Infant Crying

Introduction

Parents know their child is going to cry, but they are often unaware that some babies can cry for long periods of time regardless of numerous attempts by the caretaker to soothe or console the infant. A baby’s incessant crying can cause incredible, personal stress. That stress can lead to anger, and that anger can be directed toward their baby. Crying is the number one trigger leading to shaking an infant. No rational parent would ever think of shaking their baby, but loving, caring parents can lose control when frustrated by a crying child.

Educating parents on how to cope with crying and reduce stress is one of the main objectives in preventing shaken baby syndrome. Parents need to understand that crying is normal, a child’s way of communicating, but sometimes babies can cry even when every attempt has been made to satisfy their needs. Babies do not cry to make their caretakers angry, and when a baby cries it doesn’t mean that the childcare provider is doing anything wrong. Babies cry, and parents need to know how to cope with their crying infant.

Understanding Crying

Recent research indicates that the properties of early infant crying are all typical of normal development, particularly in the first few months of life. These behaviors, however, are also uniformly frustrating to caregivers. The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome has developed tools to help parents identify these crying behaviors, which they have identified as the “Period of Purple Crying.” The letters of the acronym “PURPLE” refer to these crying properties.

P Peak Pattern reflects the fact that the total amount of daily distress behavior
(fussing, crying and unsoothable or “colic” crying) tends to increase in the second
month of age and decrease at about four months. This pattern occurs independently of care giving styles or how “good” the parent is.

U Bouts of crying are Unpredictable, that is, they seem to come out of nowhere, starting and stopping with no apparent relationship to anything going on in the environment. They appear spontaneous and Unexplained.

R Resistant to soothing is one of the most frustrating properties of early infant crying. This includes not being soothed by feeding, a features that makes parents and clinicians question whether there is something wrong in the intestinal system, their infants are sick, or whether breast-feeding is “insufficient.” The Resistance to soothing includes most other care giving attempts as well. While this Resistance is transitional and a part of normal development, it can be very frustrating for caregivers.

P Pain faces refers to the grimace that infants show when they are crying. Because it mirrors the facial expression (and crying) of infants when they receive a heel
prick or inoculation, caregivers understandably wonder whether their infant is in
pain. This increases parents’ own anxiety and stress. Although this expression is present when infants cry intensely, there is nothing to indicate that the crying is related to pain.

L Long crying bouts are typical of early crying. or reasons that are still not clear,
but may well be related to the “resistance to soothing” property, infants can have crying bouts that persist from a few minutes to one or two hours. Typically, these prolonged bouts occur in the first three or four months of life and rarely occur later. The constant and unsoothable distress is very frustrating for caregivers.

E Evening and late afternoon hours are the time when crying behaviors during the first three months tend to cluster. Crying has a “diurnal” rhythm very much like many other behaviors. For many years it was thought that this diurnal rhythm might be due to infants detecting the tiredness of their caregivers at the end of the day. It is now recognized as a property of the infant crying behavior that accounts for most of the “peak pattern” crying that occurs during the first few months.

While the “Period of PURPLE Crying” concept provides essential information about normal crying characteristics and patterns, it also provides an important challenge. One of the realistic messages is that crying is not easily “fixed” by care giving techniques. It is not simply a matter of becoming a “better” caregiver. A crying infant can frustrate even the best of parents.

Creating a Plan to Cope with Infant Crying

Recognizing that crying can lead to frustration, it is important for parents to implement a plan that can help them reduce that frustration. Calling a family member or friend for assistance is not a sign of bad parenting, but a wise choice. Putting the child in a safe environment and letting the child cry and checking on the child occasionally to make sure the baby is okay, can give parents some time to cool down. Parents are encouraged to put into place a plan that they can follow in the event they feel they may loose control.

Remember, no child ever died from crying.
Many have been harmed or killed from shaking.

(Adapted with permission from the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome – MCC 3/003)