WHY DOES BABY CRY?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19906, 28 September 1926, Page 14

WHY DOES BABY CRY?

Don’t spoil the baby, but don’t be too “firm” without conmionsense. All his cries do not come from naughtiness. A moderate amount of crying is good for baby; it gives his lungs the exercise they need and can’t get to the lull while he is still kept lying down. The new theory, says a hospital matron, is that a young baby shouldn’t be kept so continually in a lying position. 1 don’t mean that you should attempt to "sit him up,” but that if you prop his spine occasionally with plenty of pillows so that he lies in a slanting, instead of a horizontal position —and if, when holding him, you give him a chance to look over your shoulder now and then (well supporting his back, of course), his lungs will be better able to get that relief which otherwise they’d only obtain by crying. _ . Another thing: Do you realise that once you've laid baby down on his side, he can’t turn over? When a baby cries and fidgets iu his cot the trouble often is merely that he wants a change of position. So, if baby wakes in the night and cries try turning him over comfortably on to the other side before you think about that meal he shouldn’t bo having. And, if a change of position doesn’t do the trick, try a few sips of cool boiled water or a little water in his bottle, then turn him over, wrap the blanket well against his back so that it gives him a "cuddly” feeling (how often this is all a little baby really wants), and see if he won’t snuggle down into contented sleep again.

So many mothers forget that a baby is thirsty as well as hungry; a milk diet is a thirsty diet. A sip of water can never do baby harm—generally .it does him good, for it helps in the tight against constipation.

Of course, if baby invariably cries some time before his feed is due, it is highly probably he is being underfed. But don’t forget that indigestion and discomfort arising from over-feeding cause crying, too. Suppose baby is quite good for a little time after his feed, and then, at the end of, say, half an hour, begins to grizzle and fret, and by degrees works himself up into a regular storm of crying. Well, that is almost certainly indigestion j you may give him his next meal half an hour before it is due (in desperation, the best of us is tempted to do this), but although h may pacify him for a time, the crying later on will become worse than ever.