Am i cold and unsympathetic because I don't tend to verbally comfort my baby when I change his nappy?

Apparently one of the biggest differences in parenting babies between men and women is that women tend to keep up a “running commentary” with their babies, while men focus more on getting in with the job. Talk to your little son - he will respond to the sound of your voice and be reassured. Imagine if, say, you went to hospital and things were done to you without a word being said - you wouldn’t like it. And nor does your son, even though he’s only a baby. Also remember this: one of the reasons that children do better in school is to do with the amount of language to which they’ve been exposed - so make sure you talk to your baby!!

My daughter was the same when she had a bath, actually. My husband gave her her first bath and rushed through it because she was so upset. The next night I did her bath and took it much more slowly and chatted to her all the way through. He saw that she was a lot more settled and after that both of us worked on the basis that calm, gentle and talking to her was better than trying to rush it. The baby doesn't know you're trying to get it done quickly, they just feel generally confused and frightened because everything is new and uncomfortable.

I don't think this makes you cold. I just think it's worth making the process more comforting rather than faster if that makes sense. It doesn't mean he won't cry but he will definitely feel safer.

Tabu. Your baby will understand more speech than you realise and will find a soft voice comforting. They need to hear a lot of speech and it's important to chat to them.

It's always better to go slowly and chat to them, I think. I just used to tell my baby what I was going to do next, and also how cute she was 🥰

I don't really understand why you think talking to your baby would hold things up but stroking their head doesn't?

Assuming you're using your hands not your mouth to do the nappy change, isn't verbal reassurance much easier than stroking?

As PP said, it's really important for their development to talk to babies. I can understand why your partner gets upset because she's hard wired to react and want to comfort the baby.

Of course you interact with them when they are upset when being changed.

Usually just a soothing voice whilst you are doing it. Do you mean you are completely silent when changing him if he gets upset? If so, I would find that strange.

Talking to your baby just generally is very important for their development.
I don't think of label your lack of verbal reassurance as cold and unsympathetic. But why waste this perfect opportunity to interact with your child?

I also think reassurance is normal.

Just chatting away is good for comfort and connecting. Just explain what you're doing.m to him. And why. It just build vocab and he will love the sound of your friendly voice.

It's not hard

I definitely think reassuring them is normal, and it doesn't make it take any longer either.