Babies don’t behave the way they do in order to manipulate or give others a hard time. Rather, their behaviors express stress, emotions, or needs, including developmentally appropriate needs like testing boundaries or asking for attention. They are having a hard time. When we cultivate nurtured empathy—the ability to connect with another person’s internal world—we can go to the root of the behavior to name the emotion, which we can regulate; and the need, which is where we can help.
