Babies and infants can become sleepy quite quickly after having a fun time on a play mat.
Your little one needs plenty of sleep in the early months and will sometimes start crying when he or she has had enough of play mat time.
If the tears start to flow there are a few basic things a parent can do to calm their little boy or girl.
Soothing a crying baby can be a daunting task if your baby is still very young and you are still getting to grips with parenting.
The good news is that there are lots of effective ways to dry up those heart-wrenching tears.
Babies love to be held, rocked and comforted. Responding to your baby’s crying as soon as you can is worthwhile and can nip a crying episode in the bud before it really gets going.
Parental instinct will often help you work out what is wrong with your baby boy or girl – you will usually be able to gauge what is wrong, as you will have come to understand the sound of your child’s cries.
When you have recognised the cause of the crying you can set about comforting your baby and getting the tears to stop flowing. Here are a few tried and tested suggestions to calm your little one.
Give your baby plenty of comforting cuddles. Hold baby in your arms and create a rocking motion. Babies love to be rocked as it transports them back to the safety and movement of being inside the mother’s womb.
Respond to your baby’s tears as soon as possible; this does not mean you are ‘spoiling’ him as some people suggest. In fact, research has proven that babies who feel secure develop better. If you leave him to cry, he will feel insecure and confused.
Play some calming music on your mobile phone, iPod, CD player, radio or a music channel on the television. If you own an Amazon Echo or similar virtual assistant device, you could call on Alexa to serve up some soothing tunes. Often the calming music will be enough to calm your baby and stop the crying.
Reassure your baby by talking to him or her in a calm voice. Try to stay relaxed yourself as babies can easily detect a parents’ tension and the level of crying could increase.
Singing to your baby often does the trick. Don’t worry if you are not a wonderful vocalist – any lullaby parents sing to babies is like music to their ears.
Another option is to capture your baby’s attention with brightly coloured toys – hanging mobiles, rattles and cloth books often achieve the desired results.
Often putting a baby in a pram or pushchair and going for a quick walk in your neighbourhood, or even just along your driveway, can solve all your problems and get your little boy or girl to stop crying. Many babies also love to sit in a bouncer or cradle where they are happy to be rocked off to sleep.
If you don’t have any luck stopping your baby crying with any of the suggestions above, it may be time to go for a drive in your car. Many parents use this as a last resort but it is surprising how often it will result in a baby calming down and drifting off to sleep.
Sometimes you baby will be crying simply because he or she is hungry – if this is the case then the solution is obvious! Other times the crying may because baby is uncomfortable due to needing a nappy change – again, this is an easy one to solve.
A build up of gas in a baby’s tummy can also trigger off a crying episode – if wind is the cause of the problem you will need to burp your little one. Gripe water is very reliable for helping a baby to release wind and Infacol is a great product for colic.