just wasn't that important. Melonie was in 4th grade and Raymond was in 3rd. They were lucky just to attend class and they had fallen way behind. When they came to live with us, we really had our work cut out for us. We sat down with them nearly every night and worked to try to help get them caught up. Neither of them could write in cursive and their printing was illegible. They have now been with us two years and we are finally starting to see some improvement.
      Our message to them was simply "School's Cool". We put an emphasis on education and showed the willingness to work with them. This was something that they were seriously lacking in their home environment. A lot of people had already given up on them and some actually thought they just weren't capable. By taking an active role in a child's education and working with them you can help them reach their full potential. But if your attitude is one, that you just don't care then the child will develop the same attitude and most likely will struggle.

Chuck Harper

Do Educational T.V. Programs Actually Help Your Child Learn?

We have all seen the "educational" shows marketed for children today, advertised in just the way that make parents think showing their children these shows are necessary for their child to ever succeed in life. That is just not the truth. While studies have show that television shows and movies aimed at children that claim to help them learn (such as Sesame Street) do help teach basic children basic numbers and letters and some social interaction skills, extended amounts of even an educational program can stifle a preschool age child's development socially and creatively.

When preschool aged children interact with other children and are left of their own accord to play, they form very important and necessary social skills. Studies show a direct correlation between the amount of television watch by early childhood aged children and between how they score when assessed in a social situation. An added benefit to children playing away from the television includes not only higher scores in social situations that are assessed, but play, especially make-believe assist a child to develop more of the skills needed for logical thinking, sustained attention, memory, language, literacy and many many more skills actually needed to succeed in life. So next time you are tempted to turn on the television to use a little bit of electronic baby-sitting, stop and think about if your child needs more or less television exposure. 

Hannah Neely

M&Ms vs. Raisins--Jennifer Hancock

My mom told me a story about when I was younger, and it will always stick with me.  Before going into pre-school they test each child to see where they are on an educational level by asking them to perform specific tasks that should be achievable for their age.  It came to a task of problem solving.  There was a raisin in an empty pop bottle, and it was my job to figure out how to get it out.  I wouldn’t do it.  I wanted nothing to do with it.  The test supervisor made notes that I “couldn’t figure it out.”  After discussing the results with my mom, the supervisor was very concerned.  After all, it was a fairly easy task for a 5 year old to conceive.  My mom simply replied, “Well she hates raisins.  She doesn’t want to get a raisin out.  Make it an M&M and I guarantee she could get that out real quick.”  The test supervisor was in shock.  She had never thought of that before and wondered how many other children she had marked “failed” for this specific task.  From that day on, a rasin was replaced with a M&M.
Kids aren’t going to be interested in completing a task that is not designed toward their wants and needs.  Try to think on their level.  Would a young child want the reward that’s being offered?

Childhood Injuries by Jordan Howe

Did you know the leading cause of death among our children today is unintentional injuries? There are many ways us as adults can make our children safer. Just the little things that we can do to protect our kids could actually save their lives. Some people think things such as car seats for children are silly. A lot of people talk about how when they were young they never wore seat belts let alone sat in car seats. The truth is those car seats could be the one thing in a car accident that could save your child’s life. Other accidents can be controlled just by continually going over safety rules with your children. Sometimes we think that our children know the rules and will never forget them, but the truth is they are children and they forget sometimes. We should never think that they remember everything we tell them. Little things such as reminding them to put on their bicycle helmet or not running into the street could stop a lot of childhood accidents. Even if children do know the rules, sometimes they just act quickly and don’t think about it. Providing supervision for your children is another way that you can make their world safer. Keeping an eye on your kids will make sure that they aren’t doing something that could lead to accidently hurting themselves. Kids don’t always do what we think they will and we as adults need to do everything in our power to protect them. We may not be able to protect them everywhere they go, and of course they will still get hurt occasionally, but we can put a stop to a lot of the accidents that take place. So, please don’t look at laws and say “oh we never did that so why should we make our kids.” The world is constantly changing and what might have been safe when you were little may not be safe now. The laws that are put in place are there for the children’s safety. 

Discipline

   Discipline is a topic that parents often discuss with other parents. Most of the time they wonder if what they are doing to discipline their child is right or if there are better ways. The best thing you can do as a parent before ever having to discipline your child is to behave the way you want them to behave. The child will see a good example of how their parents handle a situation and often repeat the action.  When it comes to disciplining a child, it seems like there is something new said every week (i.e. spanking is awful, spanking can work in certain situations, etc.). In this post, some basic principles and ideas about discipline will be discussed, with examples given from time to time. First off, types of discipline will be discussed. Every parent should tailor how they discipline a child to the particular child, since no two children are alike. Ideas for types of discipline are time outs (remember: one minute for every year, such as 3 minutes for a 3 year old), taking away a favorite item for a period of time, letting the child know what they did was wrong and explaining what they should have done, redirecting the child to another positive activity, etc. Remember: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER resort to spanking your child under ANY circumstances! Some research has shown that when parents spank their children, the kids think its acceptable behavior to hit others. Another big no-no to remember when disciplining your children is to never raise your tone of voice. Kids can tell the difference in a parent’s tone of voice (be it sounding authoritative like a parent or yelling like a prison guard) and will react in an appropriate, or sometimes inappropriate, manner. Make sure that you and your partner discuss how to discipline your child before an issue ever occurs and then remain consistent with your disciplining. Lastly, remember to give your child the appropriate attention needed, set limits, but support and encourage them as they explore and learn about their environment. With these ground rules, discipline should hardly be an issue between you and your child.

Katie Meehan

Eww...What's That?

Eww….What’s That?

By: Samie McCullough

            How many times have you sat down to eat a wonderfully prepared meal with your family and your preschool aged child looks at you with disgust you we pass them their plate?   The usual response from such a youngster is typically: “What’s that?”, or “I don’t like that”.   Then what do you do?  That’s right, the negotiation starts right away.  Most parents might respond with a quick “Eat your carrots and you can have ice cream after dinner”.  But how many of us parents know that this type of response is actually detrimental to our preschooler?  According to research studies, when children are offered these types of bribes it only teaches them that you  eat the good foods to get to the bad foods.  When children are offered bribes they start to understand that eating the good foods are not important but instead it is a gateway to the bad foods.

            Another problem that occurs with preschool children is what I like to call “picky eater syndrome”. They start to only really like at least 2-3 things and that’s it.  So what do us as parents do?  We usually put the “healthy” stuff on their plate and magically expect them to look at it appealingly, but for some reason they don’t.  One research proven way to help them start to like and to try eating new things is by the parents themselves eating the “healthy” foods in front of their child.  Sounds so simple I know.  Studies have shown that when children are shown to eat something without any pressure they will start to gravitate toward that food.   Over time it just becomes second nature.

            So my advice in a nutshell: Eat what we want our children to eat and stop with the bribes!  It’s going to be hard, but it will benefit your little one in the end.

Early Childhood - Sam Dillé

     As Piaget showed how from ages two to seven children develop into what he calls the Preoperational stage (Piaget, 1936/1952).  This is fascinating to me because of the development of the language skills.  One of the most interesting to me is how these children often talk to themselves.  If you just listen, I have found you can hear what they are really thinking.  They are not only thinking aloud, but they are listening to the world around them as well.
     Vygotsky believed this was a child's way of controlling the event they were trying to focus on.  His theory pushed the idea that this is part of the development into more mature thought processes and created far more reaching cognitive development than Piaget believed.
     My own experience with this was when my son was only three years old.  I was watching an old Marx's Brothers movie and he was content playing with his little cars.  He was talking to himself as he played and I would listen to him once in a while, which was mostly just rrrrrooooommmm rrrrroooommm and such.  My son seemed to be oblivious with the world around him, yet all of a sudden he repeated Groucho, "Huba Huba!"  I was shocked that he was listening to the movie this close as he was so into his playing with the cars!
     What do you believe about why children talk to themselves and what is one of your experiences with this type of child behavior?

Hide & Seek

Have you ever-played hide and seek with a child? You hide the come and find you and vise versa. Now have you ever played it with a baby? With a baby they can’t go hide so instead you hide an object under a blanket or something. I played this game with my baby cousin when he was 4 months old. He would watch me hide the object and then not have a clue as to where it went. I recently was playing it with him and he is now 9 months. This time when he watched me place the object behind the blanket he realized the object was gone and actually tried to find it this time. The reasoning for this is that now that my cousin is 9 months old he has reached the sensorimotor stage that allows him to find a hidden object, and he now knows object permanence.

Kersten Kastler

Joint Attention - Susan Davis

Joint Attention is important for social development, language acquisition and cognitive development. It is the ability of an infant to share a common point of reference. The infant learns to coordinate attention with a caregiver. Joint attention is essential to learning, language and social skills. Infants use gestures and eye contact to direct other people's attention to objects or themselves. This involuntary system develops in the first months of life. Joint attention in the first nine months of life contributes to social cognition. It is vital to the development of learning and social understanding. It may be related to the development of human learning and social skills. This is an early form of communication between the infant and the caregiver. By 10 to 11 months of age, babies realize that this focus provides a path to communication. If infants and toddlers experience joint attention, they will maintain attention longer. The will also be able to comprehend more language. They will also learn to speak faster. Between  4 and 6 months of age babies are able to play pat-a-cake and peekaboo with initiation by the caregiver. By 12 months of age, babies can initiate the games. Toddlers learn that language results in them getting something they want. Joint Attention is something that comes natural for normal developing children. Children with Autism have to be taught how to play. Autistic children often do not find meaning in these interactions and will avoid them.                                                                                                                            Susan Davis

Attachment issues in Infants and Toddlers: Cynthia Buntain

            Attachment issues in Infants and Toddlers: By Cynthia Buntain

            Attachment is the term used to express close emotional bonding between caregiver and infant. However, if healthy attachment is not formed between caregiver and infant or toddler, most often there will be signs of distress among the infant. Healthy attachment requires meeting the baby’s needs promptly and cuddling, talking and smiling at the baby. When a parent does not have a loving warmness toward the infant, the infant might develop high levels of anxiety and distress.

            (Reattachment phase) birth to 6 weeks, the infant has a naturally has an inbuilt signals such as crying, smiling and staring into the caregivers eyes. This helps the infant develop a close contact with the individuals who comfort them.

            (Attachment in the making) phase 6 weeks to 6-8 months. Infants tend to respond to strangers differently than their direct caregivers. However, at 4 months old the infant usually does not protest when the parents are separated from the infant. Infants start to learn that their behavior has an impact on those around them. The baby then learns to develop a sense of trust. Erikson’s theory suggests that early development of trust and mistrust is essential for healthy development associated with attachment issues.

            (Clear-cut attachment) 6-8 months to 18 months up to 2 years. The infant demonstrates separation anxiety when the caregiver is out of sight. It’s important to note, that not every child demonstrates anxiety, possible reasons could be the child’s temperament.

            (Formation of a reciprocal relationship) 18 months to 2 years. The infant starts to develop a sense of when the parent comes and goes, and the return of the parent. This is the phase that separation anxiety most likely will decline.

            (Secure attachment) Have you ever noticed when the infant is in a room with others how the infant might want to get down and explore, but it often return to the primary caregiver if anxiety arises? Secure attachment is the term used when infants use parent as a secure base. Also, secure attachment is thought to be healthy when the infant’s parent arrives and the infant seeks immediate contact with the parent.

            (Avoidant attachment) Usually the infant shows no signs of distress when the parent comes or goes. Most often the infant acts the same way with strangers. Unfortunately, 15 percent of North American infants in middle SES families their infants demonstrate this pattern.

            Research indicates the quality of attachment, is most generally very stable and secure for the infant most often is decided by socio-economic factors. Reasons research believes that this pattern of attachment exit is because; most often the low SES families do not have a good social support system and struggle financially as well.

            To make sure you give your infant a healthy start, research has indicated that holding and responding to their needs and being loving and warm consistently, can lead to healthy attachment. However, if these needs are not met the infant will develop what is to be considered unhealthy attachment, which could lead to multiple dysfunctions later in life. Give your child a healthy start. There is less energy giving a smile and hug and being warm toward your infant, than there is in becoming frustrated because the infant is crying and needs his or her emotional needs met. Take the time to love the child you brought into this world. Family is everything.