How To Soothe Crying Baby? Easy101

How to soothe Crying Baby? How to manage Colic? These are some of the most-frequently asked questions from parents- both, new as well as experienced ones. A crying baby often drives parents into tizzy. Many parents get worried or stressed as they don’t know what to do to soothe their baby. This article will give you the understanding and the strategies to manage your baby’s crying more effectively.

Table of Contents

How much do babies cry?

All babies cry. Some may cry more, some less. For the first 2 weeks of life, the crying may be little, as they tend to sleep most of the time. From 2- 6 weeks of life, it is normal for babies to cry for 2-3 hours in a day. By 3 months, the crying usually comes down to about 1 hour in a day. In the first 3 months of life, they cry more than any other time of life.

Why do babies cry?

Crying in young infants is mainly a form of communication that says- ‘I need you’! The reasons behind their crying are many, and even the ways in which they cry for different reasons are different.

The common reasons for crying in babies are:

Hunger
Tiredness or sleepiness
Feeling hot or cold
Pain
Gas or wind
Wet or soiled diaper
Any form of discomfort (e.g. tight clothes, teething etc.)
Loneliness or need to be cuddled
Emerging or ongoing illness

So, when a baby is crying, s/he is communicating a physical or emotional need or want. We need to decipher that communication. Over time, most parents slowly start to understand this ‘Crying Baby’ language.

Prolonged, recurrent, or extreme crying can sometimes be due to Colic.

What is Colic?

In general, Colic is a medical term used to describe an acute cramping kind of abdominal pain, where usually there are not many physical signs.

Infantile Colic, or Colic in babies is a term used for prolonged inconsolable crying, or extreme fussiness in an apparently healthy infant. More than 3 hours of crying in a baby for more than 3 days in a week for 3 weeks is a timeline that usually points to such Colic.

Infantile colic usually begins at the age of 3 to 4 weeks, and naturally resolves by the age of 3 to 4 months.

Chances of colic remain the same in different babies regardless of male or female gender, breastfeeding or formula feeding, or differences in mother’s diet.

What is Purple Crying?

The stage of colicky crying from 3-4 weeks to 3-4 months of age is also called PURPLE crying stage or ‘Period of Purple crying.’ It does not mean your baby turns purple while crying but denotes an acronym PURPLE.

Here each letter signifies the main feature of Colic.

P – Peak of crying (The crying is extreme in this age-group.)
U – Unexpected (There is no apparent cause.)
R– Resists soothing (Baby resists attempts to soothe.)
P– Pain-like face (Baby’s face may be flushed or contorted as if in pain.)
L– Long-lasting (Baby may cry for up to 5 hours in a day.)
E– Evening (Baby cries more in late afternoon and evening.)

The word ‘Stage’ or ‘Period’ associated with this term ‘Purple crying’ is also important as it shows that this stage or period has a definite timeline. It is a developmental stage. It is finite and it is eventually going to be over!

What causes Colic in babies?

In spite of a lot of research, no definite cause is found for Colic. Many things are proposed as probable causes. Some of them are:

Immaturity of the gastrointestinal tract in babies
Imbalance in gut bacterial populations
Over-feeding, under-feeding, inadequate burping
Food allergy or intolerance
Baby’s personality
Family stress or anxiety