MM Cuddle cure
It can be very difficult listening to your
baby crying - and calming him down can be even more difficult. Here are our tips on wiping away your baby’s tears
oCrying ver you
Babies cry for so many reasons… But, let’s face it, it’s their only way of communicating! They may be hungry, wet, tired, sick or colicky, or they may simply just need a cuddle. Whatever the reason, even the most patient of parents can find hours of constant crying distressing. In 1962, Dr T Berry Brazelton asked 82
new mums to record how much their normal healthy babies cried each day during the first three months of their lives. He discovered that, at two weeks of age, 25 per cent of the babies cried for more than two hours each day. By six weeks, 25 per cent cried for more than three hours a day. That was the bad news. The good news was that, by three months, he found that almost all of the babies were back to crying for only about an hour a day! One solution to soothing your baby’s
crying came from Dr Harvey Karp, a paediatrician and child development specialist in Santa Monica, California. Over the years, Dr Karp was particularly interested in helping babies who cried for hours with colic and so, through his research, he developed an easy technique to turn even the fussiest baby into what he called ‘the happiest baby on the block’. Dr Karp’s method that was based on four revolutionary concepts:
The Fourth Trimester: recreating the womb-like atmosphere that your newborn baby misses outside the womb by ‘swaddling’ him
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The Calming Reflex: stimulating the ‘off switch’ that all babies are born with and which quickly soothes crying
The Five Ss: the five easy methods to turn on your baby’s calming reflex
The Cuddle Cure: combining the five Ss to calm even the most colicky baby Dr Karp’s ‘five Ss’ were particularly innovative so, if you are experiencing endless of hours of your baby crying, why not try following his method?
Swaddling Tight swaddling gives your baby the continuous touching and support he experienced while still in the womb. Other cultures have been doing this for centuries and ‘wear’ their babies close to them. Interestingly, these same cultures don’t have colic.
Side/stomach position While you’re holding your baby, place him either on his left side to assist his digestive system or on his stomach to provide reassuring support. Once your baby is happily asleep, you can safely put him in his cot on his back.
‘Whooshing’ sounds These are the sounds that imitate the continual ‘whooshing’ sound made by the blood flowing through arteries near the womb. Did you know that the noise level that your
baby was used to in the womb is equivalent to the sound of a loud vacuum cleaner? The good news is that you don’t have to run your appliances by running the hoover all day. Instead, simply get a ‘white noise’ CD which can be played over and over again. Babies are used to noise and so trying to soundproof your baby’s, getting rid of the noises of daily life, will simply stress you out.
Swinging Every step you took and every movement you made while your baby was in the womb caused a ‘swinging’ motion for him – a bit like a rocking chair sensation. Once your baby is born, this calming motion, which was so comforting and familiar, is abruptly gone and he can miss the feeling. A baby sling can be particularly useful for recreating this motion.
Sucking When your baby sucks on anything, this triggers the calming reflex and releases natural chemicals within his brain. This ‘S’ is best achieved with your breast, but a bottle or dummy can also work well. Not every baby will, of course, need all
five techniques. Calmer babies will only need one or two of the steps, but it won’t take you long to gauge your baby’s intensity. As with any other skill, it just takes a bit of practice.
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