Crying Baby: Here's How to Calm Your Infant Down the Scientific Way

New research has recently highlighted a simple approach that may be more effective than others.

As any frustrated parent knows, there is no magic way strategy to calm a crying baby down, let alone put him to sleep, a ScienceAlert report specified.

As indicated in the study, if one wants to soothe a wailing baby, sitting down with him in his arms may not do the trick. This can frequently raise the baby's heart rate and make them even fussier.

Additionally, the study investigators wrote that parents are better off taking their crying infant for a walk in their arms. This approach frequently lowers the baby's heart rate and helps them fall asleep.

5-Minute Walk or Hold

In their study published in Current Biology, the researchers explained crying babies are calmed and tend to sleep by a five-minute walk or hold, even in the daytime when the infants are usually awake. The next challenge, though, is getting the sleeping baby into bed.

As any parent knows, the challenge can be a specifically infuriating step. Frequently, an infant will wake up the minute their head is tilted back, removing all the hard work.

Intriguingly, participants who sat with their sleeping child for five more minutes after walking with them had been most successful at getting their kids to remain asleep. Not even a subtle touch or closing door was enough to wake them up.

Out of all 13 crying infants that fell asleep and remained asleep in one of the investigations, nine were put to bed through the use of the walk-sit method.

Minus Abrupt Turns or Stops

The authors have also suggested that caregivers attach the infant's body snugly to their own body and support the baby's head.

They added that five-minute walking needs to be on a flat and clear passage and at a steady pace, preferably minus abrupt turns or stops.

Add five more minutes of sitting, and there is a lower chance that the child will wake up when being put in his crib.

Evidently, every baby is different, although in general, there appears to be something about the steady bob of walking calming babies down.

Transport Response Phenomenon

Other studies have revealed that human children and other mammalian offspring are soothed when their mothers carry them, and such a phenomenon is known as the "transport response."

In mice, in particular, a rocking movement promotes sleep by stimulating the vestibular system, a sensory system that provides information on head position, spatial orientation, and head motion.

According to a similar ZBT News, the research team thinks something akin is happening with human babies; for example, an experiment in this research discovered that when mothers rocked their babies to sleep in a mobile cot, it had the same effects as walking while holding them.

Nonetheless, the general study is only very small and explanatory, so additional studies are warranted.

Furthermore, the experiments only focused on mothers, and several variables, such as vocal soothing, were not kept consistent in every trial.

Research findings suggest that movement is strongly linked to soothing upset babies. Interestingly, when infants were not crying, walking around with them did not exhibit the same sleep-inducing effect.

Related information about calming a crying baby is shown on KCTV 5 News's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Babies in Science Times.