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All babies cry, it's how they show us that they are tired, cold, lonely, hungry, thristy, in pain or scared: they have no other way of communicating in their early weeks and months.

However some babies seem to cry more than others, and for some parents, the effects of having a seemingly inconsolable infant can be hoorendous.

This article aims to help you find a reason for the crying, and to offer some coping mechanisms too.

Crying can 'mean' many things: it could be from hunger; thirst, tiredness, cold, pain, fright or loneliness

if the crying is long term and persistent, is the baby malnourished? Could there be a problem with feeding which means baby is not getting enough milk? Depends on the age of the baby, but no baby should be scrawny - babies should be pleasingly soft to the touch with layer of fat under the skin. Not fat, just nice and plump. Baby should not have sunken eyes or, if baby is young enough, have a depressed fontanelle - though it can become depressed quite quickly and is usually easily pops back out after a feed.

One indicator of whether baby is getting enough to eat is their nappies: in addition to the amount of wees baby does, attention should be paid to the colour and frequency of baby's stools. Dependent on age, babies my poo every feed, or not for several days - 7 days between poos for a breastfed infant aged 4 months or so is relatively common.

If breastfeeding, are the mother's breasts leaking? This may indicate that it's possible to improve the baby's attachment at the breast, which could stop baby being under nourished and also stop them swallowing air - as both hunger and colicky tummy pain could be the cause of the baby's unhappiness.

Unsettled breastfed babies often have less than OK attachment - if the baby moves his or her head a lot there can be a tendency for the mother to hold it - this is bound to make attachment less than effective which will not be helpful so worth reminding and working through attachment at some point.

Unsettled bottlefed babies often have trapped wind from gulping air out of the bottle, or constipation caused by the infant formula used, or a reaction to the proteins or other non-human ingredients in the infant formula.

Tummy ache - colic - trapped wind, sometimes sicky burps

In conjunction with being sick - reflux

Acid splashback - known as silent reflux

Food allergy or intolerance is a possibility too - perhaps a dairy intolerance but also consider other eat/drink things-
caffeine
the preservative sodium metabisulphite seems to upset quite a few babies. It is in virtually every non alcoholic drink there is - all squashes including Ribena, Hi-juice and Robinsons. It is in most fizzy pops too.
Various mums over the years have found either caffeine or sodium metabisulphite to be the culprit - drinks seems to be able to unsettle a baby for much longer (up to several hours) than a food does.

And, if she thinks it could be one of these, worth remembering that although the caffeine goes through in a couple of hours, the effect may not kick in for up to 24 hours. So if she stops eating or drinking something it will be 2 days at least before the baby may be calmer. I think the usual recommendation is to miss the food/drink out for 3-5 days if you possibly can to give the systems a chance to be properly clear.

Headache - what sort of birth? possible candidate for sacro-cranial therapy? Cranial Osteopathy is ....




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