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03/07/2005
Move over, Iron Eyes Cody
I did not know this until I had one: babies aren't born with the ability to cry tears. Although from birth they make moisture enough to keep their eyes wet and healthy, what we commonly think of as tears — the kind that slide down a fat satiny cheek reddened by frustration or pain — don't come until later.
As we undressed him this morning at his neonatologist's appointment, a hungry, pissed-off Charlie cried his very first tear. He is one month adjusted today.
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Congrats on your one month adjusted birthday Charlie!!
Awww.....his first tear. Sweet.
I had no idea that babies didn't cry real tears. Damn if I'm not always learning something for you.
Aw... Charlie is so advanced! How about some pictures of the little dude?
A smile cannot be far behind! :)
Damn! Veronica beat me to it. I hope that first gummy smile isn't far behind.
And here I thought they didn't shed tears so young because they were just great big fakers!
Congratulations on reaching another milestone.
hmph. My daughter cried "real tears" pretty much from day 1. Of course, the OB almost put her eye out with the forceps too, so I suspect I'd be crying a lot too.
The first of many more to come! Go Charlie.
Wow, I bet that was bittersweet, Julie! Your poor little man... hopefully the appointment went well (care to share any details?), and you were able to comfort him quickly.
Bless his heart! Happy "one month" birthday, Charlie! :-)
XO
Jennifer
He'll smile soon :-) My kid started tracking objects with her eyes (other than faces) just before the fateful smile.
Huh, I never knew that!
Awwww, poor little guy. Congrats though.
Babies are also born monocular, meaning that they have a preference for using one eye more than the other (if the vision is better in one eye too I don't know) but that's why they always seem to be "peeking" out of one eye....
um....just caught my typo. i learn something "from" you not "for" you. duh. don't tell anyone i'm a teacher ok.
This is when they get the ability to look really sad and pathetic and can maniuplate the heck out of you! :)
Just kills you doesn't it? That big fat tear rolling down his face.
Yep, you'll see a smile before you know it. It's all so worth it when you do.
I remember calling my mom the moment our Charlie learned to really cry. There was general wailing one day and then the next there was this "woe is me" weep and actually tears.
They are so damned cute. So damned cute.
My ten week old baby girl still hasn't cried any tears. Do you know when they are supposed to start tearing?
Bekah, it varies wildly! Check this out:
http://pediatrics.about.com/od/weeklyquestion/a/04_infant_tears.htm
Sounds like you don't have anything to worry about.
My goddaughter cried real tears from the start, while her twin brother didn't for months. It's really much more sad to see them cry with tears!
EVEN WEIRDER....
Babies are born without kneecaps... go on...feel for yourself! Apparently they don't get them until they're about 2! I didn't believe it myself until I felt it with my own fingers!
In reference to the idea of infants not having knee caps (I *had* to look that one up!!):
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/may97/861940964.An.r.html
"Newborns do have kneecaps, Cathy. Kneecaps form about the fourth month of fetal life. However, they don’t show up on x-ray very well because they’re not ossified, or bony. At this point in life, the kneecaps are made of a cartilaginous material. The growth centers surrounding the kneecap form late in developmental life in utero and may not appear until just before or just after the infant is born.
Remember, infants are a work in progress. The potential for linear bone growth may continue until the late teens or early twenties. Although all the precursor tissues for the major bones are present at or immediately after birth, centers of ossification (where bone is laid down) continue to develop throughout childhood and beyond. For instance, the head of the femur appears at four months, the patella, or kneecap, starts showing signs of ossification at about 3 years in females and 4-5 years of age in males. Parts of the pelvic girdle (hips) don’t appear ossified until adolescence with the tubercle of the pubis not appearing until 18-20 years of age."
There's a little more at that link.
Pictures! I want pictures! of Charlie's tears, kneecaps, whatever ya got.
So, didya feed him?
Just asking.
Congratulations on the adjusted month tear!
Julie, I promise that I am not stalking you...but are you guys following up with Dr. Johnston? I'm a med student at Fletcher Allen and I know that Dr. Johnston had her clinic today...I was there doing pediatric cardiology. Small world! Anyway, congratulations on 1 month adjusted! He is beautiful and will be SO BIG in no time!!! :-)
Kate, we are and we did! Small world, indeed. Please don't take this the wrong way when I tell you that I hope we never need your services!
As I suspected, he's brilliant. Now that he's got the tear thing down, I hope he doesn't need to use it very often.
Yes, more pictures, please.
hmmm, you HAD to try and get one up on me cos i got smiles first huh?
My nephew cried BIG OL' FAT tears pretty early on - he almost looked like an anime character, with the tears SPURTING and SQUIRTINGF everywhere.
Squirtingf. Nice.
I learned about the tear thing in my high school human anatomy class. Apparently making tears is a conditioned response. Babies create the tears because when they get upset and cry their little eyes squish together and it causes tears to be squeezed out of the tear duct. Most of the time newborns "cry" but they don't make tears. When they are able to make tears it's a conditioned response. They cry, you see tears and they get picked up and comforted. Soon they don't have to squish their eyes together to make tears. They do it as a conditioned response to distress because they know that someone will pick them up.
Apparently making tears is a conditioned thing and that's why not all cultures make tears when they "cry". Many babies of native american tribes don't make tears they just make the crying noise. In that culture making tears is not a reinforced behavior. I always thought that this was interesting.
Anyways, there are always some exceptions to the rule and I think my son is one of them. When he was born all the nurses would exclaim "look he already makes tears!". Sometimes when he wakes up crying the tears run down his cheeks to his ears, and I'll pick him up and tears will drop off his earlobes. So very pathetic and adorable.
Thanks for the link Julie!
sweet things like this make me cry. pictures please. congrats on him being so healthy so soon.
Liz, that's so interesting! Conditioned biological behavior like that interests me. Like, I wonder whether [warning, graphic bathroom behavior ahead] the fact that males typically stand to pee and females tend to sit (or crouch, in some other societies) teaches the body something about when to move the bowels. Men have to make a conscience choice to sit to make a bowel movement, whereas women are already sitting if one should happen to come out. I think this might mean that men's bodies become conditioned to make one substantial bowel movement a day (or whatever time period), while women, though sometimes we head to the bathroom because we specifically feel the need to move our bowels, can let out dribs and drabs throughout the day, because we are sitting on the pot anyway, so our bodies do not get conditioned to efficiently save it all up for one dump per day or the like.
Anyway, if many Native American tribes don't condition their babies to cry tears, do the adults cry tears? Was the portrayal of the Native American with the single tear in that commercial inaccurate?
I didn't know about tear duct hole until I was an adolescent. I guess I always thought tears came out of the corner of my eye, but I didn't know about the little tear duct hole. I was examining my lower eye lid -- is that what it's called? -- in the mirror one time during my teen years and saw the hole and freaked out! Why was there a hole there!? Heh.
Mazel tov on the adjusted one month birthday, and best wishes for good health!
Marisa,
Iron eyes was an "honorary" Native. He was Italian born by race.
And, with more than 500 nations, one can not generalize about "Native Tradition" anything. It's akin to saying, "Well, The English like tea. Therefore all Europeans have tea time.
:)
z-loving this place, everytime
Oh what memories that brings back. My daughter cried her first real tears at 2 months when I was trying to trim her nails and accidently took off a little piece of her thumb instead.
She turned bright red and started crying big hot tears and then I turned bright red and started crying big hot tears because the first real tears she ever cried were all my fault.
All of this attacted my husband's attention and to this day he talks about the day he walked in and found us sobbing together on the kitchen floor and me promising I would buy her a pony.
i loved watching the moisture rush into its proper place. first saliva. then tears. then snot. then earwax. fun!
Ugh, it's the hardest part seeing them cry. :(
Hi! Just thought you'd like to know, your blog was quoted in the Ottawa (Canada) Citizen on Saturday, March 5. The article is a roundup of 28 mommy(and daddy) blogs, including mine. I printed the full article at http://momm-eh.blogspot.com/2005/03/hey-thats-my-blog.html if you'd like to see it.
Congratulations on your little one!
My little bugger had big ol' globs of yellow eye snot coming out of his left eye until the tear ducts were mature enough to shed real tears. Once the tears came -- at about 6 weeks -- the gunk was gone. And yes, the smile was quick on the tears heels with no associated yellow goop whatsoever. And the smiles get better and better every day.
what a sweetie... congrats to Charlie on his one month adjustment!
actually this is a myth. babies can shed tears well before birth, typically at week thirty.
http://www.pregnancy.org/pregnancy/fetaldevelopment3.php
scroll down to week thirty.
You sure about that?