Babies

[Misty Avich]

When I look at a baby, especially a newborn, I always try to imagine what it's like, simply because most people including me don't remember being a baby at all. So I think, does the baby know they're in existence? Are they rapidly forgetting each passing moment until they reach about 2 years of age? I really don't get why we forget our baby years so much. Sometimes I feel the baby is feeling ''why am I here?'' - in picture form, not in words. Or I guess they don't think at all? I do wish we could remember our first year. I'd love to go back and remember what it's like to be held in someone's arms.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

As you know, I work with babies. Lots and lots of babies. I watch them grow from basically fetuses to term infants, and some of them, due to complex medical issues, may be with us much longer. To say there is an accelerated level of growth and neuroplasticity during this stage of development is an understatement. I've seen brain ultrasounds change significantly from month to month. Frankly, it's an amazing spectacle.

What does happen is that some neuropathways are strengthened over time, and some that start out strong, may weaken and eventually be lost. I suspect that some of these memories are, at the very least, consciously lost. Now, what is interesting, is that some memories are present in the subconscious and can affect behaviors for years without the person knowing why.

Just some examples: In the neonatal ICU, we often have to draw blood for various lab tests. The babies are tiny. We aren't poking veins and arteries, but rather we do with a tiny poke to the heel, much like having your finger pricked at a clinic for a blood sugar or cholesterol level. Fill the little capillary tube and send it to the lab. Well, you do this enough times over weeks and months and obviously the brain understands this and associates something on the foot as uncomfortable. It becomes a sensory issue for the person. So, the person walks on their toes, they don't like wearing socks and shoes, etc.

Another example: In the neonatal ICU, there is a lot of medical equipment, and medical equipment have alarms on them for all sorts of things. The baby may be in this environment for several weeks or months. Well, eventually the baby gets better, you send them home to loving parents, the kid becomes a toddler. The parents decide to introduce them to a local fast-food restaurant, and fast-food restaurants often have alarms on them to tell the workers when to pull the French fries out of the fryer, or pull food out of the microwave, etc. The toddler hears the alarms and starts having a meltdown in front of everyone. The parents can't figure it out. The toddler really doesn't know why it's so upsetting (another sensory issue) and can't articulate it, so everyone is upset and confused, and the experience ruined.

 

[Thinx]

I read that initially memories are stored as individual instances, but that changes when the brain develops to use concepts that gather similar instances into groups, and with the start of the use of language.

Then the earlier more visual or wordless ways of remembering are hard to access, later on. I can recall things from age about 4, being somewhere or thinking something. Still not a lot that's specific, but my general life from age 4, I can recall.

 

[Misty Avich]

I can remember things from age 5 onwards, obviously more vividly as the years went on (for example I remember more stuff from when I was 8 than when I was 4, but more stuff from when I was 12 than when I was 8). My teenage years seem to be the strongest and most vivid memories.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

My first memories, and I still remember them now, started when I was around 1 year. I can still remember sitting in a highchair, the toys at my first birthday party and Christmas, my dad playing with me, the family cat, etc. Little flashes of events. Now, I do remember my infant brother dying of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) when I was about 2 years old. Boy, that day is burned into my memory, lots of details.

 

[Aspychata]

I remember sitting in a high chair, and whatever l was eating squirted at me. I am guessing it was a grapefruit. And l was poking it with something l held in my hand. I also remembered in the same time frame, that my crayons were taken away, placed on the highest shelve of a bookcase. I remember that l climbed up the shelves, and they all fell down on me. I also remember a horrible fall in the bathroom. I also have other memories from that time frame. I also remember being left alone in the living room with nothing to do all by myself. I think l went thru some neglect by "mother" at this time. Later, my "mom" told my grandmother, she was thinking of putting me up for adoption when l was a toddler. My grandmother told my mom that she would take me and raise me. I learned this at about age 16. My grandmother was my mom for most of my life. My mom never treated her mother that well either in final aging days. But l flew my grandmother to Hawaii in her eighties, she had never been there. And she was so happy.

 

[jsilver256]

I suspect memories can vary from person to person as well. My oldest has a strong memory and still talks about stuff that happened when he was 3, 4, 5. He likes discussing things that happened at school, always has.

My youngest seems to be living day to day or even moment to moment, I don't think I've ever seen him reminisce on anything. He's 5 now, but if you ask him what he wants for Christmas or birthday, he gets a blank stare and then he'll say something like "lollipop."

 

[vergil96]

I remeber very early childhood, but I can't tell when exactly were the first memories, as I didn't grasp the concept of time. I was for sure younger than 3 perhaps younger than 2. The earliest memories are nothing interesting, really. Confusing. I mean, these were everyday situations, I remeber not making sense of them, simply. Not enough consistency and not enough data to see patterns and retrieve basic information from them. One big information chaos. The feeling was like waking up from sleep and not knowing where you are - all the time. Or like the day when you have to do a million things and they don't glue well together, there is no common theme or structure.

Perhaps not grasping the concept of time or that there is another room I couldn't see is the most interesting part of it. By not grasping time I mean, feeling like the current moment is forever, not knowing that someone or something didn't vanish forever, that there is a future and what is now won't last endlessly.

 

[SusanLR]

It is a rare occasion, but there are some who remember all the way back to birth.
I am one who does, and I seemed to understand things just as much as at age 2 or 3.

As far as sense of time, I couldn't tell you what age I was during the very young memories.
I can only go by things such as if it were while living in Arizona, then it was before age six.
Or my first birthday because the cake had one candle on it.
Most memories as a baby were verified by my parents as true when I was old enough to share them and ask if they were accurate.
There never seemed to be a shut-down point where memories faded or how I understood things around me changed.

And @Misty Avich , I can answer your question as to how it felt to be in loving arms that rocked me to sleep for my afternoon naps in a rocking chair.
Sucking on my left thumb and my right hand in my mom's long black hair while she sang hymns to me.
It is the most peaceful, contented memory I have.

 

[Ghostinthemachine]

I think it was freud who proposed the infantile amnesia theory which if I remember rightly links into the identification period of oedipus/electra complex so this ties in with my most can't remember before about 4-5 years of age ,mind you there are lots of other theories and freud was also partial to cocaine at one point in his life so he maybe wrong but some of his stuff defo stood the test of time