Can you change a baby's temperament?

[testy1997]

Just interested in views. Do you think babies are blank slates and we impress their temperaments on them or do they come out 'content' / 'Highly strung' / 'needy' / 'whingey' etc.

No. There are traits which are observable close to birth and stable through their lives.

You just don't use the awful, pejorative words for them.

And it's not a view BTW, it's scientifically verifiable. Nurture is important. Nature is strong.

You can’t change a child’s temperament. That is something inherent they are born with. But how that temperament matures into personality is dependent on life experience.

I was really surprised at how “ fully formed” my first baby was. I unconsciously believed that things were more psychologically based.
Both my children are still very much as they were the moment they were born. First one strident and engaged and God at letting you know what they needed. Second one dreamy and not so connected.
They are 15 & 17 now and still the same.

@MrsTerryPratchett

No. There are traits which are observable close to birth and stable through their lives.

You just don't use the awful, pejorative words for them.

🙄

I was also surprised by how different the babies in our antenatal group were even from day 1. They all had very distinct temperaments, and still do 3 years on.

Why the PA face @oohmamama?

@MrsTerryPratchett

I’m pretty sure you can figure that out yourself.

You can't change a baby's temperament, but you can change your parenting to manage that temperament in the best possible way. So, for example, you can make a highly strung baby content by meeting all their needs (but they will have more/higher level needs than a naturally content baby and you can't change that, it's just harder work to parent them!).

[quote oohmamama]@MrsTerryPratchett

I’m pretty sure you can figure that out yourself.[/quote]
I really can't. I'm not being sarcastic.

It can be very difficult when your baby's temperament is at odds with your own.

Most experts agree now it is a mixture of nature and nurture combined, or genetics and the environment / circumstances / experiences given, combined together

I agree that you can see certain aspects of their temperament from birth and that those often seem to follow them through life. I don't think that shows it must be 'nature' though (as in genetics), as the prenatal environment is shaping them in imperceptible ways from day dot, just as the post-birth environment is.

No, they've identified genes for character traits, and use heritability studies to show them.

Really, a lot of genetics.

Yes, genetics hugely contributes to personality (I wasn't meaning it didn't), but just because something was present at birth doesn't automatically it must be an exclusively genetic trait. The phrase 'born with it' is often used as if X must have been coded for in your DNA, but it isn't that simple.