Although it often goes unnoticed because it is harder to detect than in older children or adults, babies also fall into depressive states as published by the Argentine newspaper Page 12 in a very interesting note for all parents.
Therefore, "we must be very attentive to the clues that give us their emotional and physical development to know if they are suffering," explains Francisco Palacio Espasa, head of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Service in Geneva.
When the emotional bond between the baby and the rest of the family is positive, the child is happy, is happy, confident, enjoys what he receives, asks the people around him and replies with pleasure.
On the contrary, when this affective bond is negative, this is reflected mainly in mood and developmental disorders.
How to realize that you are depressed? Being sad does not mean that the baby cries all day, the clearest symptom of depression is apathy and inhibition in the initiative. The depressed baby smiles very little or does not smile, does not seem to respond to the stimuli offered and does not react if left with a stranger. Depressed babies often also have some developmental delay without other apparent causes, such as, for example, not walking until 17-18 months or not talking until two years, having difficulties in sleep and feeding.
One of the causes of depression in infants is having a depressed mother. When the mother's depression is mild, the problem is usually resolved with a good therapeutic intervention. However, when the depression is chronic and the mother shows for a long time distant, irritable and very decayed, the baby can develop a great apathy, a detachment, an emotional distancing, be very little requesting and present serious delays in the symbolization and in the development.
The importance of the baby's relationship with his parents to avoid depression is clear. Although there are external factors that can affect as hereditary or extreme situations in the family such as separation, loss, abandonment, grief, etc.
