Babies don't remember?

I don't know about memories, but my son has something related to post traumatic stress syndrome every time we go to the doctor. It's like he's having NICU flashbacks. Not pretty!

Reply

I can remember visiting the hospital when my sister was born. I was two years and four months old. The memories are hazy but they have been confirmed as correct by my mother. :o)

Reply

I have several pretty clear memories from age 2 and some more vague ones from earlier times (sitting on a particular chair and hearing a particular song).

Interesting about the beginning of long-term memory beginning around 6 months. That would correspond to the age that we are traditionally advised to adopt practices that assume "learning" by the child. For example, it's considered OK to pick up a baby every time he cries up until age six months; after that we are warned of spoiling. Similarly, six months is about the age when we begin trying to teach kids not to touch electrical wires, not to splatter their food at their parents, etc. Never really thought of it as a memory issue, but this makes sense to me.

Reply

I was born in Evanston Illinois, and my parents and I lived in an apartment until I was about 18 months old. After that we moved to a nice house in Northbrook, Il. Anyway, a couple years ago I was talking with my mom about my childhood, and I told her I remembered the apartment we had lived in. She didn't believe me, and I told her I could draw a floor plan of the apartment. I did, and she was totally speechless. My floor plan was 100% accurate. She could not believe I actually remembered it. I also remembered sticking myself with a pin...my mom was getting ready for company to come, my diaper was wet, and I tried to take it off myself. I also remebered a few other things.... one of which was the hardwood floors in my bedroom, trying to climb out of my crib while my mom was watching her soaps, and falling out and hitting that floor. OUCH.

Reply

I have a distinct memory of my 1st birthday. I remember looking over a table with several cakes on it. I remember really wanting some of that cake.

After that, I don't remember anything until I was about 4 years old.

Reply

We took our son to a certain doctor from when he was born until he was 6 months old, then switched because we didn't like how they gave shots. They seemed too harsh in our opinion, and it really upset him. We went back to this doctor when he was 2 because the other one is an hour away. I swear he remembered the office. He started screaming the minute we walked in the door,and never stopped until we left. They couldn't even examine him. Even the nurse was surprised, after not seeing him for so long, but he really seemed to remember.

Reply

I clearly remember throwing a kewpie doll out the car window off a bridge when I was a kid. My mom claims that I did that within a week or so of having received it as a gift at my birthday party. Since I have a picture of me with the kewpie doll at my birthday party with a big "1" on the cake, I'd say my earliest memory was just after I turned one. I also remember having my diaper changed, and was potty trained at 2, so that was sometime before then.

Reply

The earliest memory that I can recall happened around the age of 2, according to my parents. But memories are highly susceptible to the power of suggestion. There is a good chance that my "memory" of a family vacation at the age of 2 is nothing more than a memory of my parents telling me what happened. I would be willing to be that this is the case for many, if not all of, people's memories of their infancy.

Reply

I remember being in a stroller that had a rain cover on it. I was sitting up. It was the old kind with the big wheels that go for a few thousand $$'s now. THey were pretty standard back then I think. I don't know how old I was.

Reply

I can't remember anything before the age of 3(ish). Like a previous poster mentioned, I feel like I remember some earlier things because I have seen pictures and heard the story so many times from my Mom, but I am pretty sure the earliest thing I can recall on my own was from 3 1/2 or so.

The memory is helping my Dad and brothers make homemade rootbeer in our garage. It is a happy memory!

Reply

I distinctly remember trying to climb out of my high chair, slipping, and hitting my crotch on the arm of it. I remember this really strongly because I thought I`d get in trouble, because that area was "special".
As the high chair was long gone by my 2nd birthday, it had to be before then.

I can also remember my mother cutting my hair for the first time just before my 2nd birthday. I can remember her telling me that she wanted a little girl so that she could play with her hair, and that she`d waited long enough. I remember really hating the idea that the curls I had at the bottom would be gone. She said they`d grow back, but they never did.

No one else remembers either of these events.

I have a few memories that I believe are from before that, but I have no way to be sure. Like my mother having long straight hair (She cut it off before I was one.), and looking out the back car window while being in a car seat.

Reply

"At 6 months of age, a baby can remember the last 24 hours of her life."

I don't understand- how does an infant then recognize their family, a bottle, a toy?

My earliest memory is from 13 months then nothing certain until I am about 4.

Reply

Spring, I'm no expert, but I'd guess it's because we have a short term memory and a long term memory and babies must have versions of that also. Mom and dad and probably other certain things are imprinted, but mere happenings are not. At least that's my guess.

Reply

I remember staying overnight in the hospital. My mom tells me I had just turned 2 and had gotten sick. That's the only time I've ever stayed overnight until just last September to give birth.

I agree with Daylee though. Many of those "memories" could be linked to photographs we've seen and stories about them that we didn't really remember, but have the stories and images imprinted in our minds as if they were memories of sort. I'm sure we all have genuine memories though. There were no photos of me in that hospital room and it was never discussed until I asked about it a few years ago.

Reply

Most of my memories begin after age 4, but I have a few before that. The earliest memory is rather hazy. When I told my mom about it she was shocked.

I have Cystic Fibrosis. In the 70's the daily treatment included Chest Physical Therapy (CPT). Actually I did this form of therapy everyday until I went to college. When I was young, after several positions (laying nearly upside down and having mom/dad clap their hands on my chest/back over and over to get the thick sticky mucus out) my parents would bring me into the kitchen and use a suction machine to suck the mucus out. I remember the therapy and I remember the sinking feeling like "oh no, now it's time to go to the kitchen" My mom would sit in a kitchen chair, I would be laying flat on back on her thighs and she would thread a tube up my nose, down my throat and suction away. I remember that machine. I remember it was green. I remember it was high up (they used to sit it on the counter) and like I mentioned earlier, I mostly remember the sinking feeling that it was time to go into the kitchen for this ritual.

The shocking part? My mom said she got rid of the machine before I turned 6 months old. I had no idea I was that young.

Reply

I remember visiting friends of my parents at their home in Indiana and meeting their son (who was much older) in the courtyard of the house they lived in. I never thought much about this memory until a couple of years ago that couple and I happened to be visiting my parents at the same time and we began talking about when they'd first met me, and I mentioned that trip. My mother contradicted me; she had no recollection of it. But the couple did remember our visit, and then I described the courtyard and meeting their son, and everything had happened just as I said. I was 16 months old (and I couldn't have learned it from my mother, since she herself forgot it had happened).
I have a number of other memories from before the age of 2.5, but that's the one that was easiest to date precisely. I'm interested to see that others have such early memories too.

Reply

My daughter's memory can surprise me. She comes up with the most random stuff.

The most distinct was when she was about 2-1/2 and we were getting things ready for her brother's birth. We brought out her old mobile, which we had taken down when she was maybe 9 months old. She looks at it, turns it on and says "That's my first music!"

Reply

It seems like many of the earliest memories were of really traumatic or really exciting events. About half of my memories up to age 2 (and for some time thereafter) involve pretty dramatic falls, being upset and bewildered by treatment from non-family members, and the like. Others involve very loving moments (mom or dad singing / dancing with me) or things that happened the same way many times (having a diaper change). I guess that makes sense because the really emotional events are the kinds of things a child (or anyone) would rehash in his mind and thus solidify the memory; while the everyday things would be remembered simply because they happened so often.

Reply

While it is true that the BRAIN doesn't retain intellectual memory until later, there are other parts to the brain - limbic/emotional and hind/primitive/instictual and they both hold memories from very early.

There is also cellular memory, where the memories are stored as neuropeptides in the cell - each and every one - making a hologram of memory throughout the body, starting as early as conception.

Both of these types of memory are valid, but often not discussed because they are non-verbal and it is difficult to translate them into the intellectual mind.

A child that has an emotional reaction to a place or situation from his newborn/infancy IS remembering, but it's body based and emotional, not intellectual.

We all remember our births, and our prenatal experience, and can access those memories through techniques use by those in the field of prenatal and perinatal psychology - often called birth psychology.

I know without a doubt after seeing many adult AND infant clients that our early experiences are IMPRINTED in how our brains and emotions are wired.

Reply

OH, and if anyone wants to know more you can visit the following websites:

http://www.whatyourbabyknows.com
http://www.birthpsychology.com
http://www.wondrousbeginnings.com

Reply