How to calm a baby crying? science has the solution

Science perfected the response to calm a crying baby: hold it and walk with it for five minutes. The calming, evidence-based strategy arose from experiments conducted in Japan and Italywhich were analyzed and published in the journal “Current Biology”.

The paper’s authors said they hoped the finding could benefit stressed parents, especially inexperienced ones. “I have raised four children” said the lead author on video, kumi kurodaof the RIKEN Center for Brain Science in Japan. “But even I couldn’t foresee the key results of this study until the statistical data came out.”he added. Previously, the team had studied the “carrying response” in mammals that give birth to young that cannot care for themselves, such as mice, dogs, monkeys and humans.

When these animals pick up their young and begin to walk, the little ones remain calm and docile, and their heart rate slows.

How was the study done?

Kuroda and his colleagues wanted to explore this further in humans and compare the effect with other comforting behaviors, such as rocking in place. They recruited 21 mother-infant pairs from 0 to 7 months of age and tested them in four situations: carried while moving, supported by their mothers sitting up, lying in a stationary cradle, or lying in a rocking cradle.

He crying decreased and heart rate slowed within 30 seconds when babies were carried. There was a similar effect when they were rocked, but not when they were held still. This suggests that, contrary to what might be assumed, maternal loading was insufficient to calm an infant and the transport response was an important factor.

They then looked at the impact of holding the babies for five minutes and found that the activity caused 46% of them to fall asleep and an additional 18% to do so within the next minute.

This demonstrated that charging them not only stopped the cryingbut also promoted sleep. But there was a problem: When she put the babies to bed, more than a third became alert within 20 seconds.

Electrocardiogram readings showed that the babies’ heart rates increased the moment they were separated from their mother’s bodies. However, when babies slept for a longer period of time before going to bed, they were less likely to wake up.

Kuroda said she was surprised by the results, as she had assumed that other factors, such as how they were positioned in bed, would play a bigger role, but this was not the case. “Our intuition is very limited, that’s why we need science”said.

the ultimate recipe

Based on the totality of their findings, they recommended a protocol to promote calm sleep: hold the baby and walk with him for five minutes, then sit and hold him for another five to eight minutes, before putting him down to sleep.

Unlike other methods, such as letting the baby cry themselves to sleep, this provides a pleasant environment, but more work will be needed to understand if it can train infant sleep in the long term.