My First Baby: Understanding The Crying Game

As a rule, you shouldn’t blame yourself every time your baby cries. It’s only normal for babies to let out a cry whenever they need something. In fact, a study conducted by the University of London revealed that there isn’t any significant relationship between constant crying and ineffective parenting. As maintained by numerous "my first baby" guidebooks, crying is simply a baby’s language.

Decoding The Language

In the beginning, crying is a baby’s primary means of conveying feelings of hunger, distress, exhaustion, loneliness, and so on. But as your little one grows, he (or she) will become skilled at other ways of communicating his (or her) needs and emotions. These additional abilities typically include body language, facial expressions and, in due course, speech.

Soothing The Cries

Before your baby develops the ability to communicate verbally, you need to make use of ways to deal with his (or her) incessant cries. Here are a number of valuable tips to help you quiet down the sobs.

1) Learn the language

By gaining knowledge of pre-cry warning signs-such as fidgeting, agitated facial expressions, little frowns, flailing arms, breathing changes and the like-you will be more capable of knowing whether your baby is hungry, tired, frightened or overwhelmed. And by acting in response to the hints, you have a greater chance of forestalling a full-scale crying fit.

2) Feed your baby

Little tummies are not capable of holding an amount of food that can last for several hours. In view of this, you ought to recognize the need to provide your baby with small yet frequent feedings. When it comes to appetite, babies usually experience an increasing desire for food that complements the growth spurts. So be sure to feed your little one accordingly so as to avert another crying fit.

3) Respond promptly

A lot of people possess a flawed idea that if a parent responds to a crying baby at once, he or she is actually spoiling the little one. The truth of the matter is that the more you delay the response, the more distressed your baby becomes. Before long he or she will not even remember what triggered the crying fit in the first place. The sobs will simply go on and on, and the baby will become much more difficult to quiet down.

If you’re breastfeeding, try to respond promptly to your little one’s hunger signs. A baby that is left to build up a full-scale cry will have a less organized suck and may experience latching difficulties. At times, he (or she) will merely suck for a while and then doze off due to exhaustion.

4) Carry your baby around

Studies have shown that carrying babies around may preclude crying. In order to reduce the stress of constantly doing so, you can make use of a sling-securely wrapped against your body-to carry your little one.

5) Make use of relaxing sounds

Singing a lullaby or playing some mellow classical music can be useful tools in calming your baby down. The melodies of Beethoven, Brahms and Back are included in the long list of recommended records.

Those were just some of the effective ways to quiet down a baby. You may come across other practical techniques by simply skimming through various "my first baby" books or by surfing the Internet.