Fussy babies tend to turn into intelligent kids, study finds

Do you have a fussy baby? Chances are your bub will end up with a higher IQ than his or her peers, claims a study.

A study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care claims that fussy babies are much more responsive to their parents and this can actually be an advantage.

Find out more below…

Study finds ‘difficult’ babies end up with higher IQs

1,300 American children were studied from birth to the first grade and researchers noted that some infants at six months of age appeared ‘difficult’, as they were more active, intensely emotional and cried a lot more – especially if their mothers left them with anyone else.

Experts found that years later, the majority of these babies were at the top of their class. Teachers rated most of them as cooperative, assertive, self-controlled and academically competent.

However, this was down to the parents. If they were warm and sensitive, their babies thrived. But if the parents were insensitive, hostile or cod, these babies tended to become the kids with the most problems.

Further follow-ups at 11 years old were conducted and researchers found similar results. The most well-adjusted children were the former ‘difficult’ babies who had warm and sensitive parents.

Why do fussy babies end up with higher IQs?

It may be down to evolution. Some scientists say super sensitive babies are more in tune with their environment, therefore making them more likely to survive. Especially if their parents are on call to pick them up to soothe them when they are being fussy. A.k.a. being picked up and not being eaten by predators.

Professor Peter Fleming from the University of Bristol, who specialises in infant health and development, supports this idea that babies who wake often or are fussy in the night are just doing what mother nature intends.

He tells Buzzfeed News that there is a link between “very high levels of developmental and intellectual achievement and not sleeping throughout the night.

“That’s not perhaps what most parents would like to hear.”

“Actually, biologically that’s a big advantage because they will have more attention from their two primary caregivers at that time of day than at any other because there are fewer distractions,” he adds.

“From a biological point of view what the baby is doing is completely normal and sensible. It just doesn’t fit in with our 21st-century expectations.”

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