Excessive Crying Baby

What is meant by the expression „excessive crying baby“?

It is completely normal that babys cry. Crying is the only way of communication for a baby. Babys cry when they are hungry, fell unwell or miss their care-giver. If a baby cries more than 3 hours in a day on more than 3 days per week over a period of 3 weeks than this is called by definition a excessive crying baby.

What is the cause?

No exact cause has been found, yet. Different factors are in the discussion: familial stress, an unbalanced mother child relationship and social factors. The reason discussed the most, is premature contraction of the bowel muscles. It is presumed that the muscle contraction of the bowel muscles is still uncoordinated at this age, which can cause muscle spasm and therefore be painful to the baby.

How should parents react to this problem and which therapies do exist?

At first an organic cause needs to be ruled out. When this is done different methods can be tried to decrease the incidence and periods of crying. Parents need to have patient. The following methods have been recommended:

• Avoiding that babys become too tired
• Occuping babys when they are awake. Play with your baby.
• Move your baby in your arms and play calming music
• Massage the stomach of the baby around the umbilicus
• Carry the baby around with his stomach lying on your arm and with your other hand supporting the baby.