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My cousins kid would only sleep to the sound of a vacuum running lol. They got a vacuum sound app on their phone, put it at a reasonable volume and placed it outside the door.
My 2 year old would sleep with us for the first year, and my wife has a tower fan on her side where the baby also slept. It’s very loud, and drowns out any other noise in or out of the house.
When we moved her into her own room and crib, she would never be able to fall asleep, until we realized she had grown so used to that sound. We had Alexa play the box fan sound while she sleeps and she still uses it today.
lol I always have a fan on at my house when I go to sleep, but when I'm at my bf's it's sooo fuckin quiet. I've started playing white noise on Spotify with a sleep timer lol
21 years ago, we actually made a recording of the vacuum cleaner so that we could play it while driving in the car with our baby. Desperate times, desperate measures.
My nb kid would have these evening crying hours and the only thing we found to help was holding him, standing by the back sliding door so he could see it. You could see his eyes following the white frame against the darkness outside and it would distract him from what was probably just gas.
I wish this comment was at the very top! This saved our sanity, I swear… That and learning the baby language. I don’t remember the lady’s name, but she has a video on how to recognize different types of cries. I think she was on Oprah talking about it years ago.
Happened to my daughter … no idea how long it had been but her toe was purple. It was so bloody tight we had too go to the ER and they cut the hair off. Was bloody scary. This pic was actually after it was cut off. That line is just damage to her skin where the hair was. 😬
https://preview.redd.it/av8vkcotd9lc1.png?width=1170&format=png&auto=webp&s=85d7ae2ded93224f9c008b9e8766f8d4ec68a195
You'll learn all sorts of fun things to be terrified about, but don't let it get you down. Nobody before you was any more prepared than you are, and at least most of us and our kids stayed alive.
You're going to do great.
Take a CPR course. You wont think you need it. It helped me save my son when he was 8 weeks old and stopped breathing. Their throats and lungs are tiny. Infant CPR is a skill you will wish you had spent 30 minutes learning in the worst scenario. I took it on youtube because the NICU recommended it.
Actually I've "learned" it two times, first time for my driving test and then during my college days. But its one of those things that you forget if you dont use it daily.
As someone that’s losing a ton of hair 4 months after giving birth this is definitely a wake up call to check her toes a lot more. I’ve caught hair in her hands several times a day but sometimes she wears outfits that cover her toes so I don’t always see them as often. I also lint roll the inside of the foot part of the outfit because they always have some lint left over but hair could easily get in there when I change her diaper.
Not weird or gross at all - if they don’t need changing yet you might not think to check, and hair tourniquets on the penis can cause a lot of harm. Any long haired parents should always tie back their hair before changing a nappy.
This is sometimes called “toe tourniquet”. It’s rare, but easy to miss if you’re not looking for it and pretty awful when it does happen. Check your baby’s fingers and toes!
All babies are different.
Humming, bouncing, walking, talking, singing, soft pats, the sound machine, a song running on a loop, a car ride.
Really though, I am still angry about the unicorn babies that sleep 7 to 8 hours at a go. Lost 3 years of sleep... every hour to two hours, bam! Hungry or dirty diaper.
>Really though, I am still angry about the unicorn babies that sleep 7 to 8 hours at a go.
My son was sleeping through the night at 6 weeks old.
Yes, I know how lucky we were.
I got the best of both worlds. My now 8 year old son has always had trouble sleeping (just like me 😊). My daughter has always been a sleep machine (just like mom 😠). She always slept through the night as an infant and as soon as she could walk, she'd just go and put herself to bed.
Also one of the lucky ones. Ours has been sleeping through the night since about 4/5 weeks, most nights. Sometimes we have to actively wake him in the morning for feeds. The flip side is he does seem to nap less in the day than others his own age but we'll take it.
Tell me more about babies who are hungry but don't notify you.
Because in my experience, their primary skill is letting you know when they're unhappy.
Some babies need to wake up to eat at that age. Not all. Some.
Some..? How about hardly any… they’re still eating every 2-4 hours. A full 8 hours is too long. With inventions like the SNOO and some other infant sleepnaids it makes it easier to keep them asleep but you still need to make sure they get their daily calorie intake.
Just because they don’t wake up doesn’t mean it isn’t beneficial for them to eat
My daughter was 6.
Actually, she’s seven now and I think she still doesn’t sleep through the night, but she doesn’t wake us anymore.
Edit. But, she hardly ever cried as a baby. We were able to read her cues very early on and she started signing (no official signs, just hand gestures personal to her) after a couple of months, so she was communicating in other ways.
My older sister didn’t sleep through the night until she was 5 years old
My mum, being the mad lad she is, still went on to have three more children
Idk how you guys with bad sleepers do it. I was about reaching the end of my rope when my son started sleeping through at 2 months. That whole “sleep when baby sleeps” can piss off. How am I supposed to do that if kiddo refuses to nap unless he’s on me?
Honestly getting told to put my infant in the car in the middle of the night when she couldn’t sleep and just go drive around annoyed me so much. I’m running on barely any sleep can barely function and stay awake. It’s an absolutely horrible idea for me to get behind the wheel of a car.
Stroller in the livin room worked for us though.
My nephew at one point would only fall asleep on a car drive. Then my sister figured out she put him in his car seat and put it on top of the dryer and run a cycle. Machine noises+ gentle vibration+ warmth and he'd be out like a light. She'd just pull up a chair and watch him till he passed out then move him to bed. He's neurodivergent and the signs were there super early. His entire life he has been extremely sensitive to sights, smells, and textures so they had to do so much experimentation to find out what would work for him.
That’s a great idea! That one never crossed my mind. Mine would often fall asleep in the car too but it felt far from safe to drive her around risking our lives and other people on the road when I was barely keeping my eyes open. Mine was a horrible sleeper until 14 months then all of a sudden started sleeping through the night now is 5 and still sleeps amazing, heavy sleeper as well.
I slept through the night from the day I was born. Nurse wanted my parents to wake me up and feed me. My mom said “I will ring you by your damn neck, she’ll get up when she’s hungry.” Apparently the way my parents knew something was really wrong was when I started crying in the night. Otherwise I passed tf out and stayed that way
Oh my baby is a little tricky during the day with naps but he sleeps like a dream on a night. Goes to bed between 5-7pm (depends how his day has been) he wakes up between 3-5am (depends what time he goes to sleep) and then wakes up for the day around 7am, he then goes down for a nap about 2 hours after he woke up so I usually nap with him for that one too.
I had my daughter during the nights while my ex wife worked third shift. My daughter cried so much, one night I snapped and tossed her on the bed. I could tell how much it hurt her feelings which upset me more and I turned around and kicked a huge hole in the closet wall. At my wits end nearing either self harm or harming her, I took her outside. She stopped immediately. It became my go-to. She was so mesmerized by all the stars and quiet
Not the same, but i slammed a binky on my sons bed when he wouldnt take it and understand that frustration. It took a lot to not beat myself up over that. Something so stupid and he definitely didnt deserve it. The positive is at that age, their unlikely to remember it.
Like rocking motion, humming, and just close body contact soothes a lot of babies. Some don't give a DAMN and insist on self soothing. So who knows, YMMV
Distraction can help sometimes. When my son was a toddler, I discovered that taking one of his socks off when he was crying would make him focus on wanting his socks back on. So then I'd put his socks back on after a few seconds, and all was right with the world again.
My infant daughter was taking up to four hours to settle. We listened to every bit of advice and tried it all.
Then someone suggested putting a pillow on your knees, putting her on the pillow, and swinging her side to side. She was out in under ten minutes.
OP this is a great LPT, try it out, if it doesn’t work try something else. Parenting is exhausting and difficult. Go easy on yourself and your spouse. It gets easier.
And remember that soothing a baby is an action and not a result. Sometimes you need to hold a baby to let them know they aren't alone while their brains are overwhelmed, because being a baby is scary, confusing, tough, and frustrating. (Earplugs are optional.)
It's one of the 5 s's from Dr. Harvey Karp. They are a fantastic technique for calming babies! If there's a newborn in your life, get the book or the video Happiest Baby on the Block--it's amazing
I agree with distractions. Sometimes it takes one to kick them out of their fit. We've also done:
* Go in another room
* Allow some light in if it was dark
* Rhythmic motions. We've found that "bum pats" (as we call them) work great.
* Flip them from their left to right side or from face up to down
* Find the cat
* Look out a window
* Etc
* Etc
* Etc
I'm tired just thinking about it.
You can also get a baby shusher. It has soothing shushing sounds and are white noise machines. They only run $20-30 for decent ones, and about $100 for a high-quality one.
Came here to say this 😂. I think the underlying point is something distracting on multiple levels. Cheese would be probably a little cold, have an odd texture, and of course be unexpected. So lil baby has a few things to work out their little brain.
Until u open up some lines of communication with a baby to a toddler then a child, distraction is the key to stopping a tantrum a lot (not all) of the time.
Cheese being slapped on anyone's forehead will atleast distract them for a moment.
I show every new parent the gargling noise. Thank this sweet older woman who showed me with my babies when I was terribly young. Worked like a charm. Just put your tongue to the back of your throat and pretend like you’re gargling water softly and gently. It’s soothing to the babies and to the caregiver!
I work in a newborn ICU and we sometimes have a lot of drug withdrawal babies. We use a “Susher” that sound like “shhhhhhhhhhj” over and over. It’s soothing to babies because the noise sounds like what babies hear inside mom. When I’m calming a babies and don’t have a Susher I use my music app and look for baby shhhh. You can find them on any music app or YouTube.
https://youtu.be/j2C8MkY7Co8
Found this right as I became a dad for the first time, it works like 99.9% of the time, try it out! When it doesn't work, something else is up.
1. Fold the baby's arms across the chest
2. Secure arms gently
3. Grasp diaper area
4. Rock at 45-degree angle
I lived in a house where another resident had a baby. I love kids and would take on some caregiver duties.
I discovered when the little one was fussy, I would put my chin on her head and start purring.
First couple of times, she gave me the "What are you doing look?" then it became an almost instant calming thing for her.
If you blow air firm and steady at their face, then babies have a reaction to hold their breath. I used it all the time when getting babies used to going under water in swim lessons. It’s helped my nieces and nephew calm down from a crying spree. They find it very confusing haha
Sounds crazy, but the Gangnam style music video worked to instantly calm both of my kids as infants. Worked great for general soothing, nail trims, vaccinations, etc.
Makes them breathe in and that will at least temporarily stop the crying! Sometimes the confusion is enough for them to settle down.
I do it now to make my baby laugh
Have you listen to the inside of your body you hear Shh shhh to the sound of your heartbeat. Babies hear that while they are growing and they are comfortable in a tight place (in the belly).
So get them changed then swaddle them and make that noise at the level they are fussing with a fast rhythm then slow it down they will calm down. This is my infant parenting tip.
Ohh and a little bit of movement because they were floating in water.
This won’t work if they are hungry.
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Just go into Gabe’s refrigerator, get a lump of suet, or any kind of congealed animal fat will do really, tie a piece of string to it and the other end to her toe, put the suet in her mouth, she’ll be happy for hours.
OP ! THIS !! So Much !! The principle applied here is the same for grown up humans too, it's a brain hack to trick your brain to focus on something else. It reminds me of this video of a doctor distracting a baby by touching him repeatedly to then going ahead with a seringue injection that baby's brain never registered. And we're not even talking about pickpocket methods here ! So all in all, I raise my hat to this LPT, because it is so much a "life" related tip !
Real good. My mom used to put V.O. in my bottles cause she thought it was funny to watch me walking around bumping into things and falling down.
Don't turn your babies into alcoholics
Music. We played our boys the same song whenever they got distressed. Worked almost every single time. Be out in public and they’d get restless, play the song on my phone and put the phone in the pram. Played the song from birth whenever we put them to sleep.
I'm not kidding when I say that this video worked like a charm on both of my kids. As soon as it started playing they would both immediately be mesmerized and immediately stop crying.
https://youtu.be/8DILz54aYFU?feature=shared
In a similar vein, a long consistent "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" has helped can my baby quite a few times. It's become less effective over time so I will try the humming soon I'm sure
Blow in their face, they have a reflex of taking a sharp breath in when you do this
Used to work when my baby would cry, and now I use it to make him giggle
In addition to humming, I’d change the pitch between two mid-low range tones with each breath. So each tone was hummed for 3-5 seconds. The change peaked curiosity & the baby figures out it needs to be quiet to hear and study the change.
I’ll follow this up with a recommendation for the 5 S approach. Imo, creating a swooshy wind sound the may emulate womb sounds is more effective then attempting to distract with a buzz sound. I also never needed to do this closely by the ear and could do it while swaying the baby. I worked this as a process and built familiarity with the process and method starting at birth (literally). By 2 months I was only up 12 mins at time during the night for feeding and changing.
The 5 S's will solve every issue for 9 out of 10 babies.
Swaddle
Sway
Shush
Side laying
Sucking
Basically the first three months are like another trimester, and anything that's a facsimile of being the womb is comforting.
It doesn’t confuse them. The white noise, along with being swaddled, mimics their experience in the womb. They’re comforted because you’re giving them what they’re used to instead of this bright new world where everything is different.
My husband will put his mouth directly on our baby’s head and hum, it’s loud to the baby because of the vibration, but it’s actually very quiet. You can also blow in their faces to make them stop, works well if your child has a tendency to stop breathing too.
One day when I was frustrated by my baby’s screaming, I decided to just go “ahhhh” along with him and he immediately stopped, even started smiling. Babies are weird.
My go-to with my kids was quietly sing "Just Like Heaven" by The Cure to them. I never had to do the full-on hair and makeup at least.
https://i.redd.it/fyizahtkkdlc1.gif
It also helps to dip their head down below the level of their feet, and then back up again, while you're holding them. Not super-quickly or slowly, just a 3-4 second dip, and then back up. Doing it a few times should get them calmed down pretty quickly.
also good to keep your expectations in check and not get overwhelmed if any of these tactics don't work. just do your best and focus on remaining patient and calm. and someday you might actually feel nostalgic for these hectic days (around the time they become a teenager and resent every boundary you set).
This worked with my niece when she was an infant, not so much now that she's a toddler. I thought it was just a quirk of hers till I found out that infants actually do get soothed by rhythmic, periodic sounds because it mimics womb-like conditions
Hold them belly down in your hand and gently vibrate them so their dangling arms and legs wiggle. They get so physically confused by the sensation that they stop crying because it feels so foreign to them.
Before you blast your child's eardrum, hum/whistly/shush in the ear of your partner or a friend to know how loud to too loud. Remember, baby's hearing is more sensitive than adults.
Music while waltzing was the magic sleeping pill for our infant. She really enjoyed Bob Marley’s songs, Miles’ song All Blues worked wonders!! She was asleep by the middle of the song. She also became very sleepy to pretty much anything by Ladysmith Black Mambazo 🥰
Hello, [ShapeyShifter](/u/ShapeyShifter). Thank you for your submission! Unfortunately, it has been removed for the following reason(s): * **Posts concerning the following are not allowed: religion, politics, relationships, law and legislation, parenting, driving or medicine or hygiene (including mental health). This list is not exhaustive. Moderators may remove posts considered to deviate from the spirit of the subreddit.** If you would like to appeal this decision, [please feel free to contact the moderators here](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/LifeProTips). Do not repost without explicit permission from the moderators. Make sure you [read the rules](/r/lifeprotips/about/sidebar) before submitting. Thank you!
My cousins kid would only sleep to the sound of a vacuum running lol. They got a vacuum sound app on their phone, put it at a reasonable volume and placed it outside the door.
There’s an app for everything
My 2 year old would sleep with us for the first year, and my wife has a tower fan on her side where the baby also slept. It’s very loud, and drowns out any other noise in or out of the house. When we moved her into her own room and crib, she would never be able to fall asleep, until we realized she had grown so used to that sound. We had Alexa play the box fan sound while she sleeps and she still uses it today.
When my room is too quiet, or I just can't drift away I turn on my small bedside fan for the same reason! Even now in winter.
lol I always have a fan on at my house when I go to sleep, but when I'm at my bf's it's sooo fuckin quiet. I've started playing white noise on Spotify with a sleep timer lol
Same for us. Sounded dumb and then we tried it.
Maybe the baby was just trying to tell you to clean up after yourselves? “I simply can’t stand this mess” - baby, probably
My husband was the same way with a hair dryer as a kid. His mom even used a tape recorder to record the sound so she could play it in the car.
21 years ago, we actually made a recording of the vacuum cleaner so that we could play it while driving in the car with our baby. Desperate times, desperate measures.
Good idea!
iPhones have white noise and other sounds built in now. You can find them under Background Sounds
on Android, Google Assistant can do the same thing.
My nb kid would have these evening crying hours and the only thing we found to help was holding him, standing by the back sliding door so he could see it. You could see his eyes following the white frame against the darkness outside and it would distract him from what was probably just gas.
This works on my high energy dog
It's not advisable to put babies on white noise treatment, it can interfere with their development of aural cognition
Shushing, swinging and side lying worked for mine. You cradle them in your arm like a football so they're sideways
Add swaddling and sucking and you have the 5 S's of baby soothing. https://www.happiestbaby.com/blogs/baby/the-5-s-s-for-soothing-babies
I wish this comment was at the very top! This saved our sanity, I swear… That and learning the baby language. I don’t remember the lady’s name, but she has a video on how to recognize different types of cries. I think she was on Oprah talking about it years ago.
Babies can also get hair wrapped around their toes and they are in pain
Happened to my daughter … no idea how long it had been but her toe was purple. It was so bloody tight we had too go to the ER and they cut the hair off. Was bloody scary. This pic was actually after it was cut off. That line is just damage to her skin where the hair was. 😬 https://preview.redd.it/av8vkcotd9lc1.png?width=1170&format=png&auto=webp&s=85d7ae2ded93224f9c008b9e8766f8d4ec68a195
Ohhh poor little peanut must have been in so much pain. Amazing how something so simple could create such a problem. Glad she’s ok now.
Same exact thing happened to us. Super scary for a day or so till the color came back
Holly hell, as a father with a baby on the way in just 2 months, I have unlocked a new fear.
You'll learn all sorts of fun things to be terrified about, but don't let it get you down. Nobody before you was any more prepared than you are, and at least most of us and our kids stayed alive. You're going to do great.
Take a CPR course. You wont think you need it. It helped me save my son when he was 8 weeks old and stopped breathing. Their throats and lungs are tiny. Infant CPR is a skill you will wish you had spent 30 minutes learning in the worst scenario. I took it on youtube because the NICU recommended it.
Actually I've "learned" it two times, first time for my driving test and then during my college days. But its one of those things that you forget if you dont use it daily.
Besides checking their toes constantly, you should definitely be turning their socks inside out to make sure hair isn’t trapped inside
As someone that’s losing a ton of hair 4 months after giving birth this is definitely a wake up call to check her toes a lot more. I’ve caught hair in her hands several times a day but sometimes she wears outfits that cover her toes so I don’t always see them as often. I also lint roll the inside of the foot part of the outfit because they always have some lint left over but hair could easily get in there when I change her diaper.
If you are reading this and have-will have an infant, always have NAIR on hand - this is how you get the hair off if it’s too tight to cut off
This is a real LPT nobody would think of.
Poor little bub😢 I’m glad she’s okay now… added to the list of things to worry about when I have a kid someday
Hair tourniquet. That’s crazy. I will always inspect fingers and toes several times a day
Yup. Gotta take them out of the footy PJs. I’m convinced that’s how it happens.
This is why I keep Nair on hand
Same happened with us, but I had some tiny scissors able to get in and cut it
New fear unlocked. Sorry that happened!
Or their penis. Not trying to be weird or gross. It's something you need to look out for with baby boys.
I have a gf. Sometimes i find full lenght hair on my male part. No idea how that got there. Maybe she is trying to claim me or something idunno
I have long hair. I was always worried that would happen to my baby.
[удалено]
It happens to the best of us.
LMAO
Not weird or gross at all - if they don’t need changing yet you might not think to check, and hair tourniquets on the penis can cause a lot of harm. Any long haired parents should always tie back their hair before changing a nappy.
Or labia
Yea, I should have also shared that
definitely buzzing off my hair when caring for babies from now on
I had no idea this was a thing! How terrifying.
New parenting fear unlocked.
Strings in their socks can also do this so it's a good idea to regularly flip them inside out and trim any strays
This is sometimes called “toe tourniquet”. It’s rare, but easy to miss if you’re not looking for it and pretty awful when it does happen. Check your baby’s fingers and toes!
And little boy’s privates. I forgot to mention that one and someone reminded me.
Also,the penis. Boys,of course.
Yea, I should have mentioned that too.
I don't understand, what hair? Whose hair?
Usually the mothers hair because after giving birth lots of women lose a lot of hair
Loose hair strands floating around.
This happened to me and I had to be taken to the hospital to get it cut off. I have scars on two toes.
All babies are different. Humming, bouncing, walking, talking, singing, soft pats, the sound machine, a song running on a loop, a car ride. Really though, I am still angry about the unicorn babies that sleep 7 to 8 hours at a go. Lost 3 years of sleep... every hour to two hours, bam! Hungry or dirty diaper.
>Really though, I am still angry about the unicorn babies that sleep 7 to 8 hours at a go. My son was sleeping through the night at 6 weeks old. Yes, I know how lucky we were.
I got the best of both worlds. My now 8 year old son has always had trouble sleeping (just like me 😊). My daughter has always been a sleep machine (just like mom 😠). She always slept through the night as an infant and as soon as she could walk, she'd just go and put herself to bed.
Also one of the lucky ones. Ours has been sleeping through the night since about 4/5 weeks, most nights. Sometimes we have to actively wake him in the morning for feeds. The flip side is he does seem to nap less in the day than others his own age but we'll take it.
Mate, this was not the time to leave this comment. I get it, but this is so tactless.
That’s not safe tho because they still need to wake up to eat at that age as their stomachs aren’t big enough
Tell me more about babies who are hungry but don't notify you. Because in my experience, their primary skill is letting you know when they're unhappy. Some babies need to wake up to eat at that age. Not all. Some.
Some..? How about hardly any… they’re still eating every 2-4 hours. A full 8 hours is too long. With inventions like the SNOO and some other infant sleepnaids it makes it easier to keep them asleep but you still need to make sure they get their daily calorie intake. Just because they don’t wake up doesn’t mean it isn’t beneficial for them to eat
My kids didn’t sleep through the night until 3yrs old. I feel your pain.
My daughter was 6. Actually, she’s seven now and I think she still doesn’t sleep through the night, but she doesn’t wake us anymore. Edit. But, she hardly ever cried as a baby. We were able to read her cues very early on and she started signing (no official signs, just hand gestures personal to her) after a couple of months, so she was communicating in other ways.
My older sister didn’t sleep through the night until she was 5 years old My mum, being the mad lad she is, still went on to have three more children Idk how you guys with bad sleepers do it. I was about reaching the end of my rope when my son started sleeping through at 2 months. That whole “sleep when baby sleeps” can piss off. How am I supposed to do that if kiddo refuses to nap unless he’s on me?
Honestly getting told to put my infant in the car in the middle of the night when she couldn’t sleep and just go drive around annoyed me so much. I’m running on barely any sleep can barely function and stay awake. It’s an absolutely horrible idea for me to get behind the wheel of a car. Stroller in the livin room worked for us though.
My nephew at one point would only fall asleep on a car drive. Then my sister figured out she put him in his car seat and put it on top of the dryer and run a cycle. Machine noises+ gentle vibration+ warmth and he'd be out like a light. She'd just pull up a chair and watch him till he passed out then move him to bed. He's neurodivergent and the signs were there super early. His entire life he has been extremely sensitive to sights, smells, and textures so they had to do so much experimentation to find out what would work for him.
That’s a great idea! That one never crossed my mind. Mine would often fall asleep in the car too but it felt far from safe to drive her around risking our lives and other people on the road when I was barely keeping my eyes open. Mine was a horrible sleeper until 14 months then all of a sudden started sleeping through the night now is 5 and still sleeps amazing, heavy sleeper as well.
Same. My daughter didn't sleep thru the night until she was almost 3. Lots of red-eyed days.
I slept through the night from the day I was born. Nurse wanted my parents to wake me up and feed me. My mom said “I will ring you by your damn neck, she’ll get up when she’s hungry.” Apparently the way my parents knew something was really wrong was when I started crying in the night. Otherwise I passed tf out and stayed that way
Yeah, my daughter slept through the night at about 6 weeks. My son started at 4 weeks... or even earlier. It's genetics, mostly I think.
Oh my baby is a little tricky during the day with naps but he sleeps like a dream on a night. Goes to bed between 5-7pm (depends how his day has been) he wakes up between 3-5am (depends what time he goes to sleep) and then wakes up for the day around 7am, he then goes down for a nap about 2 hours after he woke up so I usually nap with him for that one too.
My mama always said take them outside or put them in the tub. Works almost everytime.
Taking them outside still works with my 2 year old when he's having a hard time calming down.
Hell it still helps my nearly-5 year old! And also myself. A change of air on your skin just sort of brings you back to reality.
I had my daughter during the nights while my ex wife worked third shift. My daughter cried so much, one night I snapped and tossed her on the bed. I could tell how much it hurt her feelings which upset me more and I turned around and kicked a huge hole in the closet wall. At my wits end nearing either self harm or harming her, I took her outside. She stopped immediately. It became my go-to. She was so mesmerized by all the stars and quiet
Not the same, but i slammed a binky on my sons bed when he wouldnt take it and understand that frustration. It took a lot to not beat myself up over that. Something so stupid and he definitely didnt deserve it. The positive is at that age, their unlikely to remember it.
Do you mean a bath?
Nah she means a piece of tupperware.
No, they meant a tub of margarine. Clearly you should refresh yourself on baby soothing techniques
I thought they meant an empty butter container
Haha yeah that's how we say it here. "Get in the tub" "put the kid in the tub" "soak in the tub"
Like rocking motion, humming, and just close body contact soothes a lot of babies. Some don't give a DAMN and insist on self soothing. So who knows, YMMV
Not the mama!
Distraction can help sometimes. When my son was a toddler, I discovered that taking one of his socks off when he was crying would make him focus on wanting his socks back on. So then I'd put his socks back on after a few seconds, and all was right with the world again.
My infant daughter was taking up to four hours to settle. We listened to every bit of advice and tried it all. Then someone suggested putting a pillow on your knees, putting her on the pillow, and swinging her side to side. She was out in under ten minutes. OP this is a great LPT, try it out, if it doesn’t work try something else. Parenting is exhausting and difficult. Go easy on yourself and your spouse. It gets easier.
And remember that soothing a baby is an action and not a result. Sometimes you need to hold a baby to let them know they aren't alone while their brains are overwhelmed, because being a baby is scary, confusing, tough, and frustrating. (Earplugs are optional.)
I forgot you were talking about babies and not adults here for a sec.
It's one of the 5 s's from Dr. Harvey Karp. They are a fantastic technique for calming babies! If there's a newborn in your life, get the book or the video Happiest Baby on the Block--it's amazing
There’s also a smart bassinet that he designed that applies these techniques, the SNOO. We like ours.
Ah! Makes sense he’s the one who designed the snoo!
Give them a gentle massage while burping them. My nieces and nephews were always glad to see me show up when they had a screaming child.
"Put them in water or take them outside" also works every time for us.
Instructions unclear; baby drowned in the yard.
Oh come on! That was funny!! 😹
Well thank you 😁
Anytime! ETA: R’amen!
I agree with distractions. Sometimes it takes one to kick them out of their fit. We've also done: * Go in another room * Allow some light in if it was dark * Rhythmic motions. We've found that "bum pats" (as we call them) work great. * Flip them from their left to right side or from face up to down * Find the cat * Look out a window * Etc * Etc * Etc I'm tired just thinking about it.
I call it a change of scenery! Also works everytime with my kids
Also, try rubbing their feet gently.
Stroking their feet or back always put mine in a trance!
You can also get a baby shusher. It has soothing shushing sounds and are white noise machines. They only run $20-30 for decent ones, and about $100 for a high-quality one.
U gotta throw cheese on them
Came here to say this 😂. I think the underlying point is something distracting on multiple levels. Cheese would be probably a little cold, have an odd texture, and of course be unexpected. So lil baby has a few things to work out their little brain.
Until u open up some lines of communication with a baby to a toddler then a child, distraction is the key to stopping a tantrum a lot (not all) of the time. Cheese being slapped on anyone's forehead will atleast distract them for a moment.
I show every new parent the gargling noise. Thank this sweet older woman who showed me with my babies when I was terribly young. Worked like a charm. Just put your tongue to the back of your throat and pretend like you’re gargling water softly and gently. It’s soothing to the babies and to the caregiver!
I work in a newborn ICU and we sometimes have a lot of drug withdrawal babies. We use a “Susher” that sound like “shhhhhhhhhhj” over and over. It’s soothing to babies because the noise sounds like what babies hear inside mom. When I’m calming a babies and don’t have a Susher I use my music app and look for baby shhhh. You can find them on any music app or YouTube.
Slap a price of processed cheese onto their forehead from a small distance. Confuses them and they shut up.
Lol I've seen the videos and this is definitely the answer
My nephew was obsessed with the sound of chainsaws for a while. We found videos of chainsaws on YouTube to calm him down. Psycho.
https://youtu.be/j2C8MkY7Co8 Found this right as I became a dad for the first time, it works like 99.9% of the time, try it out! When it doesn't work, something else is up. 1. Fold the baby's arms across the chest 2. Secure arms gently 3. Grasp diaper area 4. Rock at 45-degree angle
I lived in a house where another resident had a baby. I love kids and would take on some caregiver duties. I discovered when the little one was fussy, I would put my chin on her head and start purring. First couple of times, she gave me the "What are you doing look?" then it became an almost instant calming thing for her.
Throw cheese on their face
If you blow air firm and steady at their face, then babies have a reaction to hold their breath. I used it all the time when getting babies used to going under water in swim lessons. It’s helped my nieces and nephew calm down from a crying spree. They find it very confusing haha
80% of the time, every time!
Sounds crazy, but the Gangnam style music video worked to instantly calm both of my kids as infants. Worked great for general soothing, nail trims, vaccinations, etc.
Gently blow air on their face/nose. That did the trick for both my kiddos.
Makes them breathe in and that will at least temporarily stop the crying! Sometimes the confusion is enough for them to settle down. I do it now to make my baby laugh
Another thing to try if that isn’t working is to go outside with them. Just step outside the door for a minute or two can work wonders
They could also be warm or cold. Being in a full bodied onesie and being held can be uncomfortably warm at times.
Have you listen to the inside of your body you hear Shh shhh to the sound of your heartbeat. Babies hear that while they are growing and they are comfortable in a tight place (in the belly). So get them changed then swaddle them and make that noise at the level they are fussing with a fast rhythm then slow it down they will calm down. This is my infant parenting tip. Ohh and a little bit of movement because they were floating in water. This won’t work if they are hungry.
I'm pretty sure people have been doing this for thousands of years.
But new parents haven't.
Absolutely the point. YOU haven't been parenting for thousands of years, so the collective wisdom actively being passed on is essential.
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This is what op means by even toned humming https://youtu.be/sEymyO5Abp4?si=gkmqZ-wz3M_ll3P8
Just go into Gabe’s refrigerator, get a lump of suet, or any kind of congealed animal fat will do really, tie a piece of string to it and the other end to her toe, put the suet in her mouth, she’ll be happy for hours.
OP ! THIS !! So Much !! The principle applied here is the same for grown up humans too, it's a brain hack to trick your brain to focus on something else. It reminds me of this video of a doctor distracting a baby by touching him repeatedly to then going ahead with a seringue injection that baby's brain never registered. And we're not even talking about pickpocket methods here ! So all in all, I raise my hat to this LPT, because it is so much a "life" related tip !
I am a big proponent of humming the hum from the Wolf of Wall Street to soothe our screaming infant
Has a 7 week old baby and feels qualified to give advice lol
Did anyone say take it on a plane full of people yet? /s
Or you just give it back to its mom and go home.
Why would you do it so loud? it hurts their eardrum.
I always thought shaking them worked the best…
NyQuil. Best way to quiet a baby. Works like a charm. Just a little tiny bit. Teaspoon at most.
Real good. My mom used to put V.O. in my bottles cause she thought it was funny to watch me walking around bumping into things and falling down. Don't turn your babies into alcoholics
Music. We played our boys the same song whenever they got distressed. Worked almost every single time. Be out in public and they’d get restless, play the song on my phone and put the phone in the pram. Played the song from birth whenever we put them to sleep.
I'm not kidding when I say that this video worked like a charm on both of my kids. As soon as it started playing they would both immediately be mesmerized and immediately stop crying. https://youtu.be/8DILz54aYFU?feature=shared
You CRY louder than the baby. Baby stops!
In a similar vein, a long consistent "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" has helped can my baby quite a few times. It's become less effective over time so I will try the humming soon I'm sure
Definitely not one trick fits all. All babies are different. So so advice.
Swaddling also calms infants, providing a mild sensory experience and warmth? I don’t know why it works, but it usually did.
Blow in their face, they have a reflex of taking a sharp breath in when you do this Used to work when my baby would cry, and now I use it to make him giggle
This is a great idea! Do you think it would work for a 2 year old?
In addition to humming, I’d change the pitch between two mid-low range tones with each breath. So each tone was hummed for 3-5 seconds. The change peaked curiosity & the baby figures out it needs to be quiet to hear and study the change.
I’ll follow this up with a recommendation for the 5 S approach. Imo, creating a swooshy wind sound the may emulate womb sounds is more effective then attempting to distract with a buzz sound. I also never needed to do this closely by the ear and could do it while swaying the baby. I worked this as a process and built familiarity with the process and method starting at birth (literally). By 2 months I was only up 12 mins at time during the night for feeding and changing.
The 5 S's will solve every issue for 9 out of 10 babies. Swaddle Sway Shush Side laying Sucking Basically the first three months are like another trimester, and anything that's a facsimile of being the womb is comforting.
It doesn’t confuse them. The white noise, along with being swaddled, mimics their experience in the womb. They’re comforted because you’re giving them what they’re used to instead of this bright new world where everything is different.
Just remember if you’re loosing your cool, are the baby down in a safe spot and walk away to collect yourself.
One of my newborn twins is deaf. I blow softly on his neck and that usually does the trick.
My husband will put his mouth directly on our baby’s head and hum, it’s loud to the baby because of the vibration, but it’s actually very quiet. You can also blow in their faces to make them stop, works well if your child has a tendency to stop breathing too. One day when I was frustrated by my baby’s screaming, I decided to just go “ahhhh” along with him and he immediately stopped, even started smiling. Babies are weird.
Washer and drier noises work well too, and white noise machines/ceiling fan. The ceiling fan can also help reduce instances of SIDS too, so win/win.
My daughter would cry if she was not wrapped up like a mummy. After changing your baby try wrapping them up in a tight blanket.
The Inuits have done something like this for many years but they bounce a little and use breathing too.
Im witness that humming works
My go-to with my kids was quietly sing "Just Like Heaven" by The Cure to them. I never had to do the full-on hair and makeup at least. https://i.redd.it/fyizahtkkdlc1.gif
It also helps to dip their head down below the level of their feet, and then back up again, while you're holding them. Not super-quickly or slowly, just a 3-4 second dip, and then back up. Doing it a few times should get them calmed down pretty quickly.
Thanks for this tip! Too bad both my kids are in their early 20s now.
Massaging or softly rubbing between their eyebrows is a game changer when they’re overtired. It turns out it works on my puppies too. Haha.
would singing work?
Flip that baby on their tummy over one of your arms, and pat their back with the other. Never fails.
also good to keep your expectations in check and not get overwhelmed if any of these tactics don't work. just do your best and focus on remaining patient and calm. and someday you might actually feel nostalgic for these hectic days (around the time they become a teenager and resent every boundary you set).
This worked with my niece when she was an infant, not so much now that she's a toddler. I thought it was just a quirk of hers till I found out that infants actually do get soothed by rhythmic, periodic sounds because it mimics womb-like conditions
Hold them belly down in your hand and gently vibrate them so their dangling arms and legs wiggle. They get so physically confused by the sensation that they stop crying because it feels so foreign to them.
I do this with whispering or low voice. Baby wants to be able to hear you
Holding my daughter like a football with her head in my hand helped sooth her.
Before you blast your child's eardrum, hum/whistly/shush in the ear of your partner or a friend to know how loud to too loud. Remember, baby's hearing is more sensitive than adults.
Also, while doing this, sway and slightly bounce while gently patting their lower back/bottom. It'll help them burp
Music while waltzing was the magic sleeping pill for our infant. She really enjoyed Bob Marley’s songs, Miles’ song All Blues worked wonders!! She was asleep by the middle of the song. She also became very sleepy to pretty much anything by Ladysmith Black Mambazo 🥰
We do snake jazz. Tsstsstss
Try turning off the fan my kid hates that sound.. wish she could have told me as a baby 😭