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I haven’t written on baby’s cry over my blog
Parenting Ideas yet, but I’d like to share some ideas with parents of newborns. The most useful communication method of newborns is crying. Ironically, new parents have a hard time to figure it out what their babies are
crying for. Is my child hungry? Wet? Cross? Or the worse case, ill? A baby’s cry might mean many different things, but to a new parent, it can sound the same.
Go back to my memory: when my first baby boy cried, I just used common sense and trial-and-error method to find out the cause:
Step 1. Check the feeding routine: is it time for feeding him? If not, then go to step 2.
Step 2. Check his diaper: is it wet or something? Still not, then go to step 3.
Step 3. Check his sleep schedule: is he sleepy or tired? (You know, newborns are always tired and need lots of sleep. So if he’s tired enough, he should be fallen asleep.) But if he’s crying and crying without any stop, then it worried me. Is he sick? Or something?
Sometimes parents can’t understand why their babies cry. Some hints from baby development expert Lise Eliot might help new parents:
A hungry cry is “rhythmic and repetitive”.
An angry cry is “loud and prolonged”.
A cry of pain is “sudden in onset, punctuated by breaks of breaks of breath holding”
These hints would give you an idea of how to figure out a baby's cry . More importantly, don’t feel anxious and don't think that you should be able to interpret your baby’s cry. Over time, you’ll get to know your baby and can predict the cause as well.
(March 2006) (
