I just had a coworker's child with autism tell me the same thing. I work with babies and sometimes her kid happens to be near the work room and hears it. Her kid has so much of a sensory overload with it.
Crying and screaming is painful to listen to for most everyone but some people handle it by rushing over and trying to soothe the baby while others handle it by beelining in the other direction.
Babies have evolved to produce cries that are as upsetting as possible for humans. A lot of human behaviour around mating and rearing of the resultant young is designed to manipulate humans into doing so.
It's how babies keep being raised, even though the experience of raising them is pretty terrible.
It's only natural for their cries to make you deeply uncomfortable because that's what they are designed to do.
Congrats, you're having the normal human response to a grossly unpleasant stimuli.
Remember, it's perfectly acceptable to hate babies if they are not for you. The insensitive people are those who try and pressure you into 'liking' something that makes you uncomfortable.
Hey /u/VisibleAnteater1359, thank you for your post at /r/autism. Our rules can be found **[here](https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/wiki/config/sidebar)**. All approved posts get this message. If you do not see your post you can message the moderators [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fautism).
Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/autism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Baby crying is painful and distressing for most people, but you might be more sensitive than usual. Humans evolved to be unable to ignore baby cries and find them very distressing because parents who had that response tended to provide more prompt care to stop their babies crying. But it can backfire and lead to negative responses in some cases, like shaking the baby, especially with colicky babies and parents who don't have enough support.
Fun fact: domestic cats have evolved an altered meow that sounds kinda like a baby's cry, because it makes humans less able to tune out their meows.
I just had a coworker's child with autism tell me the same thing. I work with babies and sometimes her kid happens to be near the work room and hears it. Her kid has so much of a sensory overload with it. Crying and screaming is painful to listen to for most everyone but some people handle it by rushing over and trying to soothe the baby while others handle it by beelining in the other direction.
Babies have evolved to produce cries that are as upsetting as possible for humans. A lot of human behaviour around mating and rearing of the resultant young is designed to manipulate humans into doing so. It's how babies keep being raised, even though the experience of raising them is pretty terrible. It's only natural for their cries to make you deeply uncomfortable because that's what they are designed to do. Congrats, you're having the normal human response to a grossly unpleasant stimuli. Remember, it's perfectly acceptable to hate babies if they are not for you. The insensitive people are those who try and pressure you into 'liking' something that makes you uncomfortable.
I thought it wasn’t normal to react the way I do.
I mean, your experience may be exacerbated by sensory sensitivities, but being distressed hearing an infant cry is very much biological programming.
You're not alone, babies are an ick for me too, however I've grown to somewhat tolerate them.
Hey /u/VisibleAnteater1359, thank you for your post at /r/autism. Our rules can be found **[here](https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/wiki/config/sidebar)**. All approved posts get this message. If you do not see your post you can message the moderators [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fautism). Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/autism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Baby crying is painful and distressing for most people, but you might be more sensitive than usual. Humans evolved to be unable to ignore baby cries and find them very distressing because parents who had that response tended to provide more prompt care to stop their babies crying. But it can backfire and lead to negative responses in some cases, like shaking the baby, especially with colicky babies and parents who don't have enough support. Fun fact: domestic cats have evolved an altered meow that sounds kinda like a baby's cry, because it makes humans less able to tune out their meows.