Common reasons babies cry
- Sleepiness or fatigue
- Wet or dirty diaper
- Hunger
- Overstimulation from noise or activity
- Colic, acid reflux or food allergies
- Pain or illness
- Gas
- Stranger anxiety or fear
Babies are
emotional beings and experience feelings of happiness, sadness, joy, and anger
from the very first moment of life. If, for whatever reason, you are having
trouble being responsive to your baby, your child will pick up on those
signals. How would you feel if your spouse or parent was unresponsive to your
signals or attempts to communicate? Thinking of your baby as an individual with
a unique personality may make it easier to interpret and respond to his or her
cries.
Choose some techniques for taking a “time out.”
Strategies like counting to ten, going outside, taking deep breaths, putting
your baby down and walking around the house for a minute, can all help you
maintain a calm frame of mind.
Find a mantra. A mantra is a sound, word, or
phrase, often said over and over again, to provide comfort and inspiration.
With a crying baby, you may find yourself talking out loud anyway, and a mantra
can be helpful to provide perspective, comfort, and energy to keep going. Some
examples might be: “Just breathe,” “This is hard, but doable,” and “All will be
well.”
1. Do the Shoosh-Bounce
Rock your munchkin in a carrier while shooshing
over and over again in her ear. "I put my fussy baby in a sling and
bounced her all over the apartment, the block, the city,"
says Lili Zarghami, of Brooklyn. "I cooked and cleaned while swinging her
back and forth."
Why it works: "Studies suggest that a calming
response is triggered in an infant's brain when being carried or rocked,
causing the baby's heart rate to slow and the muscles to become more
relaxed," says Kristie Rivers, M.D., a
pediatrician in Fort Lauderdale. At the same time, the shooshing sound creates
a repetitive distraction that your baby may focus on instead of crying.
2. Turn Up the Tunes
You needn't limit yourself to lullabies. Try all
different genres and songs, including what you like. "Vivien used to chill
out to 'Forget You,' by CeeLo," says Jennifer Rainey
Marquez, of Atlanta. Reggae was a favorite choice for Brooklyn mom Lindsay
Reinhardt's son. And Melanie Pleva, of Springfield, New Jersey, had a baby with
a penchant for "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath.
"He would giggle as soon as he heard it begin to play,"
says Pleva.
Why it works: Like movement, music has the ability
to calm the nervous system, decreasing a baby's heart and respiratory rate. And
don't underestimate the power of your own voice—even if you're no Taylor Swift.
"Infants may be especially soothed by the sound of their mom singing,
because her voice is familiar and the rhythm is calming,"
says Dr. Rivers.
3. Play It Back
"When my sons were babies, I would record
them fussing and crying on my phone and let them listen to it. They were
fascinated by the sound of a crying baby,"
says Jillian St. Charles, of West Knoxville, Tennessee.
Why it works: "Babies sometimes get so
distressed, they have a difficult time calming down, even when the offending
agent, such as a dirty diaper, gets taken care of,"
notes Dr. Rivers. They literally get "stuck"
crying. But a surprising distraction, like a recording of their own voice, can
jolt babies out of what is making them upset. "Babies are so interested in
the world around them that simply introducing something new can help break that
cycle of crying," she notes.
4. Put out Lights
When Polly Blitzer Wolkstein's twins would get
overstimulated, she found that putting them in a completely dark room was the
most effective way to soothe them. "I'd pull down blackout shades and put
them in their swings with a pacifier. The swings gave them the sensation of
rocking in our arms, and they'd be out like a light in about two minutes,"
says the New York City mom.
Why it works: Babies can easily become
overstimulated with all the noise and lights of everyday life. "After all,
newborns are used to the quiet, dark confines of the womb,"
says Dr. Rivers. Blocking out all that stimulation can calm them down.
5. Make Some Noise
Another trick that parents swear by: Turn on white
noise. Try a fan or vacuum cleaner, use a white-noise machine, or download an
app.
Why it works: The theory is that these sounds
imitate what an infant heard in the womb as Mom's blood passed through the
placenta, says Dr. Rivers. White noise also masks other sounds, such as
siblings playing or dishes being put away. Just keep the volume low. Research
shows that white-noise machines could contribute to hearing loss if they're too
loud and too close to Baby for long stretches of time.
6. Change the
Scenery
Jessica White, of Smyrna, Georgia, swears that her
fussy baby could sense when she was getting stressed. "That's when I knew
it was time to hand her off to my husband or Grandma,"
says the mother of two. If she couldn't change caregivers, White would at least
move to a different environment. "Going from the nursery to the patio or
kitchen was sometimes enough to snap her out of the crying spell,"
she says.
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