Crying.

I remember one day when my first baby son, simply cried all day. He had been up several times in the night, he was teething, tired, and stressed because I was stressed. I became more and more anxious as the day went by. It was one of the most difficult days I have had. Eventually I put him on my bed made sure he was safe and went outside my front door ( we lived in a flat), I took some deep breaths , shed some tears of frustration and then went back inside. My husband came home and took him out for a drive in the car and he eventually went to sleep.

Crying is the hardest thing to cope with, especially if you have fed, changed, cuddled and done all that you can to make your baby comfortable. Sometimes crying has an underlying physical cause, such as trapped wind, reflux, teething, or more serious medical condition.
Let’s deal with the last first, it is highly unlikely that your baby will develop a serious medical condition, however if you notice any of the following call the doctor, projectile vomiting( vomit that is more than a few mls and is literally projected some way not just dribbled out) after every feed, fever combined with listlessness ( I suggest you take baby to a medical centre immediately) a constant high pitch cry as if baby had been pinched, waxy skin, with pale bruised look under the eyes and loss of appetite. There is no harm in speaking to the doctor if you are worried. I am sure all of you know this. However these problems are rare, yes you may know someone who knows someone who’s baby was rushed to hospital, but for every 1 baby taken to hospital with a medical emergency there are many many more doing just fine.
Let’s deal with wind, most babies have a problem with trapped wind at some point, it causes abdominal pain, which is very uncomfortable, but does pass. Now you can alleviate some of the problem by making sure your darling has burped well after each feed. This can be achieved in several ways:
1. A good firm back rub, while keeping baby sitting straight with the aid of your hand under their chin. Don’t be afraid to rub firmly but not vigorously. Try this method with babies tummy over your lap. Also gently patting can help. I used a combination of both.
2. Some babies need to be “burped” often during feeding. Sit them up and rub/ pat after the first few gulps. Then again a few moments later.
3. Occasionally if baby is still struggling with wind a teaspoon or too of cooled boiled water can do the trick.
4. Sometimes the wind has traveled too far down to be burped up, so give baby a little aid to release that wind by lying them down and gently bending their knees towards their stomach, then gently let them stretch out again, do this several times. This can also help babies who are slightly constipated.
These ideas have worked for me, sometimes I have had to do them all, sometimes they have worked well, sometimes not so well. I have found though that if baby has trapped wind it usually got worse the more I kept feeding them, which is the most likely thing we do as we think that baby is still hungry.

Reflux: lots of babies have this, I remember constantly having a clean cloth nappy over my shoulder with my first son, after every feed he was guaranteed to spew up some of his milk, mostly it was just a few mls, but sometimes it was a whole feed. There are lots of web sites out there that you can google just type in “reflux in babies”. To minimize reflux, give baby a few minutes of lying down after each feed, try not to jiggle them around or get baby too exited. I found that with mine whenever they burped after a feed they brought back some milk. It becomes a problem if they are bringing back whole feeds everyday, you should consult you doctor.

Now teething, every parent has horror stories of being up nights in a row while baby cried and cried, no amount of soothing, patting, rubbing, etc would help. Every baby has to go through this which means so does every parent. There is no magic formula that will take away the discomfort of teething, there are some things that may help.
Cooled teething rings.
Warm bath, and favorite snuggle toy / blanket.
Ice pop or similar frozen food to suck on.
Amber necklace ( I have not used one, some mums say they are great)
Baby calpol / paracetamol for when baby has a fever / swollen gums associated with teething, this I suggest you only use when you have really no other option and then sparingly.
It is always hard to see your baby suffer but teething is a process we all go through, they won’t remember the discomfort, but they will soon be putting those teeth to good use!

Now I can hear you saying, my baby is not hungry, is perfectly healthy, has no wind to bring up, not got reflux, nor are they teething BUT they are still crying. Before you tear your hair out, breathe, remember lesson one, Relax, and Breathe. So there can be other reasons for a constantly crying baby, in no particular order:
Strong sucking reflex ( needs to keep sucking to fall asleep) cure, get a dummy / pacifier.
Stress in the house, if you or other members of the family are stressed using loud voices etc, this will often cause baby to cry.
Must have attention all the time, no help for this one except brave it out, set good routine around nap / bedtime, or be prepared to hold baby in a sling all the time.
Too hot, this is very common especially in modern heated homes.

I do not have all the answers, sometimes you will just have to put baby down in a safe place and walk away for a few moments, just to the other side of the door.