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"If there is no one available to take over, the parent should
put the baby down in a safe place that does not
require immediate supervision and walk away
for a while to
some nearby place to get some relief from the
stress... walking away for a while would
be overall more positive than to have a
frustrated parent trying to comfort an irritable
baby."
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Read More... |
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All babies cry when they are distressed.
This normally includes crying for attention; crying
for food; and crying when there
is discomfort. However, when a baby gets colic,
the baby will cry continuously for hours without
stop. The crying seems
uncontrollable and in many cases, the baby is
actually screaming. This is very distressful for
parents (especially first-
timers) as they try to determine the cause of
the crying and yet the baby seems inconsolable.
The general 'rule of thumb' used to determine
whether a baby has colic is when the baby cries
for more than three hours a day
for more than three days a week. It has been
observed that between ten to twenty percent of
all babies normally develop
colic. It affects baby boys and girls equally;
and it does not matter whether the baby is a the
firstborn, a middle child, or
the youngest in the family. Colic normally peaks
at about six to eight weeks after birth and then
suddenly improves markedly
after eight to twelve weeks after birth.
All parents should note that colic is not an
illness or a disease. Instead, it is merely a
pattern of crying (excessive in
most cases) that has no apparent cause. The baby
is otherwise healthy, well-fed and growing both
mentally and physically.
There is also no known long term negative
effects of colic on the baby. In fact, the main
problem caused by colic is the
stress and worry it causes the parents. The home
becomes tense and everyone gets jittery whenever
the colicky baby starts to
cry. Although it is extremely frustrating
handling babies with colic, parents can take
heart that this is not permanent and
that many other parents also go through the same
thing.
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