It was John Bradshaw who distinguished the differences in needs for reclaiming the inner child at varying stages of development, in his book Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child. Just like the different stages of child development, the inner child has different needs for different developmental stages. Every infant who comes into this world has very specific needs. If your needs were neglected as an infant, you would have internalized those unmet needs within your inner infant. Years later, if these needs are not acknowledged and met, your inner infant self will still be crying out from within for that specific attention.
The difficult thing about working with our inner infant, is that most people cannot remember that stage of their development. If you suspect that you were abused and/or neglected as an infant based on family history, etc. I highly recommend that you get a copy of John Bradshaw's book, Homecoming and take the quiz or "Index of Suspicion" on pages 82-84 to determine if you need to work with your infant inner self.
In addition to the affirmations that ALL inner children need to hear; "I'm glad you're here, I love you just the way you are and I will never leave you," your inner infant needs to hear affirmations that are specific to this initial stage of child development:
Welcome to the world, I've been
waiting for you.
I've prepared a special place for you to live.
Your needs are okay with me.
I'll give you all the time you need to get your needs met.
I'm so glad you're a boy (or a girl).
I want to take care of you and I'm
prepared to do that.
I like feeding you, bathing you,
changing you and spending time with
you.
In all the world, there has never been
another like you.
God smiled when you were born.
These affirmations were developed by John Bradshaw and he recommends that you do some meditation to use them to affirm your inner infant. He recommends that you devote an hour of uninterrupted time for this. He also recommends and I can speak from experience, that you have a box of Kleenex close at hand. His Homecoming book includes some excellent suggestions for getting relaxed and in touch with your inner infant before you say these affirmations.
