TV: Infant Development

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Dr. Frans Plooij is a leading expert in the field of infant mental development and the celebrated author of the worldwide bestselling infant development book – The Wonder Weeks. Aimed at preserving every parent’s sanity, his book has helped many parents across the world understand what is really going on inside their baby’s head in the first two years of life, while giving them insights on what babies actually need at each stage of their development. Worldwide experts on infant developmental and authors of The Wonder Weeks have found the key to unlocking the reasons babies are fussy at set times during ten leaps, or ‘wonder weeks’ before the age of two.In this Ask The Expert Live session with Dr. Frans Plooij, he will be answering your questions about infant growth spurts and these mental leaps that your baby goes through!

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What exactly is a Wonder Week?

Like what Yuna mentioned, it is when your baby is expected to develop mentally, and would be able to understand certain concepts.

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I have been trying to get my baby girl to self soothe/entertain herself in the bouncer or cot or the bed or the playmat. The moment I walked away, she starts fussing. If she's strapped to the bouncer, after awhile she starts to fuss no matter how I try to sing or rock the bouncer or tries to distract while I attempt to finish the task at hand. My baby was never a crier, she's a screamer and she can do it till she's hoarse and even blue. She's a happy baby but she's like my eldest child when she was a baby; can never be left alone to self entertain or soothe after awhile.

Not sure what is your take on the use of pacifier. My friend used that to help her little girl learn to self soothe. After patting her till her daughter is somewhat drowsy, she will offer the pacifier to her girl. She felt that the pacifier helped to comfort her girl and allow her baby to drift off to sleep. Just sharing. :)

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Dr. Frans, what was the most challenging for you as a parent urself?? :)

Thank you for your question! Dr Frans answered this on his live session on ParentTown: I faced pretty much the same challenges that most parents have! When my daughter was born, we were still analyzing chimpanzee data. We were like normal parents, not knowing what we know now! We called our mothers a lot, not knowing what to do! You can watch a recorded version of Dr Frans' live Ask The Expert session here: https://www.facebook.com/parenttown/videos/1258235770909093/

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Are babies able to skip a leap, or will they confirm go through the leaps but just a little up down with timing?

I think there's no escaping or skipping a leap -- they're pretty much a rite of passage babies have to go through. It's a matter of how intense the experience is. Some babies go through the leap with not much fuss and others seem to be fussier beyond belief. All in all, be rest assured that it will pass after a while.

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I'm following everything in the app but my daughter was born 6 weeks before her Estimated delivery date. Should I be using her birthday or her EDD?

As a guide, you should be using her EDD. However, I have a friend whose baby was born 4 weeks early, she noticed that her baby seemed to go through her leaps somewhere in between the predicted (based on EDD) dates and her actual birthday. So I think you may expect your girl to be somewhat similar. She may go through a leap slightly earlier than the predicted dates.

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Are there signs to tell you that your baby is going through a leap? Should we use the EDD or the birth date to gauge when is the leap? Does it mean that the child don't go through growth spurts or leaps after the 10th leap?

When a baby is going through a leap, he/she may be fussier, require more attention and cuddles from his/her caregiver, appear to drink more and sleep may be affected as well. As a guide, you can use the EDD to gauge. That being said, I have a friend whose baby was born 4 weeks earlier and her baby appears to go through the leaps slightly earlier than predicted (when based on EDD). So It appeared that her girl will go through a leap between the actual birthdate and EDD. After the 10th leap, it will be transition into "toddlerhood". This is when parents can start laying down some ground rules and your son should be capable of understanding them. It will be the time where your child learns to exerts his/her autonomy, and starts to be more skillful with things and language, imitates others, role-plays daily life, practices emotions etc etc. This is the time to introduce the concept of "rules" to him/her and teach him/her to keep to them.

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Hi, my baby is not going through a WW now. However, he is fussy and irritable and wakes up several times at night (not his usual). If it's not a WW - what gives? Also, I thought WWs are the same as developmental milestones. Is my understanding correct?

How old is he now? Perhaps he is teething? Any excessive drooling or swollen gums? It could also be that he is adjusting to his sleeping cycles. Babies sleep will mature over time. So when they are still newborns, they need a lot of sleep and would usually wakes up when they need to feed. But over time, they will go through the different stages of sleep and very likely wake up after each cycle. It could be this that you are observing and he needs comforting to feel secure. Hang in there!!!

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There is once I feel my baby skipped a leap. Is that normal? What are the other things do I look out for when she skips a leap? I can't rmbr which tho :(

Can baby skip her leap though? Not too sure myself, I'm afraid. A friend of mine thought that her child skipped at week 19 but apparently it was just delayed and sure enough, the chaos started the following week. Think her baby also stated teething at the same time top

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Should we stick to our routines through a leap or be more flexible for baby? ie feeding schedule, nap times, etc

Hi Sarah, thank you for your question! Your question was answered by Dr Frans Plooij, who said, that if you have your baby on the body most of the time, it is quite natural for demand feeding to occur. Scheduled feeding (usually every 3-4 hours), as compared to demand feeding, of which is every 1.5 hours, you go against the nature of your baby. In the difficult periods, don’t stick to schedules, when your baby has a difficult time, comfort your baby! Thank you for tuning in! The recorded live stream of the Ask The Expert session with Dr Frans can be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/parenttown/videos/1258235770909093/

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my son from birth doesnt like milk every feeding is like a war and a mess as he will cry like madness till vomit out most of the milk we just fed him... we have tried all fm, my bm, soymilk, goatmilk none works... will it affect his development? he is turning 1 soon and his intake per feed is 60ml or 90 ml and when he is a sleep he also wun us to feed him till he push n throw the bottle so no feeding at night

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Like the above say, my friend kid is like urs too, hence she have to use syringe to feed her milk and tell her firmly to swallow it. Intro more food which is high in calcium for them. Can give some basic supplements for him too. I think he will need pedisure, as there is most of the nutrients he need, although it's a bit sweet.

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