A wailing infant can overwhelm anyone. Here's how to soothe your crying baby.
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A mother of a now-six-year-old child tells the tale of the first night that she
tried to let her eight-month-old cry himself back to sleep without going in to
nurse him in the middle of the night. She was determined to give it a four-minute
try. The mother put cotton in her ears and topped that off with a pair of furry
earmuffs. She lay there, stiff as a board, next to her husband, whom she'd been
calling every name in the book because he had urged her to let the baby cry for
just a couple of minutes before she raced to the crib. Naturally, because every
mom needs a few ironic baby stories to tell, this was the time the baby chose to
sleep through the night for the first time without so much as a whimper, while
she lay awake until dawn trying not to hear him. What's the moral of this story?
Babies cry-and learning how and when to soothe them is one of the first lessons
of parenthood.
Crying 101
Babies have a pretty universal set of needs that must be continually met if you
want to keep away the tears.
- A hungry baby should be fed.
- If you suspect a tummy ache, try burping your baby or laying her across your knee as you pat or rub her back.
- Change a wet or soiled diaper.
- Add to or remove your baby's clothing to keep her at a comfortable temperature. There's a tendency to over-bundle young babies.
- Overstimulation can make for a very cranky baby. Put her down for a nap, or rock and cuddle her in a darkened, quiet room.
- Treat a fever as advised by your pediatrician.
Sometimes a baby's cries don't conform to an obvious standard. Allan H. Klein,
M.D., a pediatrician and neonatologist on the clinical faculty of Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center in Los Angeles, tells a story of a distraught mother who called
him because her baby wouldn't stop crying, although she'd been trying to soothe
him for hours. Frantic, the mom finally brought the baby to the office, where
Klein discovered a little toy stuck in his shoe. "If your baby has nursed or had
a bottle, and is clean and dry, make sure that there is no constricting clothing
or even a little toy or other object tucked into a sock, shoe, or even a diaper.
After all is said and done, babies cannot yet talk, so they will communicate in
any way they can, and crying is a very important way they have of expressing
themselves."
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