Sympathy Cry?

Sympathy crying is very common in children. My daughter's preschool teacher told me this happens quite often in her classroom, even in children in the 3-4 age range.

My son did that till he was like 3yrs old. If a baby cried he sympathized. As he got older he would still cry with them and offer a tissue. So sweet.

Hi, J.:

This is very interesting that you identified this behavior in your child.
You remember in the nursery in the hospital when one baby cried, they
all cried. This is the same thing that is going on with your son.

It is a primal instinct. It teaches empathy that will be needed as the child continues to grow and develop through the milestones. Your child may be blessed with an extra sense of compassion.

Hopefully, he is being comforted when he becomes distressed by all those who notice as well as the child who is suffering.

You are a very preceptive woman, evidently your son has inherited some of your characteristics.

Your post has been the most interesting one since I have been on this site.
Thanks for sharing. D.

Yup, my son is 7.5 months old and he just started doing this too. If his 2 year old brother starts whining, crying or wants to be held, the baby starts crying too! He knows that when his brother starts with those things my attention will be on him for a bit. Little manipulators LOL!!

You may want to have his ears checked, just as a precaution. I mention this only because you wrote that just talking and babbling seemed to affect him. I am guessing that it's nothing, but it doesn't hurt to be too careful....

that is so sweet. He's probably a very sympathetic, sensitive and caring soul.

Could his ears be bothering him? Maybe to noise of the crying hurts his ears. Does he have a well check coming up? I'd ask then.

I experienced this with my son when he was around 2 and it dropped off around 2-1/2. They just pick up on others emotions I guess. I was worried too but I think they just grow out of it. I just told him it was ok and that the other kid was sad but he had done nothing wrong. I seem to think that he thought he had done something to cause the child's sadness. Hope this helps.

My son saw another baby younger than him at 7 mos and he was leaning his head toward the baby as in his way of hugging. Over time, I realize my baby is the sensitive, feeling type who loves to give hugs and stuff. So who knows, your baby cries because he could have empathy and feeling it for the other kid, or just maybe the babbling could be disturbing to your son. I think that's cute!

Babies are constantly going through new phases. Between 3 months and a year, your little one's internal checks and balances are still developing which things they check and which they balance. The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are still trying to figure out what the heck they do and so your child's reactions to outside stressors can be over the top sometimes.

The best thing you can do for him is anticipate his triggers during this phase and be proactive about combating them. You could bring a favorite toy from home or a baby mirror and focus his energy on that when you drop him off. He will be so absorbed in exploring his reflection or toy that he won't be looking for facial cues in other kiddos on how he should react to being dropped off.

I totally recommend reading "The Happiest Baby on the Block"