pett lip

[crisgal]

why does your bottom lip wobble or even protude when about to cry?

[Scarlett]

Just from personal experience, I think it happens when you are trying to restrain your emotions. Your face muscles are tightened as they are trying to hold back the emotion, and that results in the wobbling thing!

[Octavius]

When very young babies need something, they will cry until they get it. Crying until something happens is a very basic level of communication. Babies must learn other ways to communicate. They must learn that facial expressions, hand and body gestures, sounds, and eventually words can be more effective.

This kind of learning depends upon being with people who "know" and "understand" them. It is only their reaction to the baby's action, which will tell them to try it again. If the same people are not with the baby a large amount of the time, many of these learning opportunities are delayed until much later.

A mother knows her baby's face so well that when he or she reaches a point where a certain kind of lip quivering occurs; she will know how they feel. This kind of lip quivering may happen just before the child cries. Eventually there will come a time when she reacts to that expression (perhaps with a hug) instead of waiting for the cry. The baby will notice that mother has reacted and has now learned an early form of communication with her. This will be repeated again and again.

I think it is just instinctive.