cries mean, but in the meantime you must learn through sensitivity and awareness. I say most cries, because there will always be odd ones (like "there's a Christmas Beetle down the back of my jumper") which can be hard to work out when you expect they are due to wake up for a feed, but then a feed does not fix their distress!
   Every mother of every species subconsciously knows the unique tone of her own baby's cries from birth. Out of a room of 20 crying babies, you can always pick your own! I am sure that if an expert sound technician recorded and examined in detail a baby's cries, they would find some unique auditory "key" which identified it as different from all other babies and which matched some auditory "lock" in the mother's brain. If they were to examine the cries in even greater detail, I am sure they would also find subtle differences depending on the baby's needs. But in reality, a mother's hearing is already able to pick out those keys and those meanings. The tricky part, is being able to interpret, that is consciously understand, the subtle differences between those cries!
   Here is a list, by no means complete, of many of the most common causes of crying you can investigate and use to interpret their possible meaning.

· Hungry
· Too hot or too cold
· Draughty or stuffy
· Insects in the room or in their bed
· Restrictive, tangled or fallen off clothing
· Excessively wet or soiled nappy
· Nappy rash
· Changes of environment
· Unfamiliar smells or sounds
· Uncomfortable bed or bedding
· Night fears (after 8 months)
· Aloneness (or separation anxiety from their perspective)
· Over stimulated in wake time
· Under stimulated in wake time

The Hungry Cry
   This would have to be the most common, the most recognisable and the most easily remedied of all cries. Although it often carries great urgency, it is also the least disturbing of them all, since you and he both know that a feed will come as soon as you can get it together. I would call it a wailing rather than a cry, and it can be accompanied by a mouth looking for something to suck.
   Other than when a baby wakes up unexpect-edly and you are not there, most of the time you  will be able to avoid this particular cry, (or only hear it for a

short time) by pre-empting their need for a feed. In the youngest of babies the Hunger Cry can be quite desperate, but as they grow older it becomes less so, as they gradually learn that you will feed them as soon as you can. When they see you opening your shirt, they get all excited and happy, and the crying stops. But failure to feed within a reasonable time can turn this cry into one of frustration, distress and fractiousness, thereby messing up the harmony of the feeding session.
   The Hunger Cry requires attention only in the form of feeding, and is not to be confused with the "I want more because I don't want to go to bed now" cry or "I'll take a bit of breast to quieten down". Hunger is hunger, and feeding is feeding. It is important that a mother learns to quickly identify her baby's pure hunger cry as different from the fake hunger cries of emotional manipulation an older baby will often try on. Frequently the need for comfort is confused with the need for food but this is the beginning of losing the separation between the baby's needs and desires (see "Breastfeeding as a Tranquil-liser", page 346.

The Summoning Cry
   Often we tend to think that babies mainly cry for reasons of physical discomfort of some form or another, but I am equally sure they experience times of mental and emotional anxiety simply by their separation from you, when their aloneness causes unease. In such events they will cry simply to "get you", for no other reason than desiring the security and comfort of your presence. If that is all it is, then they will be happy to see you and the crying will soon abate with a bit of a cuddle. For example, waking up from sleep into darkness or to an unfamiliar place can be the first of these anxious moments.
   The summoning cry is not a particularly distressed cry and may begin as just a whimper and then build in tone and insistence if it is ignored.   This then develops into one of frustration at lack of response, then anxiety, and maybe even fear that you will not come. If you are quick to arrive and attend to them at their first waking cry, usually in a few weeks your baby will stop becoming distressed as he wakes. They will calmly lie there for a few minutes before eventually crying to summon you. Every mother will tell of the joy she feels the first time she peers into the cot and finds her baby awake and happily unafraid of their aloneness.
   It is through this dialogue of summoning and attending, that babies