How to Deal With Crying Babies

In the first few months of her life, my baby cried a lot. I received a lot of advice from helpful friends and family on how to deal with my crying baby. I tried out most of it at different points in time. I am listing here what worked for me.
You may have to try a couple of remedies at a time before you arrive at a solution that works at that particular time. Don't be afraid to try things out. Always remember your instincts are your best guides.

Check Nappy
One of the most common reasons for babies feeling uncomfortable is a soiled nappy. Check and change the nappy if necessary. While checking, see if there is any redness, soreness, or blisters in the baby's nappy area. These can appear very fast, so you can check every time. If there is a rash, any soothing, mild, moisturizer will help for the moment. Then consult your pediatrician.

Check if hungry
In the initial months, babies are normally willing to drink milk and quieten down quite readily unless something is very wrong or they are very full. Just try breastfeeding the child and it may solve the problem!

Check if sleepy
Use your usual sleep inducing methods - rocking, feeding, shushing, darkening the room etc. If your child is very tired and sleepy, they may cry and be very irritable.

Check if too hot or too cold
Touch your baby's feet, hands and tummy. If they are cold, your baby is feeling cold and needs to be warmed up. Hug and cuddle the baby a little and put on warmer clothes.
It could also be that your child is feeling too hot. Check for any sweating or simply try colling the baby. Take off a couple of layers of clothing. Switch on the fan / Air conditioner.
Ideal baby temperatures are between 24 and 26 degrees Centigrade.

Put in cradle and rock
Sometimes, just putting your baby in a cradle and rocking her will calm her down. She may even drift off to sleep!

Rock in arms
Carry your crying baby in your arms and gently rock him. It might help if you make wooshing / humming sounds / say om. Babies are sensitive to moods. If you are tense or high strung, you will find your baby is also irritable and will not sleep easily. Make sure you take a couple of deep breaths, calm yourself and make soothing sounds to the baby. Shushing and wooshing sounds resemble the sounds the baby would have heard while in the womb and are therefore comforting. Humming sounds and Om create reverberations which also help to calm the baby. Holding the baby close to your heart so he can hear your rhythmic heartbeat is reassuring to them.

Check for insects on clothes
Sometimes, insects may get into your babies clothes without your realizing it. Remove your babies clothes and check in the various folds of skin to see if an insect is troubling your baby. Ants like to hide in babies hair so make sure you check your babies head as well. Make sure your baby doesn't smell of milk cream or any other food to prevent insect bites.

Try all colic remedies
Try all the colic remedies I have posted earlier.

Remember, your instinct is your best guide. You may have to run through a lot of these methods before you arrive at a solution that calms your baby down at that particular time. The same remedy may not work every time.
Be calm and feel free to experiment within reasonable limits. If you come up with a new method, do post it here so we all share it!!

My baby girl was born on 29th November 2005. She weighed 2.9 Kgs, was 19 inches long and had a mop of curly hair.
I delivered her through an emergency c-section because of a face presentation.
This blog is an attempt to share what I learn through my experiences with other mothers who may feel as much at sea as I feel!!

How I dealt with Colic

My baby was Colicky!!
She would cry for apparently no reason and for quite a while at a time.

The Doctor prescribed some colic medicines, but they had a limited effect. Nevertheless, I kept giving them to her as prescribed.

We did try (and seemed to benefit from) some home remedies.
1. Take a pinch of asafoetida powder (Hing) in a teaspoon. Add a couple of drops of lukewarm / room temperature water and create a paste. Apply this on the baby's abdomen around the belly button without touching the stub of the umbilical cord or allowing any of the paste to get into the baby's belly button.

2. Take a Paan leaf (betel leaf) and apply a layer of castor oil on it. Heat the leaf by holding above an open flame. Test the temperature of the leaf on the back of your palm and if okay, apply the leaf on the baby's abdomen with the castor oil side touching the baby's skin. You can repeat this process with the same leaf every 3-4 minutes till the leaf changes colour.

3. There's a herb called Vesambu in tamil, Bach in Hindi, Vaj in Marathi and Acorus in English. It looks like a thick twig. Hold this above an open flame till it gets blackened. wait for it to cool. Rub your finger on the blackened part so some of it comes onto your finger. Put this on the baby's tongue.

4. Take a fist full of Ajwain/Omum/Ova seeds. Wrap them in a cloth and heat them in the microwave oven till they are warm. Alternatively, heat them on a hot pan and then put them in a cloth. Foment the babies tummy and chest with this. You could also gring them to a paste with water and then heat the paste and use it for fomentation. Always remember to test the temperature on the back of your palm before you apply it to the baby's skin!

All this was tried until we felt any one of them was working and then we just stuck to that one remedy for that time.

Hope this brings releif to some of you! Your suggestions and experiences are welcome.