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Crying Baby, Sleepless Nights

Why Your Baby Is Crying and What You Can Do About It

Part Two

By Sandy Jones

Lie still, breathing normally, for a couple of minutes before getting up.

After some practice in progressive relaxation, try staying calm in the face of stress -- that is, in the face of your howling baby. As you go about trying to soothe him, imagine him as smiling and thriving, even though he may seem hopelessly far from that image right now. Picture yourself holding this peaceful baby as you walk through a beautiful meadow. Breathe deeply and relax your muscles as you have done while lying down.

If you suffer from chronic muscular stiffness and pain, you may need regular massages. Maybe your partner can provide them, when the baby goes to sleep, or perhaps you'll want to seek the help of a massage therapist or physical therapist. Loosening up those tight spots and keeping them loose can help you feel better about your body and your baby.

Doctors and scientists have been trying to find the cause of colic for over half a century now. The reports from hundreds of studies of colicky babies are confusing and often contradictory. Some have claimed miracle cures that are hard to believe -- babies suddenly got better when parents kept their booties on twenty-four hours a day, or fed them sugar water, or took eyelashes out of their eyes. Most of these studies involved only a few colicky babies and no controls, so we can't know whether the cure really worked or whether the babies got better because they outgrew the problem or their diet or environment changed. More often than not, the results of these studies could not be duplicated when the experiments were run again.

Perhaps the most valuable colic studies have focused on the baby's belly. Throughout history, people have believed that the constantly crying baby was experiencing some kind of abdominal pain; the word colic, in fact, comes from the Greek work kolikos

Want to see more?

• Back to Part One here.

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