A cuddly baby will be held and nursed longer. A smiling a cooing baby will have more people approach and entertain her. Why? Because we have no problem positively reinforcing these prosocial behaviors. Why, then, is there so much hand wringing and fighting about negative reinforcement for problem behaviors?
As a person who works in the field of child development, I feel the need to say that babies are keenly aware of their needs and wants only. They are not yet capable of truly understanding that others have needs and wants of their own. Babies don't understand the feelings of others, hence can not understand concepts of "right vs. wrong", only "needs being met vs. needs NOT being met."
A nursing baby of only a few weeks of age who bites the breast and causes pain to its mother is able to understand very quickly that biting= nipple being pulled away. That usually stops the biting. That same principle can be applied to nearly every situation: hitting daddy = being put down, throwing food = out of high chair. In both cases, if the parental reaction is CONSISTENT and targeted at discontinuing the behavior in a way that is not physically or emotionally abusive, then the baby learns that if they behave in a certain way, their needs will not be met. Of course, the opposite is true as well- if a baby claps and that clapping is met with more clapping and cheers from the parents, the baby wants to clap again- he liked our reaction!
Babies don't have the ability to reason and we shouldn't pretend that they do. Babies have needs, just as parents have needs. Babies need love, comfort, nourishment, AND BOUNDARIES to grow properly. Parents need those things, too.
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