{"id":1722,"date":"2017-01-09T08:30:15","date_gmt":"2017-01-08T22:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/?p=1722"},"modified":"2016-12-12T14:56:57","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T04:26:57","slug":"baby-wont-stop-crying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/2017\/01\/baby-wont-stop-crying\/","title":{"rendered":"What to do if your baby won’t stop crying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Blunden and Angie Willcocks’s\u00a0<\/em>The Sensible Sleep Solution<\/a> is a refreshing take on helping mum and bub through those first few months. Blunden and Willcocks’s\u00a0tips for getting a restless baby to sleep are moderate, tested and easy to put in place. Here, they give some advice on what to do if your baby won’t stop crying \u2013 and stress the importance of taking care of yourself as a parent, too! Also, ever wondered what colic actually is? Read on \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Sensible<\/a><\/p>\n

If your baby\u2019s crying persists for days or weeks and there seems to be nothing you can\u00a0do to soothe her, try the following:<\/p>\n

+<\/b>\u00a0Organise for your baby to be checked (again?) by a health professional with\u00a0an interest in children, such as a GP, paediatrician, early childhood nurse, or\u00a0allied health professional. If you don\u2019t agree with something someone says or\u00a0something does not seem right for you and your family you may want to get\u00a0another opinion.<\/p>\n

+<\/b>\u00a0Speak with other parents about what might be going on.<\/p>\n

+<\/b>\u00a0Ask for some support from family, friends or professionals (or all three). Tell\u00a0them, \u2018My baby cries a lot for no apparent reason, no matter what I do, and\u00a0I could use some help at the moment.\u2019<\/p>\n

+<\/b>\u00a0Get some help with household chores. (See Part 3, Taking care of yourself.)<\/p>\n

+<\/b>\u00a0Take a break from your baby by organising someone to look after her for a while.<\/p>\n

+<\/b>\u00a0Think ahead \u2013 this baby will not always be a crying baby. Before long she will be\u00a0starting school!<\/p>\n

It is important to note that, while all parents are likely to find a constantly crying baby\u00a0difficult, those with certain temperaments will find a crying baby especially difficult to\u00a0cope with. Those:<\/p>\n

+<\/b>\u00a0who are used to pleasing others and making others happy, who hate upsetting\u00a0people or \u2018letting people down\u2019<\/p>\n

+<\/b>\u00a0who have difficulties putting up with strong or negative feelings (in themselves\u00a0or other people)<\/p>\n

+<\/b>\u00a0who like to be organised and are used to having a fair degree of control over\u00a0their lives (who now find that they can\u2019t control this situation no matter how\u00a0hard they try).<\/p>\n

If any \u2013 or all \u2013 of these sorts of personalities sound like you, and you have a baby\u00a0who cries a lot, it is especially important that you find supportive people to help you\u00a0through this challenging time, either with practical help, or by listening to you talk\u00a0about the difficulties you are facing.<\/p>\n

Why would your baby cry a lot?<\/p>\n

+<\/b>\u00a0Temperament (see more about this on p. 25).<\/p>\n

+<\/b>\u00a0Persistent hunger (not getting enough milk for example). If you are worried that\u00a0your baby is not getting enough milk and may be hungry please consult your\u00a0doctor or early childhood nurse for advice.<\/p>\n

+<\/b>\u00a0Illness, pain, or discomfort.<\/p>\n

+<\/b>\u00a0Colic (see below for more information).<\/p>\n

What is colic?<\/p>\n

Colic sounds like a medical diagnosis that may explain what is wrong with a baby,\u00a0but in fact it is a descriptive term referring to any baby who cries excessively for no\u00a0apparent reason. Excessive crying is defined by the 3-rule: crying for at least three\u00a0hours per day, three days a week for a period of longer than three weeks.<\/p>\n

Colic usually starts around six weeks of age and stops at about three to four months\u00a0(although it can continue for longer in some babies) and occurs in about one in five\u00a0babies. All babies seem to grow out of colic by the six-month mark.<\/p>\n

There are many theories around why babies are \u2018colicky\u2019: gas or wind in the bowel,\u00a0discomfort due to particular foods the breastfeeding mother has eaten, food allergies\u00a0or intolerances, and\/or pain and discomfort from other sources. There are a number\u00a0of products available based on these theories, including special dummies and bottles\u00a0which claim to minimise the intake of air and medicines that claim to relieve the\u00a0discomfort of trapped wind. Some midwives stress the importance of getting rid of\u00a0wind after a feed in \u2018colicky babies\u2019 and others are of the opinion that excess feeding\u00a0(as in short, frequent feeds) may contribute to tummy pains and an unsettled baby. If\u00a0you have been trying frequent feeds as a way to calm your baby and it doesn\u2019t seem to\u00a0be working you may want to wait at least two and a half hours between feeds by using\u00a0other calming techniques in between.<\/p>\n

Talk to your GP or early childhood nurse if you would like more information.<\/p>\n

To read more, you can find out about\u00a0<\/em>The Sensible Sleep Solution<\/a> here. Please note, this title is also available as an ebook here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Blunden and Angie Willcocks’s\u00a0The Sensible Sleep Solution is a refreshing take on helping mum and bub through those first few months. Blunden and Willcocks’s\u00a0tips for getting a restless baby to sleep are moderate, tested and easy to put in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[528,531,532,530,527,529],"class_list":["post-1722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-extract","tag-angie-willcocks","tag-baby","tag-colic","tag-crying","tag-sarah-blunden","tag-the-sensible-sleep-solution"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4v1Of-rM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1722"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1817,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722\/revisions\/1817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}