Ethelred Unraed's Journal: Ten simple, easy steps to calm a crying baby

#1: Rock baby.

#2: Feed baby.

#3: Burp baby.

#4: Wrap baby in warm blankie-wankie.

#5: Give baby pacifier.

#6: When baby spits out pacifier, place it back in baby's mouth.

#7: Super glue on the pacifier.

#8: Place baby on top of washer during spin cycle.

#9: Place baby in washer during spin cycle.

#10: Duct tape.

Re: quieting baby

[tomhudson]

These ones always worked for me:

1. Take for ride around block in car
2. Buy a rocking chair !!!!!! REALLY WORKS
3. Stick them on your belly and go back to sleep
4. if all this fails, 1 teaspoon of amaretto

If worse comes to worst, you can always just decide to get some housework done. After all, if they're not tired, you're NOT going to get any sleep anyway, so you might as well get something done that requires physical activity. Better than lieing in bed hoping they'll drift off :-)

I've found this simple method the most effective

[insanecarbonbasedlif]

1: make sure baby's diaper is dry/clean

2: make sure baby isn't hungry

3: try walking around

4: try sitting down

5: try putting baby in bassinet

6: try walking around

7: try taking baby outside

8: try rocking the baby in the rocking chair

9: try covering baby's face with blanket

10: try walking around

11: try crying

12: check diaper again

13: try walking around

14: try rocking

15: try singing to baby

16: try walking outside

17: try sitting

18: put baby in bassinet

19: try walking around

20: give to SO, and

Thumb

[FortKnox]

My son's a thumb sucker, so pacifier didn't do dittily. Honestly, do everything that could cause it (feed, change diaper, burp, etc...) and if all else fails, put'm down in the bassinet for about 5-10 minutes and see if he/she will calm themselves down and go to sleep.

If you can do that at an early age, it'll make life a TON easier when they get older.

Honestly, I think it eventually comes down to routine. If they always eat at generally the same time, and you put them down for naps at the same time, a

Some tricks I learned

[RevMike]

Joe, the little Reverend, had bad gas/constipation issues during his first three months. One of the things that really helped him was that I would lay him down on the bed and slowly pump his legs back and forth as if he was riding a bicycle. Every few pumps I'd bring both legs up so that his knees almost touched his chest. This rarely failed to elicit the "Giant Fart of Relief"(tm).

We also used mylecon drops with mixed success. Mylecon is a suspension that is supposed to help brak up gas bubble in baby

Re:Some tricks I learned

[elmegil]

Mylecon worked for us, regularly. Given the results versus before trying it, I can't see how it would be a placebo. :-)

One other issue we stumbled hard over: Make Sure You Burp The Baby Well! For the first week we were just putting him on our shoulder, patting him a few times, and going on. Not much later, he'd be howling, and we couldn't figure out why. Finally called the pediatrician who asked how long we'd been burping him, and pointed out that it can take a good 10-20 minutes of solid thumping (not

Been there, tried that.

[SiliconJesus]

Trust me - that helpless feeling is natural and healthy. It stems from lack of sleep.

Our godsend when Zach was an infant was his motorized rocker-swing. The one that you're not supposed to leave the baby in unwatched. Yeah. It rocked! We'd put him in all pissy, turn it on, stick around for a couple mins, then go in another room nearby so we could hear if it did anything stupid.

I don't think it matters much but this [amazon.com] is the swing we bought, with the added bonus that it transformed a bit to grow wit

Re:Been there, tried that.

[KshGoddess]

Yeah, my younger brothers were fools for the motorized swing thing. Ours was a wind-up thingy, and you'd wind it a couple of times, and within 5 minutes they would stop screaming (usually). Within 15, they'd be asleep (if they were tired).

It's awesome, and doesn't threaten to put you asleep before the baby. ;)

Sugar Tit

[annielaurie]

If you're old-fashioned and don't mind introducing corrupting influences into your child's environment, get the pacci wet and dunk it in the sugar bowl. This worked occasionally for both of ours, but it does give the small person an intro to white, refined gunk at a very tender age. That term "sugar tit" is very old. Prior to rubber pacifiers sugar was tied up in the corner of a clean linen rag and given to the baby to suck on.

Other reliable home remedies for us included simply allowing the baby to lie o

Re:Sugar Tit

[elmegil]

If Mom is breast-feeding, she probably needs to go through an evaluation of anything she's eating that might be gassy.

Try solid burping first though (if you aren't sure you're doing it right anyway), it's a lot less intrusive than going on a restricted diet at a time when you're already stretched pretty thin. I will say that we learned early on that mom was not to eat Asparagus--not because of gas, but because he'd refuse the breast because of the smell! And of course he'd then be very very crabby about

waaaaaaaahhhhhhhh

[Edward Harrison Bran]

I cry because I love you.

and I miss my womb.

wont womboday wet me go back to my womb?

Sounds good

[bethanie]

You're going through all the right steps. You just gotta realize that sometimes babies gotta cry -- it's a stress reliever. As long as you know they're comfortable and well-fed, all you can do is keep them company and let them know you love them anyway.

Is it at a particular time of day that he's fussy, or after, say, a lot of stimulation (even volume on the TV could have an effect)? Try to pinpoint any pattern to it, and then make small adjustments to what happens before the fussiness.

Other than that, I