My baby cries for long periods and cannot be consoled, is something wrong?
About 10% of babies cry more than average, and are very difficult to comfort. Parents should never feel this is their fault, or the baby's fault. It can feel like the baby's doing it to wind you up, but that is never true. It can just be that the baby's finding it a little bit hard to take the world. It's also very hard for parents, if you've tried all the usual: rocking, singing, and so on, and the baby's still crying. Sometimes you just have to weather the storm. Sometimes the professionals call this colic - hours of crying where the baby is just inconsolable. There are lots of different explanations and research, none of them really proven, about whether it's dietary reasons, nervous system or immature reasons. The best that parents can do sometimes is just to cuddle, walk around with the baby and take turns. Any parent trying to look after a baby who's crying for hours on end will come to the end of their tether, so get somebody else to help. Pass the baby to somebody else who may just be able to calm them down, because they're feeling more calm. If it ever gets to a point where you feel like you're going to throw the baby out of the window, which parents do, that's the time to really take a break for yourself. Put the baby down safely in a cot and to go and take some time out for yourself so that you can calm down before you go back to the baby.
