Musician claims to translate baby talk

Six-week-old Asher was losing weight.

His mother, Catherine McNiel of Glendale Heights, fretted constantly because she never knew if he was getting enough to eat.

So when Dunstan Baby Language asked McNiel to take part in a research group testing a new program, which claims to decipher babies' cries, she jumped at the chance.

The differences in sounds were as slight as "eh" vs. "neh." But within an hour of watching the instructional video, McNiel said, she could tell when her child was hungry, when he was tired and when he needed to be burped or changed.

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She added bottles to supplement her breast-feeding, and Asher, now 18 months old, soon gained weight and grew healthy.

"It was a lifesaver for me," McNiel said. "I can't overstate how important and helpful it was for me to be able to recognize precisely when he was hungry or tired or needed to burp, rather than feeding him constantly because I was anxious."

That's the kind of testimonial that makes Dunstan Baby Language sound like a parent's dream.

The company has survey after survey in which parents report the system worked and helped them understand their children.

Yet doctors remain skeptical. They say there's no independent, published clinical studies to see whether the program is effective. And the theory on which it's based has nothing to do with language development.

But for believers like McNiel, none of that matters.

"I don't feel a doctor needs to tell me if it works or not," she said. "It was like a friend giving me a tip. It worked."

A musical ear

Priscilla Dunstan, an Australian concert violinist, was known for her eidetic memory -- the ability to remember a musical piece immediately from memory.

When she had a baby, Dunstan was frustrated by medical advice that told her nothing about her son's cries.

So Dunstan listened carefully to each vocalization, kept track of them in her journal and began to hear repeated patterns. Then she tracked what response quieted the baby's cries.

When her baby's cry sounded like "neh," she found, he was hungry. When he said "ow," like a yawn, it meant he was tired.

By addressing each need after each utterance, she found what soothed her baby and what didn't. Subsequent research found other babies making the same five sounds.

According to Dunstan, the cries a baby makes are not "words" in the sense of abstract symbols, but are vocal reflexes caused by changes going on in the infant's body.

If a baby needs to burp, the internal air pressure in the stomach will cause the child to squeeze out a sound that sounds like "eh." If he has gas in the lower digestive system, the discomfort will produce a sound like "eairh."

The sounds are so similar, Dunstan concedes, that it takes practice for a parent to attune the ear to the differences. And parents must try to hear the sounds when a baby first begins giving signs of discomfort, before sweet little noises escalate to full-fledged wailing. At that point, she says, the "words" become lost.

Through surveys with more than 1,000 parents from three countries and 30 nationalities, Dunstan has found the majority of parents reported that the system helped, and they would recommend it.

Once Dunstan described her program on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in late 2006, demand for her $40 DVD took off and business boomed. When the episode re-aired last month, the DVD shot to No. 1 on Amazon's Special Interest and Kids Family categories.

Babble on

Doctors, however, note that parents might be influenced by the placebo effect -- that their desire to have the system succeed makes them think it's working, whether it is or not.

Or parents might be responding to other cues that tell them what their baby needs.

Pediatricians would like to see a peer-reviewed independent lab test the children, to see what cries they make, how those sounds correspond with their bodily functions and which soothing techniques help.

Amanda Woodward, an award-winning researcher of infant language development at the University of Maryland, finds the Dunstan theory "a little implausible."

Babies don't intentionally communicate with specific sounds, researchers tend to agree, until around nine to 12 months.

While most parents find their babies do cry in a particular way depending on what's bothering them, she said, what works for one baby doesn't necessarily work for another.

Dr. Maureen O'Brien, a developmental psychologist and spokeswoman for Dunstan Baby Language in the U.S., maintains the program is far more helpful than a doctor who tells parents they'll figure out their baby's cries on their own.

"It has an almost immediate impact," she said. "Parents tell us, 'I feel like a better parent.' "

Dr. Jennifer Shu, co-author of "Heading Home With Your Newborn," said parents should pay attention to their baby's cries, facial expressions and body language to try to learn what they need.

Her own son, she remembers, often made a sound like "I-o-I-o" when he was tired. But lots of such sounds aren't included in the Dunstan program, and Shu hasn't noticed the Dunstan "words" necessarily being associated with what the Dunstan program predicts.

There's no harm in trying it, she said, but parents need to use common sense. If a baby's body language is telling them something else, they shouldn't ignore it.

"If anything can get parents to pay attention to their child and build confidence in their ability to notice patterns in their child's habits," she said, "that's a good thing."

Say what?

The February issue of Parents magazine offers several clues for figuring out why a baby is crying.

Hunger: If it's been at least two hours since feeding, and he's opening his mouth or sucking on his hand, baby might need to eat.

Fatigue: If your child is listless, seems bored, rubs her eyes or yawns, it may be nap time.

Discomfort: A cry of pain is sudden and shrill. It often includes long wails followed by a pause and may leave your child out of breath.

Boredom: Has your child been doing the same thing for 20 minutes? It may be time to change activities.

Loneliness: If your child falls asleep then wakes and cries as soon as you put him in the crib, he's probably confused and misses your warmth and companionship.

Over-stimulation: If too many people or too much activity competes for baby's attention, and he closes his eyes or turns away, he may need peace and quiet.

Colic: If your baby cries for three hours or more each day for at least a week, that's considered colic. Though the cause is under debate, many pediatricians suspect reflux, gas or other digestive problems. It usually lasts from 3 weeks of age to 3 months.

Beyond coos and cries

Dunstan Baby Language ascribes the following meanings to five sounds that babies make:

Eh: I need to burp

Neh: I'm hungry

Heh: I'm uncomfortable

Ow: I'm tired

Eairh: I have gas