Recognizing them will not be difficult, especially if they have siblings, since they will easily stand out from them. High-demand babies are those who require constant and intensive attention from their parents. They do not have pathologies or diseases, although this is something that should be ruled out in advance with medical analyzes and tests. They are just very active, they need to be stimulated and have the attention of their parents or guardians at all times. And, as you can imagine, this very high level of demand ends up exhausting the adults in their care.
It is completely natural for babies to ask for attention, to cry and for it to be difficult to calm them down, the difference is in how much or how little this situation is repeated. While there are children who are not very demanding, others are a little bit so. These would be the restless babies, as they are often called. However, as soon as their discomfort, such as being hungry or tired, is resolved, they calm down. The case of high-demand babies is different, since they demand from their parents constantly, both day and night.
“If you doubt, it is most likely that your baby is not one of them,” is how categorical the child and adolescent psychologist Ana Borja Royo is regarding the subject. The main reason is that parents tend to feel totally identified with the term, which gives them a certain peace of mind knowing that there are more babies like theirs. So what are the characteristics of a high demand baby?
The specialist explains that the first thing is the need for continuous contact, since “they look for arms at all hours”, they always have to be close to their mother. In addition, they are hypersensitive, so they will be startled by noises and anything that makes them uncomfortable. This will lead them to overreact and cry at a minimum. Because that is precisely another of its traits: intensity. High-demand babies always seem to be tense. “It’s like they can’t relax.” In fact, they are not able to stay calm when they are alone, they do not fall asleep or stop crying on their own.
One of the aspects that generates the greatest stress for parents is that these types of babies have a continuous need to ask for food and, in addition, wake up frequently. So they seem to always be trapped in constant dissatisfaction. This is why high-demand babies are absorbent for their parents, and, if that were not enough, they are hypersensitive to separation. That is, they will not accept other caregivers, sometimes not even the father, according to the psychologist.
