At times, fussy babies may make life difficult What can parents do to assist their children, then? Several doctors at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital educate mothers how to trigger their babies’ soothing reflexes for improved sleep and waking periods. Katie Imborek, MD, a family medicine specialist, and Dayna Miller, MD, a clinical paediatrician, are among them.
“Baby dolls and hands-on demonstrations with fussy babies are among our teaching tools,” Imborek explains. She and Miller, in particular, use Harvey Karp, MD, a best-selling author and paediatrician at the University of Southern California, and his “Happiest Baby on the Block” ideas.
The basic assumption is that kids are born three months early for a cause.
This is how Imborek and Miller describe it:
Waiting any longer than nine months is risky since our brains and hence our heads are so enormous at birth. A newborn’s head is about two-thirds the size of an adult’s at birth (it’d be like giving birth to a baby that was three feet long and weighed 80 pounds!). At nine months, a baby’s brain has grown so large that waiting any longer is hazardous. Sucking, grabbing, and screaming are all remarkable survival instincts that all newborns are born with. However, they do not master cooing, giggling, sucking their fingers, and other self-calming techniques until they are four months old. Because they mimic the environment of the mother’s womb, the soothing strategies that have been proved to be helpful in the first three months are effective.
For fussy newborns, there are five ‘S’ strategies to try:
In the first three months of life, babies are fussy for an average of 60 minutes per day. Some infants appear to be more sensitive to this new world they have entered too soon, crying even more and being labelled as “colicky.” Colic usually begins around week two, peaks around week six, and lasts three months. A baby crying for three hours per day, three days per week, for three weeks in a row is the most widely accepted definition of colic.
This “lost fourth trimester” causes in colic and fussiness. Babies with difficult temperaments might spiral into a cycle of weeping and crying and crying and crying and crying and crying and crying and crying and crying and crying and crying and crying and crying and crying and crying and They don’t start using self-calming strategies until they’re four months old, when they start cooing, giggling, and sucking their fingers successfully and consistently.
Until then, there are a variety of soothing strategies that, when used correctly, can assist newborns in settling down and sleeping. “Spoiling your infant is always a concern,” Imborek explains. We’ve all seen spoiled children and promised ourselves that our children would never be like that. You’ve probably heard stories of babies who want to be held more after Grandma spends a week with them and becomes spoilt by the constant attention. However, there is no proof that a child may be spoilt at such a young age. At this point, they are unable to distinguish between necessity and want. It isn’t manipulation; they require your assistance in transitioning to a moment when they can relax.
They had food available 24 hours a day in this location. You can make your baby feel as safe and comfortable as she did inside your womb with a few tips. The key to mimicking the uterus is to use all five S methods in the right sequence and in the right way. These activities work together to activate the soothing reflex.
- Swinging:
Swinging simulates the continuous motion your baby experienced while within your uterus. This is why parents tell stories about driving at 3 a.m. or placing the car seat on top of the dryer to get the baby to sleep. Baby slings and carriers, infant swings, rhythmic pats on the back or bottom, rocking in a rocking chair, vibrating bouncy seats, bouncing on an exercise ball, and so on are all examples of methods to utilise motion to soothe your baby. All of these need you to start quick and jiggly with tiny movements of two to three inches each way. Allow your hands to relax around your baby’s head so it wiggles ever so little back and forth, like gelatin trembling on a plate, when you’re holding him in a side/stomach position. You must match your baby’s energy and follow his lead, similar to the Shusshing noises. The quicker and more vigorously you jiggle, the ■■■■■■ he is weeping. This is a challenging method for parents because, on the one hand, we’ve spoken about how delicate babies are in the fourth trimester, and now you have to apply more force than you may think for the soothing response to operate correctly. Shaken infant syndrome is a common concern among parents who have never done this before. Shaken infant syndrome is caused by a severe whiplash injury in which the head moves in one direction while the rest of the body moves in the other way. That being said, never shake or even jiggle your infant if you are furious and out of patience. Crying in his crib while you take a 10- to 15-minute break is the safest place for him. - Shhhhing your baby:
Your baby’s uterus was a noisy place. The loudness was between 80 and 90 dB, louder than a vacuum sweeper. The continuous and regular whooshing of blood in the uterus contrasts sharply with the extreme calm we experience when sleeping. Babies can cry when they are overstimulated, but they can also cry when they are understimulated or sensory deprived of the loudness and volume they are used to. Place your mouth two to four inches away from your baby’s ear to sooth him. Make a shushing sound with your lips pursed. Increase the volume till it corresponds to the baby’s cries. You can do the same as he does. This should work fast, but if he need continual shushing to fall or remain asleep, you can use a hairdryer, vacuum cleaner, bathroom exhaust fan, white-noise machine, CD with recorded noises, radio, or static from a baby monitor. - Sucking:
Sucking is the technique that allows your now-calming infant to ultimately fall off to sleep. Sucking is one of the great survival responses he was born with. He eats up to eight to twelve times a day using this instinct. He also utilises it as a means of self-calming. He can finally direct and keep his fingers, and whatever else he gets his hands on, to his mouth by four months of age. However, in the fourth trimester, a pacifier will be a more convenient way to assist him relax. It’s ideal to introduce the pacifier once ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ has been established for at least two to three weeks. This is usually not a concern because colic is rare during the first several weeks. One of the most common pacifier difficulties for parents is that babies have a hard time keeping the pacifier in their mouths. The key to training him to keep the pacifier in his mouth is to gently tug on it 10 to 20 times a day while he is quiet. This will urge him to suck ■■■■■■ in order to keep it in his mouth longer, and it will train him to do so. - Swaddling:
Swaddling is a tried-and-true method for soothing infants. The swaddle’s goal is to simulate the tight confines of the womb, which enveloped the infant for 24 hours a day until birth. This doesn’t activate the soothing reaction on its own, but it does restrain the infant from flailing, allowing the other S methods to function. Babies cannot effortlessly regulate where their arms and hands are in space throughout the fourth trimester. They are unable to raise their hands to their lips in order to suck on their fingers consistently. Their frantic movements might actually lead them to wake up, contributing to the weeping cycle that has already begun. Although many newborns may object to being swaddled in the beginning, they generally quiet down within a few seconds. Swaddling with a blanket is possible as long as it is done firmly and carefully to protect the infant from loose blankets. A Swaddle Sleep Sack with Velcro is another alternative. This may be found at a variety of stores. - Side/Stomach position:
The Moro or startle reflex is one of the reflexes that newborns are born with. When a baby lies on her back, a variety of seemingly trivial stimuli might trigger her to get startled and reach out to grab your hand as if she is being dumped. It helps her calm down by turning her onto her side or stomach, which switches off the receptors in her brain that produce the response. When pressure is applied to the baby’s belly, there may be some extra soothing effects. You may do this in a variety of ways, including holding the baby in similar postures to ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ or bringing the infant up to your shoulder. This phase in the calming reflex is critical for breaking the fussiness cycle in infants. However, once they have calmed down and are ready to be put to bed, it is critical that they exclusively sleep on their backs to avoid Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).