Parenting Mysteries: What to Do when an Infant is Crying

Perhaps the most challenging question any new parent faces is the one that deals with a crying baby. New parents love to gaze at their sleeping bundle of joy with nothing short of adoration, yet when the little angel opens her or his eyes, balls the tiny little fists, and suddenly lets out some blood-curdling screams, many new parents simply do not know what to do.

Good advice is never far away, and the suggestions given run the gambit from "go ahead and let them cry" to "pick up the infant right away!" Who is right? Believe it or not, but it is the baby who is right. Consider the fact that an infant's only mode of communication is to scream. The child is still becoming accustomed to living outside the womb in a world that thrives on the spoken word which it does not yet understand much less is able to imitate.

In order to communicate the best the baby can do is cry and - if ignored long enough - scream! Remember that children even up to the early Kindergarten years live in the here and now and do not have a concept of time. Your baby does not understand that you are going to get her a bottle, as soon as you are done with your telephone call. All the child realizes is that she is hungry - now - and there is no food.

So go ahead and respond to your child's cries as soon as she or he verbalizes them. A good rule of thumb to follow is to pick up the baby when she or he cries, check to see if the diaper needs to be changed, and then offer the baby some food. If these two fail, hold the baby with its head on your shoulder and gently pat its back to see if some air might need to be burped out. If this fails, maybe your infant just needs some love and attention. Give it to her! Sooner than you realize that little baby of yours will be up and running, and out of the house to hang out at the mall with her friends!

Probably the worst piece of advice is the notion to just let the baby cry. Infants are not able to be trained to stop crying and screaming when they are very young. You cannot spoil a baby, so go ahead and shower the little one with love and attention. Doing this will actually help you and the child when the little one turns into a toddler. Being secure in the knowledge that mom and dad are just a call away, you will find that your toddler will be far less whiny than its playmates that were "trained" as infants.