Time Tested Baby Soothers
The entrance to parenthood can be a very scary time. You have this brand new being, fragile, innocent and completely dependent on you to survive, and worst of all, the little creature can’t even tell you what it needs when it needs it…at least not in a way that you immediately understand. The baby’s only way of telling you it needs something is to cry, and if you’re just starting out, every cry sounds exactly the same. Of course the first 3 things you usually check for are hunger, a dirty diaper and sickness, but what if it’s none of those? How do you stop a baby from crying if you don’t know what’s wrong? Is it boredom? Fear? Sleepiness? The need to see a familiar face?
After doing some research, we stumbled upon Ask Dr. Sears in which was posted this very helpful list of easy ways to sooth your crying baby, no matter the cause. Some are common knowledge (at least in our family they are), while others may surprise you. But no matter the familiarity, all are tested to sooth your baby in just a few minutes.
36 Time-Tested Ways To Sooth Baby
• Wearing baby in a sling
• Dancing with baby
• Swinging baby
• Car rides
• Pushing baby in a carriage
• Taking a walk
• Bouncing on a trampoline
• Nursing while walking with baby
• Draping baby over a beach ball
• Comfort sucking: nursing, pacifiers, sucking on the move
• Music, tapes of womb sounds, heartbeats
• Echo baby’s cry
• Tape recordings of baby’s own cries
• Tick-tock of clock or pendulum swing of grandfather clock
• Singing lullabies
• Vibrating, humming gadgets wrapped in diaper or blanket
• Running water
• Tape of environmental sounds
• Metronome
• Ceiling fan; bathroom fan
• Sounds of vacuum cleaner, dishwasher, washer-dryer, air conditioner
• Show baby your “silly face”
• Magic mirror
• Fire in fireplace
• Gazing at traffic
• Watching parent on exercise machine
• Watching television or video
• Infant massage
• Warm fuzzy
• Neck nestle
• Nestle nursing
• A warm bath together
• Colic carries
• Eliminating bothersome foods from mother’s diet if breastfeeding, or changing formula
• Slowing down mother’s lifestyle and changing her expectations
• Creating the most peaceful home environment.
Another great tip we found on the site was the article, 4 Ways to Teach Your Baby To Cry Better. They are time tested as well, and help make sure that when your baby cries, it’s for a good reason.
1. View your baby’s cries as a communication rather than a manipulation tool. Think of your baby’s cries as a signal to be listened to and interpreted rather than click into a fear of spoiling or fear of being controlled mindset.
2. Better early than late. New parents may be led to believe that the more they delay their response to baby’s cries, the less baby will cry. While this may be true of some easy, mellow babies (they become apathetic), infants with persistent personalities will only cry harder and in a more disturbing way. Learn to read your baby’s pre-cry signals: anxious facial expressions, arms flailing, excited breathing, etc. Responding to these pick-me-up signals teaches baby that he doesn’t have to cry to get attended to. Again, forget the fear of spoiling. Studies have shown that babies whose cries are promptly attended to actually learn to cry less as older infants and toddlers.
3. Respond appropriately. You don’t have to pick up a seven-month-old baby as quickly as a seven-day-old baby. In the early weeks of cue-response rehearsals, respond intuitively and quickly to each cry. As you and your baby become better communicators, you – and only you – will know whether a cry is a “red alert come now” cry or one that merits a more delayed response.
4. Learn that magic cry-response word appropriately, which implies balance – knowing when to say “yes” and when to say “no.” In fact, you will naturally start off as a “yes mom,” then intuitively become appropriately a “yes and no” mom. When in doubt, say “yes.” It’s much easier to fix over-responding – you just back off a bit. It’s more difficult to repair the distrust that stems from under-responding and becoming disconnected.
5. Try the Caribbean approach. A system we have developed to model calmness to a baby is one we dubbed the Caribbean attitude: “No problem, mon!” Imagine your seven-month-old baby playing at your feet and you’re on the phone. Baby starts to fuss and give pick-me-up gestures. Instead of dropping the phone and anxiously scooping up fussing baby, put on your happy face, caringly acknowledge baby and make voice contact, “It’s okay, love…” In this way, your body language is reflecting, “No problem, sweetie; no need to fuss.” By your body language, convey to your baby – be happy, not fussy.
For more tips about calming your fussy baby, visit AskDrSears.com or stop by BabyZone, another great find!
