A baby’s cry can mean many things and affect a parent’s emotions. Is there anything that can soothe a crying baby? Using trial-and-error parents can accumulate many baby soothing techniques. Here are the things that my friends/relatives and I tried before and worked for our babies in many situations. If you find something that I’ve missed out, feel free to email me. I’ll continue to update this list:

• Feed: Sometimes, even though your baby is fed and the following feed time is not due, your baby might need some more extra. If your baby is breastfed, it’s really hard to tell how much milk he’s taken except you take a record of time fed. If you use formulae, it’ much easier to check it out. Be caution: don’t overfeed your baby if he’s full.

• Have a burp: After fed for a while, your baby needs to have a burp. He might have tummy ache otherwise. It’s one of many common causes of baby’s cry. Use one hand to hold your baby’s chin up, and get his back upright, with the other hand gently pat or rub upwards on his back. Keep doing this for one minute or so, until you can hear “ur…” or spot some wind coming out from your baby’s mouth.

• Feel of security: Babies, especially newborns, need a feeling of security like living in mom’s womb. Wrap your baby snugly in nice and soft baby blanket (be careful, not to make your baby feel too hot.)

• Soothing/rocking: Your baby often needs a pat or cuddle from you. I always did some gentle message on my baby boy’s back. He quickly settled down and went to sleep. Some of my friends told me that when their babies cry, a trip in the car or hold him/her sitting on a rocking chair can also do the trick.

• Quiet music: Lullaby or any soft music CD is good to calm down a crying baby and soothe him/her to sleep easily.

• A warm bath: Babies often enjoy a warm bath and/or a gentle message. Let your baby enjoy a bath followed by a feed. It’d be the most wonderful time for him/her.

• Daily routine: Babies need daily routine to help them grow steadily. If daily routine is not set up, babies’ emotions will not be stable too. Crying too much would be a signal of not settling down with daily routine.

Related post:

Ways To Soothe a Crying Baby (Part 2)

How to Cope with a Colicky Baby

Coping With Your Crying Baby

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 12th, 2006 at 11:40 pm and is filed under 0-02 yrs: Baby, Behavior, How-to Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.