To help young parents: how to calm a newborn?

How to calm a newborn? Perhaps this is the first problem that young parents will have to learn to cope with. The continuous and loud crying of a small child can cause horror in young moms and dads. However, there is no need to be afraid of such behavior of the baby, for him this is the only way to show you that something is bothering him, and just to relieve himself of emotional stress. Pretty soon you will begin to distinguish between your child's crying in pain, hunger and whimpering from what he wants to handle.

Pediatricians and child psychologists say: the child cries a lot because he can't do otherwise. The newborn is completely dependent on the parents. He cannot turn over on his own, remove the source of irritation, find food for himself. He does not know how to speak and express his dissatisfaction with gestures. All he can do is cry. A newborn baby cries when he is hungry, lies in wet diapers, has lost his mother, cannot sleep from tummy pain and for many other reasons. He just can't do it any other way yet.

The baby is growing, and his nervous system is improving. Other emotions appear, and the child learns to declare his needs differently. But until he has learned this, it is necessary to closely monitor the behavior of the baby and immediately respond to it. Over time, you will learn to understand why a newborn baby is crying, by the slightest changes in his facial expressions or intonations.

Why is the baby crying? The 8 most common causes

Here are the most likely causes of crying of a newborn baby and a baby:

• Hunger.Hunger is the most common cause of crying in children of the first month of life. If the child is breastfed, you can offer him a breast at the first signs of discontent. If the baby is hungry, he will drink as much milk as he needs. If not, just put it on your chest for a while to calm down.
• Thirst. For children who are fully breastfed, mother's milk replaces water, provided that the room is not too hot. But sometimes the baby does not have enough breast milk, for example, in hot summer weather, when overheating in too warm clothes.
• Wet diapers or diapers. The baby is uncomfortable, but he can't get rid of this feeling on his own. If the diaper is full or leaking, the diapers are wet – the child will definitely report this by crying loudly.
• It's cold.Newborns and children of the first months of life easily hypothermia. The fact that the child is frozen can be understood by touching the palms and feet.
• It's hot. Young parents often wrap the child too much, fearing that he would not freeze. But if the baby is hot, he won't like it. He will report his dissatisfaction by crying.
• Scary. Small children can be afraid of anything. A baby may be frightened by a loud noise or a light suddenly turned on in the room, a stranger visiting, the barking of a neighbor's dog, or even an unusually bright toy suspended at the head of the bed. The child, as a rule, reacts to fright with a sharp loud cry and cannot calm down for a long time.
• I want to hold hands .Newborns and children of the first year of life often cry when they lose sight of their mother. In any incomprehensible and uncomfortable situation, they will ask for pens and express their desire by crying.
• Can't sleep. Sometimes parents are in too much of a hurry to put their child to bed, and he doesn't want to, so he protests. It happens the other way around – the baby is overexcited, tired, but can't switch to rest and fall asleep quickly.

All these situations are completely normal and occur in every child – even if he is perfectly healthy. When a newborn or a baby cries, he reports his discomfort. The task of parents is to understand what is happening and help the baby cope with the trouble.

Reasons for crying a child that should alert

Crying baby may signal the appearance of some health problems:

• Teething. As a rule, the first teeth in children appear at the age of 5-6 months, but they may be earlier or later. A child who is teething becomes restless, often cries, asks for pens and refuses to eat. He also pulls everything he sees into his mouth, tries to chew toys to calm the itching in his gums.
• My stomach hurts. The baby usually presses his legs to his stomach, and the crying becomes very loud. It can be infantile colic, which appears at the age of about three months and passes on its own. Abdominal pain can also be associated with more serious problems. In order not to miss the disease, it is worth showing the child to the pediatrician.

• It is not possible to empty the intestines.Constipation is a common problem of children of the first year of life. They often occur after the introduction of complementary foods, if the selected product is not suitable. If a child has not had a stool for 8-10 hours, his stomach is swollen and gases often escape - most likely, this is the problem.

• I can't urinate. This problem occurs with inflammation of the genitals, usually in boys. When urinating, the child becomes painful, so he cries. To make sure of this, it is enough to unwrap the baby – to see how urination occurs and how he reacts to it.
• The body temperature rises. Parents may not notice signs of a cold or other illness yet, but the child already feels discomfort and lets him know with a piercing cry. With fever, the baby usually becomes sluggish, refuses to eat, does not take the breast.

So, your child is crying. What to do? How to calm a newborn?

First, think about whether there are any natural physiological needs that are not satisfied? That is, in other words...

1. Feed the baby. Often, having received a breast or a bottle with a mixture at his disposal, the baby instantly calms down. If he greedily drinks milk, rest assured, he was just hungry. If that didn't help, then...

2. Check the dryness of the diaper, change it. Newborns may be concerned about even slight skin moisture. And the process of changing a diaper can calm him down. Talk to him at this time, smile or sing.

How to calm a newborn if everything is fine with a diaper and food?

3. Hold the baby close to you. Sometimes, if you hold the child vertically, he can regurgitate air, which gives him discomfort in the stomach.

4. Distract the baby with a bright object, unusual sound, etc.

5. Give the baby a pacifier. The sucking reflex is basic for newborns, and its implementation soothes and sometimes puts them to sleep. Often the child himself begins to suck a finger instead of a nipple.

6. Swaddling is a wonderful way to calm a newborn baby. Remember that for the last three months the baby has been very limited to the uterine cavity, where he is warm and cozy. When swaddling, an approximate state is achieved - the arms and legs are pressed, and the baby will not wake up and frighten himself with a sudden movement of the limb.

This advice on how to calm a newborn baby may be useful to you much later. Even a one-year-old overexcited naughty boy can be calmed down by wrapping him in a blanket and shaking him to quiet singing.

7. Shake the baby. This can be done both in a stroller or cradle, and on your hands. Now they even produce special swings with motion sickness mode. The main thing here is not to overdo it. If you shake the child very much from side to side, he may not fall asleep, but simply lose consciousness from dizziness!

8. Take a walk with the baby. A change of scenery, smooth movement of the stroller and fresh air work wonders!

9. The baby is hot. You may have wrapped it up or wrapped it too tightly.

10. Put the baby on the side. Surprisingly, it often helps!

11. Use "white noise". You've probably seen a video where crying children instantly calm down to the sound of a working vacuum cleaner, washing machine or microwave oven. Smooth or rhythmic noise calms the child, because it is similar to what he heard in the womb - the noise of the intestines, stomach and heartbeat. Take a crying baby and start saying "sh-sh-sh" quite loudly near his ear. Or just give out an intuitive hiss when swinging.

If you have used all the ways to calm a crying newborn, but he continues to cry strongly and continuously for more than 40 minutes - one hour, call a doctor or call an ambulance.