Why do babies cry
I’ve been doing some research on why babies cry, but none of the usual teleological, evolutionary explanations sound that convincing, so far. So I am coming up with some ideas of my own. Just as dogs and cats have a sixth or extra sense and can sense danger or oncoming storms, babies also have some insight into the future. At their big bang, their whole life flashes before them, many of these experiences are of course painful and frightening. It is the first time they begin to come in contact with the concept of passing time, of irreversibility of their plight as they cannot return to that place from which they emerged. They see in a flash their first scald or fall, see themselves lying in a cot for hours on end with nothing to do, see their parents flapping about clueless, piling even more blankets on them when they should be taking them off. They see and feel the pain of a lashing tongue or cane, pain of unrequited love, of being dumped, feel the pain of abdominal cramp, see themselves falling in the gutter drunk, the pressure of exams, and that client who will not honor their invoice, they see themselves getting the sack, in court defending themselves or in jail. They see the bombs of terrorists, test-tubes competing at the Olympics and their football team failing. No wonder they wail even after they have just been fed, watered, changed and fanned and wrapped up.
During the first year of life flashes of these insight return, waking them up from sleep with fright in their eyes.
That insight is the source of our deja vu as adults. So when the baby bursts into tears and you’ve tried everything else attach electrodes to their brains and you’ll see their future, but don’t cry in front of them because you might make it worse.
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