From Birth to One year.

Babies from birth to one year are incapable of understanding rules. They respond to their feelings of hunger, tiredness etc. by alerting you.

They are incapable of ‘bad’ or ‘good’ behaviour as they act on instinct and are unaware of the world around them. Leaving a baby to cry is simply teaching him that there is no-one to care for him.

Babies can be encouraged into certain routines, however, such as sleeping longer during the night. Controlled crying can work, if built up in stages, and is usually harder on the parents than the child!

In the second half of their first year, they can understand displeasure, for example when they have used their teeth when breast feeding (!) or grabbed a fistful of hair. A sharp 'no' is all that is required. They can take a long time to understand, so be patient!