How To Soothe Your Baby When They Wont Stop Crying

As parents, we face many new and interesting challenges. Many of them are completely different from anything we have had to deal with previous to becoming parents, and those changes can be difficult to deal with. Crying is one of those things. All babies cry, and they often cry for many different reasons. As a first time parent, and sometimes even as a second or third time parent, identifying the cause of the crying and fixing the issue can be difficult.

I have created this guide in hopes that you might discover a method you may not have tried before or thought of. Who knows, you may discover a tip here that soothes your baby very easily that you can add to your list of things to try when they are inconsolable. With that said, let’s just jump right in to it!

Is Your Baby Hungry?

Pretty much every baby will cry when he or she is hungry. As a newborn, your baby will need to be fed every 2 hours or so. As your baby gets a little older, these feedings may be able to be spread out from every 2 hours to every 3 or 4. No matter how often your baby needs to be fed though, if they begin to feel hungry, nine times out of ten they will cry.

Sometimes though, your baby may cry BEFORE the allotted time has passed for them to eat. This is completely normal, as long as it is not happening every feeding for an extended period of time. Babies have their own schedules, and their hunger can not be pinpointed down to numbers on a clock. If your baby won’t stop crying and you do not know why, try feeding them and see if that helps.

PRO TIP: Babies show signs of hunger before they cry. Learning to recognize these common hunger cues can stop the crying before it even starts, making crying spells easier to manage.

Common hunger cues that can be recognized before crying begins are:

• smacking of the lips or moving the mouth in a sucking motion
• placing objects in mouth or sucking on hands or feet
• taking their pacifier with great anticipation
• rooting or “searching for breast”
• nuzzling into your chest when being held, similar to rooting
• excessive squirming or fussing
• crying

The very last sign of hunger is crying. Learning these cues can help you to understand your baby better and tend to their needs before the crying starts.

Does Your Baby’s Diaper Need Changed?

Nobody wants to sit in a dirty diaper, and having one is definitely a good reason to cry. Babies have limited means for communication, and so when they need something, often the only way that they know how to communicate their need to you is by crying. Don’t take it personal. If your baby is crying and you don’t know why, try changing their diaper.

Even if it is not the source of the crying, it will get one more thing out of the way that you would have had to do relatively soon anyway, and will eliminate the need to change them after they fall asleep if they decide to do so once the reason for crying has been resolved and they settle down.

PRO TIP: If you opt for disposable diapers, most brands will come equipped with a wetness indicator line. For most brands of disposable diapers, this line will start off yellow when the diaper is dry, and will progressively turn blue as the diaper becomes soiled. Checking for this blue line will help make things easier when wondering if your baby needs changed. When in doubt, change it out mama!

Does Your Baby Have Gas?

Gassiness is a common issue for babies. They are constantly sucking and swallowing, the two main things that cause air to be swallowed and gas to happen. When gas gets trapped in the stomach and intestines of a baby, it can be painful. The result of this pain is usually inconsolable crying. Fortunately though, there are ways to help your baby to stop crying if gas seems to be the issue.

Try burping your baby. Sometimes the trapped gas is in the stomach, and it may only take a few minutes of burping your infant to relieve the gas and calm the crying.

Burp your baby during feedings. When your baby is still in the newborn stage, and over the first few months of their life it is smart to take breaks every 2 ounces or so to burp your baby. This will avoid gas from building up and becoming painful for your baby. If you are breastfeeding, burp your baby mid feed or before switching from one breast to the other.

Use gas drops if burping does not seem to do the trick. Sometimes, gas has traveled down farther than burping can help, and your baby may need the help of some baby formulated gas x to do the trick. Always ask your child’s doctor for approval before giving them any medications or supplements, and ALWAYS follow the instructions on the labeling of the medication or supplement. NEVER give your baby more than the recommended dose.

There are some things you can do in the future to avoid crying spells related to gas. Sometimes it is as simple as switching to a more gentle formula specially formulated for babies who struggle with gas, or cutting certain things out of your diet if you are breastfeeding. Your baby may be like mine and have a slight intolerance for lactose. Simple things like switching from cows milk to almond milk and other dairy alternatives may just be the key to eliminating your baby’s gas and gas pain related crying all together.

PRO TIP: The best way to stop your baby from crying is to take the steps to prevent it from happening in the first place.

Is Your Baby Too Hot/Cold?

If your baby won’t stop crying and you don’t know why, it may be worth checking to see if he or she is too hot or cold. A good rule of thumb to go by is this: if you are too hot/cold, then your baby probably is too.

It can be easy to forget sometimes about the temperature of your baby and if they are too hot or cold, especially in the winter months when you have to dress them up so heavily to go outdoors in order to keep them warm. Sometimes it can be easy to forget that a warm sleeper might have kept them warm in the car, but may overheat them in the warm house.

Babies can’t unzip their sleeper for themselves, or put on more layers of clothing without the help of a caregiver. Therefore, the only thing they know how to do to alert you that they need more (or less) warmth is to cry.

Here are some tips to avoid your baby getting too hot or too cold, and avoid the crying that comes along with it too.

Try to keep your home at a comfortable temperature consistently. Not only will your baby get used to the temperature, but it will also be easy to determine how much or what kind of clothing to dress your baby in when around the house day to day.

Pack away clothing that does not fit the season, so you will not be tempted to put them on your baby when everything else is dirty. This is something I did personally, and it helped tremendously. It also helps cut down on the amount of baby laundry you’ll be doing, so it is a win win situation.

Check your baby from time to time for signs of being too hot or too cold. If they are sweaty when you put your hand in their onesie when opening it to change them, it is a good indicator that your baby is too warm. If you feel your baby’s arms or legs and they feel a little cold, or your baby quivers their bottom lip, they may need something warmer to wear.

If for any reason your baby seems too warm in an outfit that is suitable for the situation they are in (say a sleeper in the winter) then it is a good idea to make sure your baby does not have a fever. Fevers can be very serious for babies, especially babies under the age of three months. When in doubt, check your babies temperature.

Is Your Baby Tired?

Infants have a funny way of showing that they are sleepy. Surprisingly, crying is one of them. Often when a baby is crying, it can seem like a good idea to try to distract them by bouncing them, talking to them, or trying to give them different toys to play with to distract them and calm them down. When your baby keeps crying regardless of your efforts to feed them, change them, play with them or soothe them overall, they may just be ready for a nap.

This is something that personally took me a LONG time to figure out. My baby was about four months old before I figured out why he would cry nonstop for hours sometimes regardless of what I tried to do to help him. It was because he was overstimulated, and did not know how to rest without help. He was simply tired and needed a nap.

Here are some things that you can try to help your baby to calm down if they are overstimulated and keep crying because they are tired:

Make the room as dark as possible. This is super important, because light is something that can easily keep an over-tired baby awake and make them even more upset than before. Go to the room that your child naps in, and make that room as dark as possible to let your baby know that it is okay to take a nap.

Try rocking and shushing your baby. Sometimes, when babies have been crying for a long period of time they become “stuck” in that crying mode even when the source of their frustration has been taken care of. Rocking and shushing your baby might be just the thing that they need in order to pull out of that crying spell.

Place your baby down to nap in a safe, quiet place on their back. Make sure that the environment you put your baby down for a nap in is clear of sleeping hazards such as toys, blankets, cords and other objects. Be sure that where your baby naps will be a place that they can rest without interruption from pets, other children or adults.

Try using white noise. Babies are used to the gentle sounds your body made when they were growing inside of you, so white noise can be very comforting to your little one. White noise, or gentle, low volume music might be just what your baby needs in order to drift off to sleep.

PRO TIP: Make a habit of napping for your baby. Even if your baby does not have a specific timed schedule of when they go down for naps just yet, there are still things that you can do to create a routine. Creating a routine will help, because your baby will begin to recognize the patterns and realize “hey, it must be time for me to rest now.” Keep it as consistent as possible. An example might be walking in the room holding your baby, shutting the lights off, rocking and shushing them until their eyes are heavy and then setting them in their crib, on the way out turning on some white noise.

Is your baby bored?

This is something that I never really considered until my son was about four months old and began taking interest in toys more. If he was doing the same thing for too long, he would begin to cry until I changed the activity. In the beginning stages of life when your baby is a newborn, your baby most likely will not cry from being bored. It is usually not until a few months later that they develop a taste for variety in their day.

Once they do develop that want for a change in activity though, there are some things that you can do to help them to stop crying from boredom and help to reduce crying spells in the future.

Change the activity regularly. Notice about how long your baby will play with one type of toy before getting bored with it and crying. Use that knowledge to your advantage and switch out toys before they begin to get bored and cry.

Be sure toys are age appropriate. If your 10 month old is playing with a toy designated for a 2 month old baby, they may become bored and cry faster than if they were playing with a toy designed for 10 month old babies. Think about it, would you rather play a board game made for adults, or one made for toddlers? Which one would you get bored with faster?

Notice any toys your baby particularly likes or dislikes. Even if they are age appropriate, not every baby will absolutely love every toy. For example, my son absolutely HATES his holed ball toy, and would cry just about 30 seconds into playing with it. However, he absolutely LOVES his cow stuffed toy and could lay on the floor playing with it for a solid 20 minutes before getting bored and wanting a change in activity. Notice what toys your baby dislikes, and put them in the donation bin or set them aside in storage for future children or friends baby showers.

Is Your Baby In Pain?

It is natural to cry when in pain, and this is not something that is excluded for babies. If your baby is hurting, they will let you know by crying. Here are some tips to stop your baby from crying if they are in pain:

Check for hairs wrapped around fingers, toes, or other body parts. This can happen pretty easily, especially since babies are constantly being changed into different outfits and being held. It is fairly easy for hairs to find their way into an infant’s clothes, and sometimes that can get wrapped around fingers, toes and other body parts and cause pain. If your baby won’t stop crying and you’ve exhausted all other possibilities, stop and check for wrapped hairs.

Check for signs of teething. Cutting teeth HURTS, and when your baby begins teething they will not be shy to let you know about it by crying. If your baby is crying because of teething, you can try methods to soothe them like letting them suck on a clean wet washcloth, giving them a cold teething ring, or giving them baby teething gel to help with the pain.

Check for a fever. If your baby has a fever, he or she may cry relentlessly. Always check with your child’s doctor if they have a fever for recommendations on what to do. Often they will have advice on an age appropriate dosage of children’s tylenol to administer to help soothe their discomforts and lower the fever back to a normal temperature range.

Check for rubbing/chafing/rashes. Rashes, especially diaper rashes can be quite uncomfortable for your baby, and may be the source of crying. Check your baby for rashes, and apply the necessary cream to treat it if found.

Overall, there are many reasons that a baby might not stop crying.

I hope that this list helps you to determine the root of the problem, stop the crying, and head forward into the future backed with a plan to prevent the crying from happening in the future. As moms, we learn from experience. Thankfully though, we can take the experiences of others and apply them to our own journeys through parenthood. I wish I had this guide when my son was born!

Xoxo,

Lia

• I Own A Cleaning Company. Half The Deep Clean You’re Paying For Takes Ten Minutes.
• I Had A Baby This Year. The Hospital Sends You Home With More Than Your Packing List Does.
• I Own A Cleaning Company. The Expensive Repair Is Almost Always A Cheap Chore You Skipped.
• I Did Nails For Twelve Years. Your Cuticles Are Not Supposed To Be Cut.
• I Clean Houses For A Living. More Detergent Is Why Your Towels Smell.