Sad Dads May Lead to Crying InfantsBy Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Don't automatically blame mom: A crying, colicky baby can be just as much the result of dad's state of mind, Dutch researchers report.
Other studies have found that depression among mothers can be related to excessive crying or colic, a common problem with newborns, but the researchers said that little was known about whether fathers' emotions and behavior also have an effect.
"Up to now, almost all attention went to the prenatal effects of maternal depression on child development, leading to the development of detection and treatment programs that focused on mental well-being of mothers," said lead researcher Dr. Mijke P. van den Berg, a psychiatrist at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam.
"This study showed the importance of taking paternal factors and well-being during pregnancy into account, next to maternal," she said.
The report is published in the July issue of Pediatrics.
To see how parental depression was related to excessive crying, van den Berg's team gathered data on symptoms of depression among parents of 4,426 infants who were 2 months old.
Excessive crying was defined as crying for more than three hours a day on more than three days in the past week.
Overall, just 2.5 percent of the infants in the study fit the excessive crying criteria. But, the researchers found a 30 percent higher risk for depression among parents whose infant cried excessively.
"This finding could not be attributed to co-existing depressive symptoms of the mother, which is already known to be a risk factor for excessive infant crying," van den Berg said. It could be related to genetics, a depressed father or, indirectly, through factors such as marital, family or economic stress, she said.
In fact, a dad with symptoms of depression was twice as likely to have an infant who cried excessively as was a dad who was not depressed, the study found.
"Fathers do matter, so take care for the mental well-being of fathers during pregnancy," van den Berg said.
Dr. Jon Shaw, a professor and director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Miami Miller of School of Medicine, said that the study shows how depression can lead to infant's excessive crying.
"This study demonstrates in a paradoxical way the importance of fathers, in that fathers' measurable depression during pregnancy is a risk factor for excessive infant crying at 2 months of age," Shaw said.
"This seems to be related perhaps to the enduring effects of fathers' depression on the family ambience, the parental relationship, child parenting and, perhaps as the authors suggest, there may be a genetic factor involved," he said.
2 comments:
Gooday Kingdom kindlee
Man injects woman 2 have
seed=life giving creation
which becomes a manifest
of DNA.
Happiness from both DNA
participants should
not worry but be Happy
4 it's seed bearing fruit
In making the point of the importance of Fathers in the pre and post birth experiences of the child; the RESEARCH study raises insightful discussion ad questions. There could be genetic predispositions.
However,I am always wary of research from the Netherlands as my Social Science studies have taught me.....Research is not as OBJECTIVE as the scientific ethical creed asserts. The Dutch is know to be one of the most liberal societies of the Western European hemisphere.
In addition, Spiritually elevated Intellectual teachings taught me to question knowledge from its source, S before I clap hands to research findings I dig under the researchers premise ad the culture from which s/he hails.
" The Netherlands is known for its atmosphere of tolerance and progressive social thinking. Its liberal laws concerning gay and lesbian rights, sexuality education, birth control, and euthanasia set it apart from the United States as well as from many of its European neighbors"
Did the study analyse its findings in relation to the matching sexual status of the infant. That is:was the excessive crying behaviour from the male child or equal for male and female?
What is the underlying message from the values and aspirations of researchers behind the research. Who funded it? Will the follow-up phase be to impregnate men to prove that they can be equally bonded to infants as women?
Infants do inherit personality, emotional, physical, genetic and psychological traits from both parents. Nothing new here.
Call me cynic, but I am interested in the Epistemology of the research- The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity.
Rainforest P
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