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Do we understand a baby without words, or why does a newborn baby cry? Why does a month-old baby cry without rest? Why does a baby cry in the first days of life?

Do we understand a baby without words, or why does a newborn baby cry? Why does a month-old baby cry without rest? Why does a baby cry in the first days of life?

24.04.2024

There is a joyful event in your family - the long-awaited heir has been born! A happy dad meets a smiling mother at the door of the maternity hospital, holding in her hands a bundle tied with a blue or pink ribbon... And finally the whole family is home. The months of agonizing waiting and the hardships of childbirth are left behind...

But the very next day new problems appear. The young family member behaves unpredictably. Parents constantly wonder: how to determine why a child is crying? Is he hungry or has a tummy ache? Maybe he is hot or cold? What if he is sick?

What to do, how to calm the baby? Is it really necessary to give him the breast right away anyway?

Of course not! Every mother gradually develops an instinct for her own child, thanks to which she can almost immediately determine what the baby needs at the moment. The most sensitive and caring fathers can also come to full understanding with the child. But usually the mother spends much more time with the baby, and besides, she breastfeeds him, thanks to which a very special contact is established between them.

True, it takes some time for such contact to be established. This usually occurs no later than three months of age. Therefore, for many parents, the third month of a baby’s life seems much easier than the first two.

In the first days and weeks, mother and newborn get used to each other. A caring mother learns to understand and respond to signals given by her baby. With each new day, she needs less and less time to recognize and correctly interpret these signals. And the baby, seeing that he is understood, becomes calmer and cries less.

However, the gas outlet tube should not be overused. If attacks of pain occur frequently, you can try abdominal massage, which also stimulates the removal of gases from the intestines. The massage is performed by gently pressing on the abdomen around. Mentally draw a horseshoe on your tummy, the ends of which point down. Your hand movements should follow this path in a clockwise direction.

A good way to prevent gas formation is to burp air during and immediately after feeding. During the break when changing breasts and after finishing feeding, hold your baby vertically on your shoulder for a few minutes. This prevents not only the formation of gases, but also milk, which affects many children. But in fairness, it must be said that this measure does not always avoid abdominal pain.

If massage and tubes don't help, the pain may not be due to gas. Try placing your baby's tummy on a warm heating pad wrapped in a diaper. However, make sure that the heating pad is not too hot.

Warm fennel tea or dill water also helps many children.

How to calm your baby

But now you have tried all the methods, and your precious baby continues to burst out screaming. Then you can only rely on time, which, as you know, heals, and try to ease the baby’s suffering. Hold him in your arms, rock him, dance with him. Some children find waltzing a relief, while others enjoy something like marching. Try different positions - hold the baby vertically, horizontally, tummy down. A position in which the baby's head rests on the crook of your elbow, and your hand supports him under his tummy, at the same time working as a heating pad, helps a lot.

After two months of age, your little one has a new reason to cry. Now your child often cries because he is tired and cannot fall asleep on his own. He still does not know how to relieve accumulated psychological stress without the help of mom or dad. To calm down, he needs either his mother's breast, or a gentle rocking in his arms, or a song...

Don't be afraid to spoil your child, rock him, sing to him. With a calm mother, the child also grows up calm and balanced. In a couple of months he will learn to fall asleep on his own, and motion sickness will no longer be necessary. But for this he must be firmly convinced that when he feels bad, anxious, restless, his mother will always come to the rescue.

Reasons for crying

In fact, there are many reasons why newborn babies cry a lot. The most common of them are:

hunger;
colic;
climatic conditions in which the child is located.

Basically, the baby cries because of the hunger that he experiences. Today, most inexperienced young mothers adhere to a strict feeding schedule, which they believe has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the digestive system. Perhaps they were told about this in and upon discharge from the maternity hospital. Yes, that may be true. But the problem is that the newborn’s ventricle is very small and, accordingly, he eats little. And sometimes he does not have enough milk that he consumed during feeding in order to wait for the next “portion”.

Therefore, it is extremely important to feed the child not according to time, but according to need. If a newborn baby is crying, checking whether he wants to eat or not is very simple. It is enough to place a bent little finger on the corner of his mouth. If he starts turning his head towards the finger and opening his mouth as if he wants to grab it, it means the baby is hungry. It's time to calm him down and put him to the chest. A baby who is 1 month old will eat, quickly fall asleep in his mother’s arms, and hunger will not bother him in his sleep for the next couple of hours.

Colic is the second reason why an infant cries. His digestive system has just begun to master its “new role.” As a rule, colic bothers the baby during the 1st, 2nd and 3rd months of his life, in some cases it can last up to 6 months. If a child who is 1 or 2 months old constantly cries, know that the whole problem may lie precisely in this.

Identifying the crying of a colicky baby is just as easy. It is impossible to confuse it with any other. The child screams very loudly, kicks his legs and literally chokes from crying. The face becomes red, almost blue. In this case, in order to calm the crying baby, you need to give the baby a massage and give medicine (today there are a huge number of medications that help relieve a newborn from colic), or give him dill water.

Another reason why an infant cries is the climatic conditions in which he is located. Small children sometimes cry because they cannot stand extreme heat or cold. Each child is individual, so it is necessary to create exactly those climatic conditions in which your baby will feel comfortable.

The following method will help you determine whether your baby is hot or cold.:

take the child by the hand;
place your fingers on your wrist;
if the wrist is cold, then the baby is cold, it needs to be wrapped up more tightly; if it is hot or wet, it is hot, the baby needs to be undressed.

Another reason why a baby cries is the negligence of parents who are simply too lazy to change the baby’s diaper once again. An adult feels uncomfortable in wet clothes, and a baby whose diaper is full also feels discomfort. Check frequently to see if your baby has had a bowel movement. If an “accident” occurs, deal with it immediately to calm your baby. By the way, for the same reason, a child may experience irritation in the groin area and in the folds, which can cause the baby not just discomfort, but severe pain and itching. If there is redness in the groin area, try to minimize the use of diapers and often treat the baby's skin with special creams.

Also, postpartum complications can cause crying. Often, young mothers during childbirth cannot direct their strength in the right direction, that is, when they push, they begin to sulk, but in the wrong direction (in the face), due to which the baby’s passage time through the birth canal increases. As a rule, at this moment in most cases the child experiences anemia (lack of oxygen), which negatively affects his nervous system. Because of this, the newborn may sleep poorly, flinch at every rustle in his sleep and constantly scream. In this case, it is necessary to contact a neurologist who will conduct a thorough examination of the baby and prescribe appropriate treatment. After completing the medication course, the baby’s nervous system will improve, it will be easier to calm him down, and crying will not disturb the parents so often.

Very often, parents are faced with such a problem when a newborn baby cries every time he urinates and begins to sound the alarm. In fact, there is nothing scary here, this is a child’s usual fear of what is happening. He cannot control the process itself; he gets scared when he starts writing, as a result of which he begins to cry. But you still need to consult a doctor and take urine tests. Because sometimes there are cases when a baby cries due to pain when urinating, which may be associated with:

with infectious diseases of the urinary system;
or with an incorrect position of the foreskin.

Painful sensations when urinating may also indicate a high concentration of urine, which, passing through the urinary canal, causes irritation and burning.

When an infant cries and has a frequent increase in temperature (the norm for a newborn is 37.2 C), it is necessary to urgently go to the doctor. Perhaps the reason lies in an infectious disease that requires urgent treatment.

But our children do not always cry because of hunger or pain. Sometimes they just need their mother's presence nearby. Before birth, the child was one with her, and now it is very difficult for him to get used to the new life. The baby needs his mother's presence nearby and feels her warmth and care. Therefore, do not be afraid to spoil your child, take him in your arms more often, put him to your breast more often, put him to sleep in your arms to calm him down, talk to him. This will help the baby calm down and fall asleep quickly. Your care and warmth will definitely return to you in the future!

Why does a newborn cry in his sleep?

If a baby constantly cries in his sleep, then you should first inspect the baby’s sleeping place. Perhaps something is preventing him from sleeping, for example, the sheet is twisted under him or he is lying on the pacifier.

Also, the reasons for crying in a dream can be night colic, which prevents the baby from sleeping, teething (for some children, teeth begin to erupt at 3.5 - 4 months), or the banal absence of the mother nearby.

If a child constantly cries in his sleep for 1 - 2 months, but nothing bothers him, maybe you should think about co-sleeping? The baby will feel calm next to his mother, especially since he will always be able to eat without forcing you to get up if he is breastfed.

How to calm a crying baby?

First, you need to find out why the baby is crying, and only then begin to calm him down. If the reason for crying is a feeling of hunger, feed him, even though not even 2 hours have passed since the last feeding.
If colic is the cause, give your baby medicine and massage. And it is done as follows:

put the child on the bed;
put your hand on his stomach, your palm should completely touch his stomach;
mentally draw a horseshoe on his stomach, the ends of which are directed downwards;
With smooth hand movements, follow the trajectory of the horseshoe clockwise.

If this massage does not help your baby, then you can use another massage. However, it can only be performed from 1 month:

put the child on the bed;
bend both legs at the knees so that they touch the stomach;
With smooth movements, move the child’s legs first to one side, then to the other. The legs should be pressed tightly against each other and to the stomach.

If these methods do not help, you can use a gas outlet tube. However, you should not abuse it, since the body can get used to the mechanical method of getting rid of gases and then it will be difficult to establish this process.

If a baby who is 1 or 2 months old is crying and you have tried everything possible, but nothing helps, perhaps the reason is not colic. Try placing a heating pad on your baby's tummy, making sure it's not too hot! Give your child dill water or fennel tea.

Carry the baby in your arms, press him with your stomach. Sometimes both gentle rocking and “dancing” can calm a crying baby. Some children find relief from waltzing, while others find relief from marching. Try holding your baby in different positions - vertically, horizontally, belly down. Perhaps you will find exactly the position in which the baby will feel relief.

But remember that the reason a baby cries a month may not only be colic or climatic conditions. If your child is restless and cries frequently, it is best to take him to the doctor. At an appointment with a specialist, you can find out why your infant is crying and make sure that there are no or no diseases.

Useful video about the reasons for a newborn's crying

Your child often cries, but you see no reason for this. Believe me, this doesn't happen. There is always a reason for tears. You will learn about why a baby may cry, how to find out the reason, how to prevent tearfulness, from the wonderful book of practicing child psychiatrist Alevtina Lugovskaya. Using her advice and recommendations, you will not only change your baby’s character, but also learn how to become both a mother and a true friend.

Chapter 1. Why is the baby crying?

Let's first, dear parents, figure out what baby crying is and what can cause it. Finding out this is important, because only by knowing the roots of tears can both be eliminated. And I also want to say that parents who, not understanding why a child endlessly sheds tears, think wrongly and therefore consider crying to be causeless. Believe me, this doesn't happen.

Crying is a signal that occurs reflexively in infants due to feelings of hunger, thirst, desire to sleep and the urge to recover naturally. Subsequently, crying signals any unpleasant, unbearable feeling that reaches the level of affect: acute anxiety and fear, sadness and melancholy, irritation and excitement.

The various functions of crying - whim (hysteria), protest, request, demand, complaint (resentment), crying-signal, crying-release - constitute a complex psychological structure, that is, a unique language.

For outsiders, a child's crying is an unpleasant irritant. Mom always knows how to catch notes in it that indicate what her baby wants. If adults try to use any means to stop a child's crying, they risk not only increasing the distance between themselves and him, but also erecting a real wall of indifference and misunderstanding.

However, there are children who clearly cry more than others. They shed tears for every reason: sympathizing with their favorite fairy tale characters or seeing a dead butterfly, hearing screams and loud voices, experiencing physical pain or entering into conflict with someone.

Crying is a strong mental experience, a kind of emotional shock that occurs against the background of previous tension, excitement or inhibition.

It can be the result of a release of tension, like an overflowing thundercloud from which rain pours down. The relief experienced after crying to some extent helps to improve mood, thus representing a means of regulating emotional tone.

Sometimes crying indicates a limitation of vital interests and needs that the child cannot reconcile with, a humiliation of his self-esteem, insult and resentment. Often it arises as a way of attracting the attention of parents, as a kind of request for help, intervention, or resolution of one or another troubling problem. For emotionally indifferent parents, the baby's cry in this case reaches the gradation of a cry of despair, as if calling on them to be more responsive to him. He thus complains about the one who offended him, about his poor health, pain, and inability to realize his desires.

Many parents complain about the restless behavior of their children: whims, irritability, tears over every little thing, turning into hysterics when the child falls to the floor and starts kicking or kicking. We must try to find out the reason for this behavior and try to eliminate it.

Especially often, a mother is alarmed by the inexplicable cry of an infant. In such cases, if you are convinced that there is no visible reason for concern, and the doctor, having examined him, concluded that he is healthy, you should not run up to him at his every cry, pick him up and please him, feed him at the wrong time, just to calm him down. . Otherwise, the baby will get used to the fact that by screaming he can achieve everything he wants. Incorrect techniques will only calm him for a short time.

Let's start with the fact that when we cry in the first years of our life, the baby expresses natural needs, that is, he wants to eat, drink, relieve himself, or he is uncomfortable in wet clothes. The child does not yet know how to speak and expresses all his desires through crying, thereby attracting the attention of his parents.

Later, when the baby learns to pronounce his first words and, it would seem, should already express his desires with them, he still cries and is capricious if he wants something. This happens reflexively, because the subconscious contains information about this method of fulfilling desires.

Nervous irritability often arises in him if he persistently demands the impossible. Sometimes he doesn’t need this object at all, he’s just used to getting his way with screams and tears.

It is also possible that already at an early age a child is taught to be calm and cheerful only in the presence of adults. He feels comfortable only when someone is nearby and they pay attention to him. And this is undesirable, as it is fraught with unpleasant consequences.

If the baby does not find something to do and feels the need for direct contact with his parents, he can express his desire in order to attract the attention of adults by crying, whining, complaining about various misfortunes and thus achieve his goal. If he is very small, they will pick him up and try to calm him down, that is, they will show him some attention.

Communication means a lot to a baby. Those parents who pay enough attention to this do the right thing. But you shouldn’t indulge and fulfill all your whims: give everything you ask, constantly take him in your arms and constantly be near him, throwing away all your affairs and worries.

Around the sixth week of life, often when evening falls, the baby begins to cry, writhe, and show signs of illness. At the same time, he is clean, he has drunk enough water, he is not hot... This condition is called “evening restlessness.” Don't be alarmed. This often happens, but passes, as it corresponds to the phase of restless awakening, which disappears by the third month of life. He has no other way to discharge the tension accumulated during the day, and he discharges himself in this way. Consider these to be the difficulties of a newborn adjusting to the rhythms of day and night.

When a baby starts teething, he becomes very irritable and whiny. Teething is a very painful process: the gums swell, itch and hurt, saliva runs heavily, and the temperature rises.

Crying can also be a consequence of an emotional disorder, when the baby is afraid or is unable to express his feelings and desires out loud. This is possible when in contact with strangers, people unfamiliar to him. Often on the street or in transport we hear such expressions: “Stop squealing, otherwise I’ll give you to your uncle!” or “If you kick your aunt, she will take you with her!”

Usually such threats produce a negative result. But there are children with a very sensitive and vulnerable psyche; such warnings make a very strong impression on them and cause fear. And the words “Come on, come on, I’ll take her to my place!” can cause panic at the prospect of spending your whole life in the company of strangers. After all, the baby takes everything said at face value.

Such threats develop in children a persistent rejection of strangers, and in the future they feel free and at ease only in familiar surroundings, in the circle of loved ones and relatives.

If a baby is cold or hot, and he doesn’t know how to say it, he naturally starts crying. He also expresses his emotions when he gets into his pants. Of course, who would like to walk around in wet clothes! And the baby loudly calls for correction of annoying misunderstandings.

Irritability, tears and whims are sometimes the result of an overload of impressions when you take him shopping, visiting, walking in the park, going to the zoo or riding on a carousel, where there are a lot of people and noise. Kids react differently to noise and large crowds of people: some quickly get used to it, while others are very afraid and may even get sick as a result.

The baby does not want to go to bed, so he begins to be capricious and cry. All your tenderness may not be enough if the child does not want to go to bed; his crying fills every corner of the house. Resolving this situation will require a lot of patience. Such crying should be treated as a process of gradual re-education, like breaking the habit of a bad habit.

Children, like adults, also have dreams. But since the child cannot yet find an explanation for many objects and phenomena, they naturally frighten him. As you know, we most often have dreams related to previous events. And if he dreams of something unfamiliar, incomprehensible, this causes his fear and, as a result, tears. In other words, the baby had a nightmare.

He may cry not only because of a bad dream. There is a lot in the world that the child does not yet know and cannot explain, hence the strong fear, and the baby begins to cry to the point of hysteria and painful spasms.

When a child gets sick and cannot explain what hurts him, he begins to cry in pain, be capricious, refuse to eat, and sleep restlessly.

In the first years of his life, he is under constant supervision of a local doctor. It is very important that he is not afraid of his visit. Usually children associate a white coat with pain, injections, an unpleasant sensation when they listen to it or look at the neck, and they begin to cry, even to the point of hysteria, resist, fight, do not allow the doctor to do an examination, and push away his hands.

Crying is a natural reaction if a baby falls or gets hit. Of course it hurts him. Children generally take their failures very seriously. Even if he hit himself slightly, he will still make a whole tragedy out of it, because it is important for him that they pay attention to him, sympathize with him and feel sorry for him.

Sometimes children do not want to wear what their parents offer them - and again there are whims, tears and other actions, including throwing away clothes.

Not all children quickly get used to kindergarten. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort and patience to adapt to a new environment and get used to other children. After all, the child considered it natural that his mother should always be with him. Finding himself in an unfamiliar environment and losing sight of his parents, the baby gets scared and begins to look for them, expressing his dissatisfaction by crying.

He may cry if he is hurt by other children. For example, he was pushed, a toy was not shared, a book with interesting pictures was taken away...

By crying, he expresses dissatisfaction when something doesn’t work out for him. For example, a child tried to put on socks on his own, but unsuccessfully. The toe turns over, the foot does not want to get into it. The baby begins to get nervous and cry, as if attracting the attention of adults to help him.

In the first years, children sweat a lot and wear diapers or onesies. All this negatively affects the condition of their skin. Therefore, it is very important to bathe them regularly. But not everyone likes water procedures and expresses their dissatisfaction by screaming and crying, organizing “concerts”, attracting the attention of not only family and friends, but even neighbors who listen in bewilderment to the loud screams behind the wall and painfully wonder what they are doing to them. a child, since he cries so hysterically.

Tears may be the result of punishment. In general, they greatly influence the mental development of the child. He can withdraw and become embittered, as he sees connections between his behavior and punishment, assessing it only as violence from adults.

Punishment for no reason seems especially offensive to a child when he is not at all to blame. For example, while walking, someone pushed him into the mud, naturally, he got dirty, got scared and burst into tears. Arriving home, he looks for sympathy from his mother, and she starts yelling at him because she will have to do the laundry again. She didn’t understand the situation and didn’t ask him about how it happened. As a result, the child, crying and offended, stands in the corner, serving his punishment.

A crying child, being in a state of passion, does not perceive comments, advice, orders well, which means that it is useless to educate while crying. It is unacceptable to punish him when he is crying, since he can easily forget what he was punished for, and the very state of crying is inherently a punishment for him.

There is a common belief that children's tears are easy to dry. Indeed, the duration of the emotional state in children under five years of age is relatively short, but the strength of emotions is not inferior to, and sometimes even exceeds, a similar state in adults.

The grief of a child over the loss of a beloved kitten is no less great than the grief of an adult who has lost a loved one. And it’s simply impossible to brush him off in such a situation, even if he forgets about it in two weeks. What about the fear of being abandoned in the kindergarten locker room? Adults think that 15 minutes will not change anything, and they are wrong.

Experiences and emotions require a lot of energy, so don’t oversaturate your baby’s day with a complex of events, even pleasant ones. This can cause unexpected vomiting, fussiness, tearfulness, and sleep disturbances.

Chapter 2. What should parents do?

You can’t ignore the crying of your son or daughter at all. This can cause irreparable damage to trust in adults. When the crying is clearly hysterical, the best thing is not to reinforce it with increased attention, but to provide an opportunity for the release of nervous tension. In other cases, crying should be dealt with, which is only possible with confidential contact and a guarantee of no punishment.

First of all, the baby cries, expressing natural needs. This is very easy to find out by offering him something to eat or drink. He cries and says that his diaper or clothes are wet. Check and change them. An older child may be asking to use the potty. Acting in such a situation is as easy as shelling pears: put him on the potty and stay with him, distract him with conversation or show him a toy.

He may cry if he is hot or, conversely, cold. You will determine this by the condition of his skin: the skin will be wet, sweaty if he is hot, and cool, with pimples (goose bumps) if the baby is cold. Having found out the reason, try to eliminate it. In general, it is very undesirable for children to overheat; this is worse for them than cold. Don’t make him a sissy, don’t wrap him up, turning him into cabbage, this will lead to diseases faster.

Tearfulness and moodiness are most often the result of illness. He may cry out because his tummy hurts or he has been missing stool for more than the allotted time. To eliminate discomfort, use a light abdominal massage. The massage is performed clockwise with stroking movements. Make sure your hands are warm, use baby cream to better glide your hands over his body.

If there is no effect, remove the gases. To do this, place the baby on his left side and bend his legs, pressing them to his tummy. You can use another method - insert a gas outlet tube. The last resort, if there is no positive result, is an enema. Place the baby on his left side and give him an enema with warm boiled water.

If any serious illness occurs, do not self-medicate under any circumstances, because you do not know what the child is sick with. Call your local doctor at home. The first symptoms of the disease, as a rule, are lethargy, drowsiness, and refusal to eat. Pay attention to the condition of the skin, look at the neck, check the stool. Be sure to measure your body temperature.

As you know, when a child is sick, his appetite decreases, so do not force feed him, do not give him as much food as possible. Another important point: even if the baby is sick, do not force him in bed. Since constant stay in bed is accompanied by crying due to the reluctance to lie down, know that the baby will spend no less energy on tears than on walking.

Dress it appropriately for the temperature, but in no case should you dress half of your wardrobe - overheating is very dangerous for children, especially when they are sick.

It often happens that even after recovery a nervous and tearful state persists. Be patient. Do not respond to him with your irritation and screams, but first of all, take care of strict adherence to the established regime in accordance with the condition and age of the child: put him to bed on time, feed him properly and spend time in the fresh air more often. Give your child as much care and affection as possible, because even an adult, when sick, requires increased attention. Try to distract him from the consequences that the disease has led to (weakness, imbalance), do not disturb his usual routine, this can only do harm.

The child cries, is capricious, and does not want to go to the doctor. First of all, you need to talk to him, explain why you are going to the clinic and how this visit will go. The relationship between the child and the doctor develops through the parents, because it is they who bring him to the appointment, explain the reason for the visit, the symptoms of the disease. Therefore, it is very important to explain to him that there is nothing terrible in such a visit, that he will not be hurt there. Under no circumstances should you frighten a child with injections or going to the hospital. Imagine that you can instill in your child fear and hostility towards people in white coats for the rest of his life.

The child is capricious, cries, and does not want to go to bed. Of course, from the first days of his life he got used to your constant presence, he doesn’t want to part, leave his toys and go to bed. He needs you to be around for a while. Sit on the edge of the bed, tell him some good story, fairy tale, read a book or just look at pictures with him. You can quietly sing a song or just talk about your day.

This will allow the baby to finish his day calmly. Ask him about what interesting things happened, share your affairs with him, but do it in a way that he can understand. His favorite toy should be nearby so he can reach it. After all, children love to sleep with toys. At this moment, you should give your baby maximum attention and affection, as this is very important for him and for you and helps strengthen your relationship.

Sometimes the baby, on the contrary, is capricious because he wants to sleep, but cannot fall asleep. Soothe him, caress him, give him a relaxing massage. Stay with him a little, try to get him to sleep.

To teach your baby to go to bed voluntarily, the first step is to calm him down. Let him cry for a few minutes, then go over and cuddle him. Gradually increase the time gap before coming to him when he begins to cry. Over time, he will understand that he was not abandoned when he sleeps, his loving parents are nearby. You will let him know that you love him, that you are always with him. This way he will calm down, get used to it and fall asleep without whims.

If your baby refuses to eat, do not force-feed him or yell at him. Be patient. Tell me what you need to eat to grow big and healthy, like your dad; Place the toy on the table and “feed” it, alternating one spoon for the doll, the other for him. There is another well-known way - to eat a spoon for each family member: for dad, for mom, for grandma...

Your baby does not like and does not want to bathe. What to do in such a situation? First of all, try to explain to him why this is being done. Tell us how important it is to keep your body clean. Remember the fairy tale “Moidodyr” about a boy from whom all his clothes ran away because he was dirty. Remind him how sick he has been lately, and try to convince him that if he takes a bath, he will never get sick.

Use a variety of washable toys. Now there are many wind-up waterfowl toys that can distract him while swimming. Blow soap bubbles together. The most important thing is that you should be nearby; under no circumstances leave the baby alone in the bathroom, because he may not only choke, but also be very frightened by the water.

Sometimes the reluctance to bathe is due to soap or shampoo getting into the eyes. He continues to have unpleasant sensations, so he begins to cry. Use special detergents for children that will not cause irritation if they come into contact with the eyes.

The baby becomes stubborn and does not want to get dressed, begins to get nervous, cry, and throw his clothes around. Find out why he is protesting. Maybe he wants to wear his favorite thing, let him make the choice himself, if possible. Or, after showing the item, interest her in some pattern, say that the blouse or pants are beautiful, warm and comfortable.

Sometimes a baby doesn't like clothes because he feels uncomfortable in them, but he can't express it in words. If you go outside and your child objects to a warm jacket, explain that it is cold outside and show that you will also dress warmly. But under no circumstances should you start screaming or forcefully dress the child. This will negatively affect your future relationships.

The baby grows, develops, learns, and acquires some skills. When something doesn’t work out for him, he may burst into tears and throw objects and toys around. In this case, when we cry, he calls you for help, since he cannot cope on his own. Find out what he wants. Help him do this, but don't yell at him, and certainly don't help him silently. It might look something like this: “Let me help you. I’ll show you how to do it, and you can repeat it” or “Let’s do it together.”

The child does not want to go to a nursery or kindergarten. Keep in mind that he finds himself in an unfamiliar environment and the period of adaptation can be very different - some people get used to it very quickly, while others will need more time. After all, the baby is deprived of your presence and is very afraid to be left in an unfamiliar environment without you.

Explain to him why you are sending him to kindergarten. Try to convince him that you are doing this not to get rid of him, not because you are tired of him, you are tired or you have more important things to do, but to help him spend his time more interesting and richer.

In order for the baby to adapt faster, effort and patience are needed. Under no circumstances should you force a child into kindergarten, yell at him and scare him that you won’t take him home if he doesn’t stop crying. Try to ensure that going to kindergarten does not become a psychological trauma for him, but, on the contrary, turns out to be a joyful event. He should be prepared for this in advance.

Arriving at kindergarten, the child should already have the skills to wash himself, dress independently, and sit on the potty. Therefore, instill in him the necessary household skills in advance so that he has more time for games and does not have annoying problems associated with the inability to do something on his own.

Tell us more about the kindergarten and what the child will do there. Be sure to tell him that he is already big and you are proud of him, because now he can go to kindergarten, just like you can go to work.

Try to convince him that they won’t hurt you in the kindergarten, that there are other children and toys there. You can take his favorite toy with you to make him feel calmer, since a piece of home and everything he is used to is with him. Don't run away as soon as you bring your baby. Slowly undress him and lead him by the hand into the group, interest him in something so that the baby is distracted.

There are children who cannot get used to kindergarten for a very long time; they are afraid to go there, resist, and cry. In a group, they hide in a corner, don’t play with anyone, and avoid teachers. First of all, try to talk with the child, establish the reason, maybe the teachers treat him badly or are offended by other children?

In kindergarten, during communication, children, like adults, may experience conflict situations. Most often this happens because of toys. They may push him, offend him, or take away the toy he wanted to play with. Talk to him and, having found out the reason, try to eliminate it, but this does not mean that you urgently need to transfer the baby to another nursery or kindergarten. Be patient, act gradually, ask him in detail about what he did and who he played with. All this will help him believe that he will be fine in kindergarten, and he can play perfectly with other children before his mother arrives.

As you know, children are very fond of outdoor games, they love to run around and very often fall and get dirty. You can’t punish or shout for this. This is natural for his age and very useful for his development. Imagine what will happen to a child if he sits quietly on a chair, losing his usual mobility? Muscle weakness may develop, he will be more prone to diseases, and lag behind his peers.

If your baby falls, gets hit hard, or scrapes his knees, don’t yell at him, he’s already scared. Try to calm down, distract, and carefully treat the wounds. Explain that it is not so scary and will heal soon.

If the baby is “overloaded” with impressions, it is difficult for him to understand and perceive the large amount of information received, to “digest” it, he begins to be capricious and cry. You need to talk to him about his impressions, try to find out what annoys him or, conversely, interests him. If he doesn’t understand something, don’t brush it off, try to explain it to him so that he understands.

Under no circumstances should you frighten or deceive a child. The shock caused by fear can have a detrimental effect on his psyche; he may begin to stutter, twitch, and will be afraid of the dark, loud sounds, or a room in which no one is present. If the baby is capricious and crying, do not under any circumstances scare him with wolves, witches and other scary characters, this can lead to the development of mental illness.

Sometimes a baby may cry because he is simply bored. Try to cheer him up. Offer him something to do, do something together. Get your child interested. Look at a picture book, play something, and ultimately just talk to him. Very often, parents brush off their children, citing their fatigue and busyness. All this can end quite badly. He will withdraw into himself, harbor a grudge, and you risk losing not only his trust, but also the child as a person.

There is no simple and universal recipe here. However, we can say with confidence that sensitivity and vulnerability are signs of the mental makeup of such children, properties of their nervous system. You cannot change these innate characteristics at will. Moreover, such means of educational influence as persuasion, reproaches, punishment, shouting, ridicule will not help here, and will most likely even bring a negative result. Any violent measures will cause an increase in tension and anxiety, will further weaken the baby’s nervous system, and will take away strength and self-confidence.

Even the most loving parents will not be able to protect their child from life’s troubles, because you cannot keep your child under a glass bell all the time. Therefore, the simplest tactic in dealing with such children is not to get annoyed by their crying. But being with them is the best way to calm them down. Let him feel that you are ready to help him, because this is so important to him.

Try to switch his attention to something else, give him some specific task so that it interests the baby and, of course, is within his power.

In short, the most important thing that is required from parents is patience. Do not forget that high emotional sensitivity is closely related to responsiveness, kindness, cordiality, willingness to help, to defend the weak, and these are very valuable human qualities!

Therefore, no matter how strange it may sound, listen to the child’s cry, delve into its meaning, and do not try to interrupt it as quickly as possible, to dry the child’s tears. Crying and tears are the language of children's communication, so do not be deaf to it just because you have forgotten how to speak it yourself.

If a child is afraid of strangers, of course, he expresses this through tears. Fear of strangers is a typical form of maladjusted behavior in a child. It is at this time that he very urgently needs your support, understanding, and protection. A calm, friendly family atmosphere helps relieve stress and makes it easy to cope with the problem.

The child’s world is still mostly limited to the walls of the house, courtyard or kindergarten, so the appearance of an unfamiliar face makes the child wary. If a stranger behaves harmlessly from his point of view, for example, does not touch his toys, does not grab his parents in his arms, the wariness gradually disappears. Otherwise, it can develop into panic fear and even persistent phobia.

It’s good when parents are understanding about this problem. This means that they will not allow themselves to commit violence against a child just for the sake of demonstrating to their friends their achievements in the field of educating the younger generation.

If your baby is crying, do not rush to call a doctor or stuff him with pills and mixtures, just pat him on the head. The mother's warm, soft hands touched the baby, stroked the back, tummy, chest, lingered a little longer on the forehead, and the baby calmed down.

Amazing effect, right? But this is nothing unusual. It has been known since ancient times that massage has a calming effect, especially if it is done by the mother. She seems to convey her warmth and calmness to the baby, and he stops crying and being capricious. By showing maximum patience and attention, in the future you will be rewarded for this with the health and well-being of your child.

Chapter 3. Mom + baby = friendship

How to gain a child's trust? How to get him to open up? Parents ask themselves this question very often, but sometimes, unfortunately, it is too late, when it is very difficult to regain lost trust, respect and authority.

First of all, there is no need to lose this trust. After all, from the very first days of his existence, the baby sees his protection in you and always runs to his mother when someone offends him or something doesn’t work out for him. So do not rush to disrupt the physical and emotional unity that arises between you and your child. Smile, talk to your baby, and it doesn’t matter that he doesn’t understand the meaning of your words, the main thing for him is that you communicate with him, the intonation with which you pronounce the words matters.

The unity established between you and the baby from the very first days of his existence will, of course, change over time, but will still remain the unity of mother and child, only transformed into a new, meaningful quality. You will get rid of many problems if you become not only a mother to him, but also a friend.

A child is able to feel and understand whether he is loved, whether he is happy, and whether he is treated with respect. This means that it is not enough to tell him that he is loved, he must fully find confirmation of this, so that it does not turn out that you tell him about your love, but in fact he feels very lonely.

Deception leads to the child gradually losing trust in adults, because he expects danger at any moment. Constant vigilance unnerves him, makes him fearful and whiny. Under no circumstances should you fraudulently obtain anything from him.

For example, if mom went to the store, and dad says that mom will be back soon and bring something sweet, the baby starts running from window to window in anticipation. And when mother finally comes and does not bring the sweets promised by father, he becomes disappointed and cries out of resentment. If this happens repeatedly, the baby will stop trusting you.

The lack of maternal love and attention leads to the fact that the baby withdraws into himself and becomes lonely next to loved ones. But childhood loneliness is a pretty scary thing. Parents are engaged in solving their problems: career, finances, personal life, leaving the child to his own devices, limiting the relationship with him exclusively to issues of care.

Communication with peers is very important. And if the child is embarrassed to make contact with other children, he needs help. Adult help is invaluable here. He needs to be introduced to other children by name, asked what they are playing and whether they will accept another participant. Usually among the guys there is always someone who takes the newcomer under his wing and helps him get used to the new company.

But sometimes it happens that they can offend him, call him names, or come up with an offensive nickname for him. After such incidents, the child withdraws, preferring loneliness.

It may turn out that he was made unsociable by his own misconduct, which caused severe emotional stress. While playing with other children, the baby could inadvertently drop his friend or get hit by a snowball... The sight of blood and inconsolable sobs can have a strong impact on the baby’s psyche. As a result, he gives up his usual games, does not communicate with friends, does not go outside, spends hours at home, and responds to all persuasion with a stream of tears.

In this case, you cannot persuade him or swear. You can help him restore his peace of mind by talking and explaining the situation so that his guilt complex dissipates.

The busyness of modern adults is one of the signs of our time, when parents manage, in addition to their main job, to run part-time jobs, have two jobs, and take work home. What if a child is raised by a single mother? Here the issue of raising a normal, full-fledged person is very acute.

The decision to have a child is associated with the acceptance by adults of responsibility for its fate. But it is by no means wrong to consider oneself the root cause of everything that happens to him. The child is able to take responsibility for his actions. Once you ask him to do something himself, he will understand that he must be responsible for his actions. Endless instructions and parting words, and even more so, complaints and lamentations after his unseemly act, will lead him to aggression.

To understand your child, change his behavior, establish contact or regain lost trust, you must first change yourself. Open your eyes. After all, you were used to forbidding him from everything and demanded unconditional submission. It's convenient for you. But try to understand that the child has his own “I”, his own affairs, aspirations, needs, independence. Once you realize this, you will be able to soberly assess your relationship with him.

Analyze your behavior, your attitude towards the baby, every gesture, word, action, put yourself in his place, and this will allow you to establish mutual understanding.

It is important to understand that education is cooperation, interaction, mutual influence, mutual enrichment (emotional, moral, spiritual, intellectual) between adults and the child.

In order to successfully raise a child, parents must certainly correct their behavior, engage in self-education, and not set bad examples. If you want to get him to unquestioningly fulfill your demands, which you don’t actually follow yourself, this will only be possible through coercive measures: the child will fulfill the demands formally, out of fear of punishment. This fear ultimately gives rise to deception, hypocrisy, cunning...

Do we understand our children? To understand a person means to see the reasons for his actions, to explain the motives that prompted him to act in a certain way. To learn to understand, it is necessary to reduce the excessive demands that he simply cannot fulfill.

You can explain a child’s behavior by analyzing the conditions under which his development occurs. If a child is constantly shouted at or used physical punishment, he will most likely develop a need to avoid such shocks and, as a result, such negative traits as deceitfulness, timidity, distrust, aggressiveness will appear...

If the child was protected from work and adults did everything for him, the child becomes lazy, weak-willed, will avoid any business, which means he will pretend, ingratiate himself, deceive, deceive.

Another option is when the baby was simply spoiled: they bought expensive things and toys, and did not deny him anything. Such a child develops exorbitant claims, but at the same time the inability to take care of things and appreciate the work put into them. Remember that the lack of communication cannot be filled with expensive toys, things, or unquestioning fulfillment of all his desires.

The baby’s intelligence, thinking, ability to worry, and interest in knowledge will develop poorly if you haven’t read books to him or talked to him a little. After all, intellectual inclinations are laid in early childhood, so communicate with him, teach him to love books, but do not force him to read - you will get the opposite, negative effect.

Sometimes parents are very zealous in their children's education. From an early age they hire tutors, send him to prestigious kindergartens and educational institutions with special interests, load him up with music schools, dances, etc. But somehow they forget to ask him whether he likes all this. Please note that a very small number of children enjoy singing, dancing, and music.

Don't overload your baby with things he isn't interested in. Try to find out his passions and choose an appropriate activity. Give him the right to choose, the right to decide for himself what to do.

Develop your children's abilities from early childhood. Awaken attention in their souls, arouse ideas and observation. To do this, use a variety of objects, teach them to describe them, talk about their purpose. Develop mental abilities that will help your child find himself in the future.

To develop a sense of love and compassion in your child, you can get a pet. He will proudly tell everyone that he has a hamster or a kitten. Show your child how to properly care for him, what to feed him, and how to handle him in general. If you notice that he is offending the animal, explain that it is also alive and in pain. Tell them that the animal has lost its parents, it is very lonely, and it needs someone to take care of it.

Teach him to take care of the animal himself, and you will see what the result will be. This will instill in him not only a love for nature and animals, but will help him understand his importance, his necessity for someone, and relieve him of the feeling of loneliness. The child will look at your relationship with him with different eyes, which will help strengthen it.

Understand that what the baby is doing is extremely important to him, even if it seems to you that this is not the case. Let me give you an example from my practice. A young mother came to my appointment and told me: “One day my son came up to me and asked me to play with him. At that time I was watching an interesting program and explained to the baby that I was busy now and would play with him later. After some time, going into the child’s room, I saw that he was putting a toy under the bed, then taking it out and putting it back again. I called the child for lunch, to which I received the following answer: “I’m busy right now, I’ll come back later.”

The woman did not know how to react to such an answer. This happened repeatedly. I explained to the young mother that the child imitates her in everything, and, in his opinion, what he does is very important for him. Therefore, he does not understand his mother’s indignation at his behavior. After all, he was waiting for the program that was important for his mother to end. So why doesn't she want to wait?

Sometimes, in order for a child to understand what care and respect are, he himself needs to take care of someone. For example, you came home from work, you’re tired, you have a bad headache, there’s trouble at work. The kid looks at you inquisitively, wondering why you are in such a state. Ask him to bring you something to drink. Tell him, without going into details, that you were offended at work, let the child show sympathy, let him feel sorry for you. This way he will understand that you need him and cannot live without him.

If you notice your child has a tendency to lie, try to discover the reason. Lies often arise from fear of punishment. Do not punish him too harshly, especially since corporal cruel punishment should be avoided. Try to find out why the child lied, delve into his problem. Maybe by talking to him, you will save him not only from this vice, fear, but also from other complexes.

Allow the baby to show his importance, take into account his desires (reasonable, of course!). After all, self-expression is the main, urgent need of human nature.

Allow your baby to participate in your activities, no matter what you are doing - mopping the floor or preparing breakfast. It is very important for him to feel that he is trusted to do something on an equal basis with adults. After all, children from an early age begin to imitate their parents, very quickly absorbing everything they see and hear. Involving a child in some activities not only accustoms him to work, but also brings him closer to his parents. Such a child will treat his parents and what they do with respect and understanding.

It is not necessary to entrust your child with something difficult that he is not able to cope with. Give him a task that he can complete: wash his cup, wipe the dust off the table, and finally put away his toys. Praise him, tell him that he helped you a lot and you couldn’t have done it without him.

Do not scream under any circumstances if your baby tries to do something he is unable to cope with. See how he tries to do it, help him. Tell him he's great.

If, for example, you decide to sew something for yourself, and your daughter is hanging around with a doll, involve her in your activity. Give him scraps of fabric and let him do something too. If something doesn't work out for her, help her. Don't forget about praise, because it means a lot to a child.

Or another situation: dad is making a shelf for the hallway. My little son is spinning around nearby, grabbing tools and nails and getting underfoot. Don't shoo him away, don't be afraid that he will hit his fingers with a hammer or drop a tool on his foot. Let him help, tell him that nothing will work without him. Give a task that he will happily complete and that it will be safe for him. You will see an amazing result when your son proudly tells everyone that he and his dad made a shelf.

Joint games, which bring not only pleasure, but also educational information, have a very beneficial effect on the relationship with the child. Children's games are their main occupation, but they should be directed in such a way that they stimulate the harmonious activity of all the child's mental abilities, avoiding one-sidedness.

Offer him a speed game, for example, who can assemble a pyramid faster. Of course, you should give in, and when the baby proudly shows that he was the first to do it, praise him.

Playing with your baby or doing something, you get closer to him. The child is interested in you, you are one whole.

Walking has a very beneficial effect on family relationships. You've probably often seen a picture where a baby, holding tightly to the hands of mom and dad, proudly walks along for a walk. Run with him, play some games, swing on a swing, roll in the snow or throw snowballs at a target. Walking together not only lifts your spirits and promotes better physical development of the baby, but also strengthens relationships.

Small children, it would seem, at such an unintelligent age, surprisingly subtly perceive any, including the most intimate, feelings of their parents. Under normal conditions, it is the harmonious combination of these feelings that creates a child’s feeling of confidence and happiness.

In order for mutual understanding and trust to exist between you, you must give all your love and attention to the baby, teach the child to work, respect adults, and value friendship from early childhood. Give him as much attention as possible, do not brush off his childhood problems like an annoying fly.

Try to become a true friend to your child, and then you will see his shining eyes and understand that for him you are not just a mother, an object of adoration and admiration, reliable protection and support, you are his most faithful and reliable friend.

From the moment of birth, the most key signal for a child until he learns to speak normally and explain himself in words is crying. At an early age, it belongs to the universal mechanism of communication; with it, the baby expresses the whole palette of his feelings and emotions, demonstrates his desires and emotions. It often happens that a newborn often screams and cries, giving no peace to himself or his parents. What could be causing sleep problems and his cries? How to recognize a child’s signals and promptly eliminate their causes?

Table of contents:

Development of crying and sleep problems

For a newborn baby, crying is a way to signal any unpleasant, uncomfortable or painful sensations.

When a newborn is healthy and well-fed, nothing bothers him; he spends most of the time in the first weeks of his life sleeping. Therefore, for the most part, through crying, the child expresses his emotions, complains of poor health, and parents should not ignore such signals.

But young parents often do not understand why the child screams, sobs inconsolably and cannot fall asleep. Gradually, over time, they already distinguish the source of problems by the intonation and strength of the cry, its tone and the behavior of the baby. There are relatively simple and easily remediable causes of lack of sleep and crying, although more serious, painful and dangerous conditions are quite possible.

The main causes of crying in newborns

There are completely physiological and obvious reasons for crying in children, because of which he cannot sleep. These include:

When applied to the breast or when the baby is given a bottle of formula, he calms down and becomes quiet. Infants can also quench their thirst by latching on to the breast, and for this, breastfeeding babies need to be given water in a bottle. At first, until an approximate feeding rhythm has been established, the baby may often cry when he is hungry.

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It is important not to ignore the baby’s demands, waiting for a certain hour for feeding, otherwise the crying will turn into hysterics, during which it will be extremely difficult to calm and feed the raging baby. If the baby is immediately understood and fed on time, he usually falls asleep.

Crying and sleep problems when overstimulated

Most often, a child cannot sleep and screams or cries due to overexcitation. His nervous system is very vulnerable and immature; it often needs rest in order to restore efficiency, control the functioning of all organs and systems and develop.

Exhaustion of nervous processes occurs the sooner the younger the baby is.

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If, simultaneously with fatigue, the child received too many new impressions and emotions, this will lead to even greater fatigue of his nervous system. As a result, the child cannot sleep, although he is very tired, which is why he screams, cries and cannot calm down. As a result, hysterics are formed with choking screams and cries, which greatly frightens parents.

It is important to avoid overwork and hysterics, monitoring the condition and well-being of the baby. This can be achieved by observing a strict daily routine, where there will be enough time to sleep, all the necessary hygiene procedures and all the conditions for a comfortable stay and falling asleep. This is a cozy and clean room, well ventilated, with a comfortable temperature and humidity. You should not create crumbs of ideal silence for sleep from birth; he should sleep under normal family living conditions, this will help make sleep less sensitive and intermittent.

To prevent the child from becoming overexcited, doctors do not recommend his presence at noisy and public events, concerts and long trips. It is worth at least for the first time to protect him from a large number of guests and strangers. This will not only give the child peace of mind, but will also protect him from unnecessary encounters with infections, which can also disturb sleep and lead to crying.

If the child is tired after visiting guests, has not slept for a long time and has started screaming, you need to pick him up, put him to your chest, rock him in your arms and calm him down. Some children benefit from tight swaddling or wrapping in a blanket, while others benefit from a warm bath, which relaxes and soothes the baby.

Sleep problems and crying in bowel disorders

Often a child cannot sleep and constantly cries due to problems with natural needs - defecation or urination. Many children may cry or whine before emptying their bladder, even if there are no health problems, simply not understanding what is happening to them and being frightened by this fact. In this case, there is no need to worry; usually there are light whimpers followed by wetness of the diaper. However, sleep disturbances and constant crying, wiggling of legs and screams when urinating, or strong straining before wetting your panties are an alarming sign. This may be a sign of abnormalities in the structure of the urinary tract, inflammation in the area of the bladder walls, and in boys, problems with the penis and its structure.

If a child is constantly restless, the process of urine excretion leads to screaming, and the body temperature also rises, you should immediately consult a doctor and get tested (at least general tests).

Often, problems with bowel movements also lead to sleep disorders and crying with screams. Especially against the background of artificial feeding, which leads to incorrect selection of the formula, inaccurate dilution, or lack of fluid in the body. Defecation is especially unpleasant if there are cracks in the anus, due to straining and dense stool. In this case, the baby will toss and turn, grunt, wince and scream loudly, especially against the backdrop of a prolonged absence of stool. Because of screams and constant fruitless attempts, the baby sleeps poorly, his tummy is swollen, and it is important to consult a doctor to identify and eliminate the causes of constipation.

Poor sleep and crying due to colic

In the period from approximately three weeks of age to three months, when the intestinal wall gradually matures and the formation of microflora occurs, many children suffer from diseases that literally plague some children and deprive them of rest and sleep. Colic is not a disease, it is a temporary and transient phenomenon associated with the accumulation of gases in the intestines. They stretch the intestinal loops and irritate pain receptors, which creates spasm and discomfort, especially in the late afternoon, when the nervous system is already tired and irritated. Against the background of colic, the child often sleeps poorly, wakes up crying and screams; in the evening, periods of crying can last up to several hours until the spasms and pain subside.

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Signs of colic will be sharp crying and screaming with tucking in the legs and straining, redness of the face, bulging of the fontanel, sometimes with transitions into hysterics. The cry is sharp and loud, painful, with arching in the arms, tension in the abdomen.

It is important that parents know how to help their baby to alleviate his condition. You need to massage the tummy, bend the legs to help expel gas, carry him in your arms with his tummy down, rock him and soothe him. If colic has become daily and severe, sometimes you can help with medications that a doctor can recommend; they are selected individually; they do not always help and not all children.

Temperature disturbances as a cause of crying

If adults, having a perfect thermoregulation system and the ability to dress or undress according to the weather, do not suffer much from temperature fluctuations, then for newborns this is a serious problem. They are extremely uncomfortable both in freezing and overheating conditions, but they cannot unwrap themselves or dress warmer, and therefore they sleep poorly and cry. At an early age, hypothermia is dangerous, if it is severe and prolonged, and for this it is necessary for the baby to be undressed for at least half an hour in an extremely cool room, or even in the cold. In other cases, with mild freezing, children, by waking up, screaming and crying, actively moving their legs and arms, activate their metabolism and warm up. This is a defense mechanism. After they have calmed down and warmed up, sleep returns to normal.

But overheating for a child is much more dangerous than slight freezing, since in this case the protective mechanisms do not work, especially if there is thick swaddling or a large amount of clothing carefully put on the baby by mothers and grandmothers.

Overheating leads to inhibition of metabolic processes, suppression of the immune system and disruption of brain development.

During the newborn period and the first six months or so, the sweating mechanisms are imperfect, and the baby cannot fully cool the body. Then sleep suffers, the baby cannot fall asleep and screams, cries, and blushes. In the area of skin folds, against the background of overheating, there may be diaper rash and prickly heat throughout the body, which only increases the discomfort and suffering of the baby. Itching and pain of the skin, redness and the risk of infection further disrupt sleep and constantly provoke crying. In this case, it will be constant and monotonous, on one note, with the transition to whimpers, or flow into hysteria.

Restless sleep and crying

Many parents are extremely concerned about their children's poor sleep, with constant waking up and crying in their sleep, after which it is difficult to put them back to sleep. This is due to several reasons, usually easily removable and not dangerous, but requiring the attention of mom and dad. This:

You should not wait for the baby to fully awaken and scream; you need to immediately respond to his signals by picking him up and calming him, putting him to his chest or giving him a bottle or pacifier. This will help you not go into hysterics and calm down, falling asleep peacefully.

External causes, discomfort and crying

If the baby is not hungry and not tired, and he cries and does not want to sleep, the reasons for this may be quite banal inconvenience from wet diapers, a leaky or overfilled diaper, or chafing seams of clothes. It is important to timely select diapers by size, so that they do not press or rub the delicate skin, and also change them in a timely manner so that stool and urine do not irritate the perineum and do not lead to painful sensations.

Painful Causes of Sleeping and Crying Disorders

They can cause poor restless sleep or difficulty falling asleep, as well as causes of hysterics and crying, the presence of skin diseases, or. Thus, against the background of skin pathologies and allergic rashes, severe itching of the skin usually occurs, which simply does not allow one to sleep, the child screams, rubs against the crib, worries, his condition can be alleviated by consulting a doctor and determining the cause of the skin lesion, using local or systemic drugs against inflammation and itching, allergies.

In most children, teething begins after six months, but some may experience this phenomenon earlier. Therefore, one of the leading problems in the second half of the year, which leads to hysterics, crying and sleep disorders, is discomfort in the gum area with itching, swelling and unpleasant sensations. Often the baby puts everything in his mouth, tries to chew toys and sucks his fists, he has a lot of saliva. In these cases, special cooling teethers, dryers, rubber toys, as well as the use of teething gels for severe anxiety can help.

What are the dangers of frequent crying and sleep disorders?

Many parents and the older generation do not see anything wrong with their children’s crying, letting them “scream it out” and making no attempt to calm them down. This is not a physiological method of dealing with crying, whatever the reason, especially if the child also sleeps poorly.

Crying loads and overstimulates the nervous system, threatening the development of “rolling” with periods of respiratory arrest and acute brain hypoxia. This will have an extremely negative impact on the development of the child, leading to nervousness and anxiety, difficulties in learning and disinhibition of arousal processes.

Alena Paretskaya, pediatrician, medical columnist

For most of us, babies are a source of affection. True, only if the little one snores quietly in his sleep or smiles funny (we recommend reading:). Frequent hysterics and tears of infants, the reasons for which are sometimes impossible to explain, cause adults to feel irritated due to their own powerlessness. However, such emotions are a bad help. It is very important to understand why a newborn is crying and take appropriate measures. Let's look at the main reasons for crying in infants, and also find out how to calm a crying baby.

When a baby cries, new parents often feel powerless

Physical discomfort

Why do newborn babies cry? Crying can be caused by various factors. One of them is an instinctive reluctance to be alone. If a child under 1 month screams and cries due to this circumstance, then it is easy to calm him down: take him in your arms, look into his eyes, say something in a calm, gentle voice.

Did not help? It is likely that the newborn is crying due to a more serious problem - physical discomfort caused by uncomfortable clothing, improper room conditions, and so on. The exact reason can be understood by the way the child cries:

Reason for crying	Features of behavior	How to calm your baby?
Wet clothes (diaper, nappy)	The child hiccups, cries, fidgets, trying not to touch what is wet.	Remove wet clothes, clean and dry the skin, put on new underwear.
Uncomfortable clothing (improper swaddling)	The baby begins to scream indignantly immediately after putting on new clothes or swaddling.	Discomfort can be caused by snaps, buttons, snakes, threads, crumbs or seams that dig into delicate skin. Items may be too tight or hard. Clothing made from synthetic fabrics with dyes causes itching. The baby should be changed quickly.
Uncomfortable position	The newborn whines, cries, waves his arms and legs, trying to change his position.	The baby needs to be placed differently.
Too hot or cold	The baby is sobbing. Signs of overheating are hot and red skin, and in advanced cases, a rash. Manifestations of hypothermia are pale and cold skin.	The newborn should be changed according to the temperature conditions in the room.

A wet diaper may be the cause of your baby's fussy movements and crying.

Feeling hungry and feeding problems

A common reason why newborns cry is hunger. In the first weeks, most babies hang on their chest almost all the time. Then lactation is established, and an approximate schedule is developed, but at one of the meals the baby may eat less than it should. Of course, he will start demanding milk out of schedule and screaming loudly. If the newborn quickly calms down after applying to the breast or bottle, the cause of the crying was hunger.

The baby started to eat, but started crying again? So something is bothering him. Problems that may occur during or after feeding and lead to crying:

Problem	Features of behavior	What to do?
Nasal congestion	The baby begins to suckle on the breast or bottle, but then quits and screams in irritation. Sniffles or snores.	Clean your nose with a special aspirator (bulb), rinse with drops (saline), and drip a drug prescribed by your doctor for a runny nose.
Swallowed a lot of milk	The crying is short and not repeated.	Wait a little.
Otitis	When swallowing, the pain in the ear intensifies, so the baby stops eating and screams loudly.	Place vasoconstrictor drops into the nose and special painkillers into the ears. Contact your doctor.
Stomatitis	A sign of candidal stomatitis (thrush) is a white coating on the oral mucosa. The baby feels a burning sensation and refuses to eat.	Wipe the oral cavity with a weak soda solution (2%). Visit the doctor.
Specific taste of milk (mixture)	The baby tries to eat, but then turns away from the breast or bottle.	The consumption of certain foods - onions, garlic, lamb and others - causes a change in the taste of milk. They should not be eaten in large quantities. In addition, mom should not use cosmetics with a strong aroma.
Air got into the stomach	Immediately after or during a meal, the baby pulls its legs towards its stomach and screams.	You need to take the baby in a “column”, leaning your stomach against your chest. This will allow excess air to escape.

A cooled teether helps relieve pain and itching of swollen gums

It is wrong to immediately offer the breast or bottle to a baby when he is crying. To begin with, you should pick him up and rock him. If these actions do not help calm him down, the child cries pitifully and shows that he wants to eat - sucks his fists, smacks his lips, then feeding should not be postponed.

If your newborn is constantly crying, you should make sure that he is not starving. There are certain standards for weight gain for children under one year of age. It is worth weighing the baby periodically and comparing its growth with the standard. You should inform your pediatrician about the lag in the rate - he will recommend how to increase the volume of feedings.

When bottle-fed, the baby often cries not from hunger, but from thirst. It is necessary that mom always has a bottle of drinking water ready.

Colic and increased gas production

Why does the child constantly cry? At the age of 1-3 months, many children suffer from colic - severe painful cramps in the abdomen caused by stretching of the intestinal walls by gas bubbles. The main sign of colic is that the baby cries shrilly and inconsolably for a long time, taking short breaks. Additional symptoms:

facial redness;
“knocking” with legs;
bloating (hard belly);
clenching fists.

Colic is associated with the immaturity of the baby's digestive system, but poor nutrition or nervous tension of the nursing mother can aggravate the situation. For most children, the problem resolves when they are 3-4 months old.

What to do if a child cries because of abdominal pain? You can calm him down in one of the following ways:

put something warm on your tummy - an ironed diaper or a heated bag of flax seeds;
do a massage - with a warm hand, stroke around the navel clockwise;
put the baby on his stomach (not all children like this position);
carry the baby vertically to allow excess air to escape;
lay the baby on his back and give him a “frog” pose - bend his knees and put his feet together, thanks to this it is easier to pass gases; another effective exercise is to imitate riding a bicycle;
give medicine for colic prescribed by the doctor (Espumizan, Sub Simplex, Bobotik, BabyKali, etc.), or dill water (we recommend reading:);
place the baby with his bare stomach on his stomach, ensuring skin-to-skin contact;
place the baby in the sling facing you.

Problems emptying your bladder or bowels

Why else does a baby have to cry? Possible causes are cystitis and constipation. Inflammation of the bladder (cystitis) is accompanied by pain when urinating and fever. The condition requires urgent medical attention.

If your baby cries during bowel movements or strains and does not poop, he is constipated. Frequent problems with bowel movements can lead to the appearance of cracks in the rectum. The problem should be reported to your pediatrician. As symptomatic therapy you can use:

microenemas Microlax;
glycerin suppositories;
Lactulose syrup (has a delayed effect, causing stool the next day).

Constipation can be a cause of painful discomfort for a child.

Some physiological causes of crying

Why does an infant sometimes cry? The sobbing of a newborn can be provoked by various painful conditions:

State	The essence	Symptoms	How to help a crying baby?
"Infant migraine"	Infants who were diagnosed at birth with perinatal encephalopathy (PEP) may suffer from headaches. This syndrome is characterized by increased pressure inside the skull, nervous excitability, and impaired muscle tone (increase or decrease).	Attacks of “infant migraine” occur when weather conditions change and atmospheric pressure changes. In addition, windy, cloudy or rainy weather can cause headaches. The baby screams, sleeps poorly, and shows anxiety. Vomiting and indigestion may occur.	In such a situation, it is impossible to do without the help of a specialist. It is necessary to visit a pediatrician or neurologist and tell about the problem.
Diaper rash (diaper rash)	Due to contact of the baby's skin with feces and urine, its acid-base balance is disrupted. The result is pain-inducing irritation.	Signs of diaper dermatitis: rash and redness in the perineum and buttocks; child's irritability; crying that gets worse when diapers are changed.	Necessary: use a healing agent (Bepanten cream); change diapers promptly; cleanse the skin thoroughly; periodically arrange “air baths”. If the irritation is very severe, a consultation with a doctor is required to prescribe treatment.
Teething	When your baby is teething, his gums become swollen, itchy and painful.	The baby sobs, pulls everything into his mouth to “gnaw.” He has increased salivation. In some cases, an increase in body temperature occurs.	Itchy gums can be “scratched” with a finger wrapped in a sterile bandage. A good way to help is a chilled teething ring. In addition, there are anesthetic gels that can be applied to the mucous membrane. For temperatures above 38.5°C, an antipyretic should be given.

If the baby cries piercingly for a long time, and it was not possible to find out the reason, you need to seek medical help

Psychological discomfort

Let's consider why a newborn baby may cry, because the reasons are not only physical, but also psychological. The most common of them are call, protest and accumulated fatigue:

A child cries more and more if he wants to attract the attention of an adult. The calling cry does not last long and is repeated at short intervals. The volume gradually increases. If you come to the baby, he will calm down. Dr. Komarovsky does not recommend picking up the baby right away. You can pet him or talk to him.
If a newborn baby begins to cry in protest, the cry is sharp and occurs immediately after an “inappropriate” action. Necessary procedures such as changing clothes, cutting nails, and cleaning ears can lead to resentment. They should be completed, and then caress the baby.
If your baby has become capricious and is crying a lot, he is probably tired. Hysterics can be triggered by being awake for too long, a large number of unfamiliar people around, a lot of impressions and events during the day.
If a newborn cries every time before going to bed, the daily routine is incorrect. Overwork prevents him from calming down.

A child's crying due to fatigue can be calmed by the following:

end/exclude active and emotional games;
ventilate the room and humidify the air in it;
switch to calm communication;
rock, sing a lullaby;
put him to bed and give him a pacifier.

If the child is tired, you should calmly lay him down and help him fall asleep

You can prevent an infant from crying by following a certain sequence of actions (ritual) every evening. Most babies are helped to fall asleep by the following combination: bathing - feeding - putting them to bed - turning off the main lighting - turning on the night light - a lullaby.

If the reason for the crying of a newborn at the age of 1-3 months is psychological discomfort, the advice of the American doctor Harvey Karp will help to quickly lull him to sleep:

Swaddling. There is no need to constantly wrap your baby in diapers, but wrapping him up will help quickly calm a child who is fussy and crying before bed. It is important to close the handles. It is better to use modern elastic diapers.
Wiggle. If a newborn rolls up and cries, you should rock him. The baby should be picked up so that he is lying on his side and begin smooth movements with a small amplitude.
"White noise". Hissing sounds spoken in a quiet voice help calm the child. It is recommended to combine their playback with rhythmic rocking.
Sucking. Is your baby crying inconsolably? The best way to calm him down is to give him the opportunity to satisfy his sucking reflex. A pacifier, mother's breast, or a bottle with a small amount of formula will help with this. However, the toddler should not be allowed to overeat.

Sometimes, to calm the baby, it is enough for the mother to rock him in her arms

Calming a baby over 3 months old

A child who constantly cries at 2 months can be calmed using one of the described methods. If a baby older than 3-4 months rolls up, there is no point in swaddling him or “hissing” him. During this period, a crying infant must be distracted from the problem that is upsetting him.