Decoding Your Baby's Cries

From the age of five, Priscilla Dunstan demonstrated an unusual connection with sound. Already an exceptional violinist, she could hear a piece by Mozart once, then play it back in its entirety. Her father, Director of the Educational Testing Centre at the University of New South Wales, found that his young daughter had an eidetic memory – a photographic memory for sound.

It was years later, when Priscilla gave birth to her son Tomas, the true significance of her gift emerged. Her instincts as a mother and her connection to sound led her to believe that a baby’s cries had to be something more than just random sounds. Noting combinations of sounds in a journal, Priscilla explored various settling techniques and observed Tom’s reactions. Eventually she was able to recognize patterns, and identify how specific cries had a distinct need attached to them.

Every newborn communicates from birth to 3 months uses 5 distinct sounds that signal hunger, tiredness, need to burp, lower wind/gas and discomfort.  This is regardless of the language their parents speak.  It is not a learned language.  Rather, it is a natural way for every baby to express their physical needs.

The ‘words’ that form the basis of what has been called the Dunstan Baby Language, are sounds that are based on baby’s physical responses. These are called reflexes.  For example, when a baby is hungry it will start to suck, and as sound is added to the reflex, the ‘word’ for hunger is produced. These are the baby’s first communications, which occur before actual crying develops. The sooner the ‘word’ for hunger is identified the sooner a parent can respond by feeding, resulting in less crying and less discomfort for baby - and for parents.

The five ‘words’ are:

“Neh” = Hungry
“Owh” = Sleepy
“Eh” = Burp
“Eairh” = Gas
“Heh” = Discomfort

Check out this video of Priscilla Dustan on Oprah to see examples of these ‘words’.

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