Help with a Crying Baby:
Understanding Why is the Key

One of the most emotionally wrenching situations for a new mother is to have a crying baby and not know what to do about it. Babies cry for a wide range of reasons, but knowing the basic ones and a few tricks to fix the problem may just help you to calm your baby down sooner.

Baby's most common reasons for crying:

The main reasons for a crying baby correlates directly to the Newborn Baby Care Diagram and these are the first issues to investigate (Again, these may look obvious to you now but it is so convenient to have a checklist in the heat of the moment):

Feeding:
- Your baby is hungry or thirsty
- Your baby may be experiencing digestion-related discomfort
- Your baby may be experiencing some kind of intolerance or allergy to formula milk


Sleep:
- Your baby is tired and wants to sleep
- Your baby is overtired and has trouble falling asleep
- Your baby is overtired and is experiencing restless sleep


Nappy Care:
- Your baby has an uncomfortably wet nappy that needs changing
- Your baby has a soiled nappy
- Your baby's nappy is not fitting comfortably and/or irritating in some way


Comfort:
- Something else is bugging your baby and you need to figure out what it is. Consider Clothing, Temperature, Noise, Light, Position


Grooming:
- Not really much to cry about here, as long as you do the necessary routine jobs


Baby's Health:
- Your baby may be experiencing colic symptoms
- Loads of scope for crying here, check for the most common Newborn Baby Ailments


Mother's Health:
- Your baby may be picking up on tension and/or depression you may be experiencing
- Your baby may not be feeding well due to a problem with breastfeeding which may originate with your breasts' health
- Your baby may not be getting sufficient nutrition due to poor quality breast milk


Love & Protection:
- Your baby may feel scared or lonely and needs you to comfort him
- Your baby may be bored or simply looking for attentions
- Your baby may simply be asking for Mommy's love and reassurance
- Your baby may be overwhelmed and/or overstimulated and needs you to protect him from whatever is causing this feeling

From Crying Baby back to Action Plan Step 1

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