Have you ever wondered why do babies get bored? Maybe your newborn baby seems agitated and irritable at times. Perhaps they cry or act like they are in pain. Perhaps they seem tired throughout the day. Well, there could be a reason for their behavior. Just like adults, babies can get bored too. And when they do, their behavior may change, and so do their moods. But what exactly happens when a baby is bored?
Not everyone is familiar with the concept that babies get bored. If you’re not, then you’re going to want to stay for my explanation. This article discusses why babies get bored and what you can do about it.
Some parents ask whether their baby ever becomes bored. Babies do get bored, as boredom is an intrinsic element of organized play. It is essential to understand if babies get bored and why? We need to know why they behave the way they do and what we can do to curb this kind of behavior. By understanding the correct answer to these questions, you would be able to prevent many problems that your child may encounter in the future. Let us investigate why babies get bored and how you can help your child deal with his state of mind when he feels bored.
Some contrary points of view:
Babies are not bored because they are not dull people. Some people have a slightly different point of view regarding babies’ boredom. They say that babies are interested in the process of becoming people, and the most exciting thing about a person is seeing how they get to be the way they are. If babies got bored, you could never take care of one for more than five minutes. They’d start screaming, “I’m bored! I’m bored!” and you wouldn’t know what to do. What can you do with a bored baby?
What’s exhausting about taking care of babies is not that they’re tired but unpredictable. A baby might cry for no apparent reason, fall asleep at an inconvenient time, or try to play with your glasses instead of watching Sesame Street. But none of these things is because the baby is bored. On the contrary, the baby is trying to understand the world and make sense.
Reasons why do babies get bored:
Numerous studies have found that babies are bored and find concentrating very hard. Many parents also regularly complain about their four-month-old’s boredom during long car trips or simply after being left alone with a favorite toy for a few minutes. But why do babies get bored so quickly?
Babies get bored, though not as quickly as adults do. But since babies’ brains are not fully developed, they can get bored very quickly. Most people think that infants are born with a dull attention span, but it’s the opposite. Infants have bubbling energy and prefer to get involved in any activity. At this stage, their brains are wired for eager excitement and not for getting tired or exhausted.
If you think about the kind of life babies have, all babies do is sleep, eat and cry. This does not provide a lot of stimulation for their brains. Although babysitters know that babies tend to get bored quickly, they sometimes rely on toys to keep them preoccupied. But do these toys keep babies interested? While you might think that toys will always engage children, there are many ways to become boring after a while.
Babies get bored when they have lost control of their environment and are not free to explore. This doesn’t happen in the womb because there are only a few amniotic fluid molecules. But after birth, when babies start exploring the world, they quickly learn that if they do something and it works, it’s because of something they did. And if it doesn’t work, it’s because of something else.
A baby who can’t make his mobile move by batting at it learns pretty fast not to bother trying. A baby who pushes a button on a musical toy and gets music learns quickly that he caused the music. But if he pushes the button and gets nothing happening or gets the same thing happening again and again, he soon loses interest no matter what he does.
A baby gets bored when awake for more than 45 minutes in the same position. There are two kinds of boredom: passive and active. Passive boredom occurs when there is nothing to do, and active boredom occurs when you can’t do what you want.
Your baby is learning new things constantly, but this also means she gets bored very quickly. There’s no such thing as a toy that will never get boring, so try to keep her environment interesting by switching things up every few days. You can even rotate toys when your baby gets bored or hold off on introducing new ones until she’s done with the old ones. However, don’t go overboard adding toys to your home.
You’ll end up with many clutter, and you may overwhelm your baby. Just add one new toy at a time if it seems like she’s getting bored with what she has. If not, let her keep playing or even make a mess— she’ll probably come back to an older toy after some time away from it!
What you can do when a baby is bored:
I am not saying that babies should be given iPads when they are too young to hold them properly (though I see no reason why they shouldn’t be). However, there are plenty of toys designed for tiny hands that can help to keep boredom at bay. Things like:
- Rings to stack up.
- Laces to thread.
- Pegs to pull off pegboards.
- Items with dials and buttons to press.
- Things with squeakers in them.
- Things with flaps on them that make noises when you open and close them.
- There are also classical maraca-type rattles that fill both requirements: they make noise and fit nicely into tiny hands.
