How to Calm a Crying Newborn

The baby’s crying, you’re on your second cup of coffee, trying to fight off sleep because your baby keeps crying and you can’t sleep until she does. For some reason, your baby just won’t stop crying and you can’t take it anymore. You go online to Google how to calm a crying newborn and you see this link. You clicked on it hoping to get some helpful tips as to why your baby is crying and how to make them stop. At this point, we’re just recapping the events of the day that led you here.

It is said that babies can cry for as long as two to three hours in a 24-hour period. Now, at this point, you have got to be wondering two things – One, who lets a little baby cry without intervening just to see how long until their batteries needed recharging; and, two, who goes around subjecting themselves to that wailing for 24 hours every day in order to conduct that research?

In today’s article, we will be going through the primary culprits behind why newborn babies cry and the best ways we’ve found to calm them down.

Why they cry

In order to get your baby to calm down and stop crying, you’ll need to first know why they cry. A baby can cry for a number of reasons and it’s made all the more difficult to try and identify why they are crying for the main reason that they really can’t tell us why they are crying.

Here are some of the main reasons we’ve identified as to why babies cry:

• Hungry
• Feeling too cold or hot
• Emergency in the diaper department
• Sick
• Overstimulated

How do you calm them down?

Now that you know why they are crying, we look at how we can use that to our advantage and how we can reposition ourselves to better handle their crying. Here are some of the best methods we’ve found to calm down fussy babies. 

Swaddle

When properly executed, this technique, quite literally, turns your baby into a bundle of joy. Imagine a little hot pocket burrito with only their little face peeking out at you. The wrapped up confines as well as the snugness of the swaddle will help your baby to feel safe and secure. It can also help warm them up if they’re too cold.

Swap out the diaper

Surely, it stands to reason that if a baby has gone in their diaper, the logical thing would be to change it for them and get them back up to a nice, clean, dry, happy state.

Doctor, doctor!

If your baby is running a fever, that’d be a worrisome reason for them to start crying. At this point, all we can recommend is that you go find the nearest doctor and seek medical assistance as soon as possible.

Turn on the fans

Let’s face it. The tropical weather here doesn’t lend itself to being anybody’s friend. Especially now with global warming being such an issue, even Cameron Highlands in Malaysia isn’t cool anymore. That said, don’t reach for the A/C remote just yet. Babies have weaker immune systems than humans and what’s cool to you might just be cold to your baby and they might catch a chill. Try turning on the fans and opening up the windows to ventilate the place and cool it down a tad.

Shush & bounce

Studies suggest that when a newborn is carried or rocked, a soothing response is induced in the baby’s brain, leading the baby’s heart rate to decrease and the muscles to relax. Simultaneously, the shushing sound produces a repeating distraction that your infant may focus on rather than sobbing.

Static/white noise

The theory goes that these noises mimic what an infant would hear in the womb when the mother’s blood travels through the placenta. Other sounds, such as siblings playing or dishes being put away, are likewise muffled by white noise. You may, however, want to keep the volume down because white-noise machines may lead to hearing loss if they are too loud and too close to your baby for prolonged periods of time.

Blackout

With all of the commotion and lights in their daily life, babies can easily become overstimulated. After all, newborns are quite accustomed to the quiet, dark confines of the womb. Blocking out all of the stimulation can help them relax.

Feeding time

This one is also another logical one. Babies sometimes cry when they are hungry. There’s really no fancy science to understand here. They’re simply hungry and want food. Therefore, what you really want to do here is to feed them.

Closing words

There you have it, mummies and daddies…and random babysitters who are reading this and trying to figure out how to calm a crying newborn. Those are some of our best tips to help you calm even the most challenging of newborns. 

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