What a cute little baby! Just look at her! An adorable yellow set of clothes with wooden buttons, and a long, matching hat, like an elf‘s hat, but yellow. She’s lying on a soft brown blanket, so cozy and comfortable.
But if you were in the room with her, you wouldn’t have such warm feelings, because she is crying. Instead of thinking about how cute she is, you’d be panicking to find out what the problem is and how to solve it.
With my babies, I’ve learned that there is a secret checklist you can go through to find out the problem 95% of the time. For the sake of efficiency, you always check for the easy fixes first, then move to things that are harder to fix. Let me share it with you:
1. Check if your baby has a dirty diaper.
We all know this is a big cause of crying. The quick and easy check for a wet diaper is to feel the front of the diaper. If it feels thin and makes the normal, dry, crinkly sound of a new diaper, it is dry. If it feels bulky or bumpy and doesn’t make any sound, it is wet. You can double check by taking a peek inside without having to remove all of the baby’s layers, too.
For a poopy diaper, the quick checks are to smell and feel. Put your nose up to you-know-where and smell for you-know-what. Sometimes, it stinks, but it’s just a fart, so then you do the second check and feel. If your baby is small, there won’t be big bulky lumps in the diaper, but it will feel full. Older babies start to get more solid pieces in their diapers. If you still aren’t sure, take a peek inside, but be careful about getting anything on your hands!
2. Check if your baby is cold or hot.
If you checked for a dirty diaper, you should already know if your baby is crying because of temperature. But if not, this is easy to check. Feel the baby’s hands and feet. Cold or hot? These are good places to check. If you are still not sure, as a rule of thumb, they say your baby should wear one more layer than you wear. If you are wearing a T-shirt and shorts, your baby should have a long-sleeved shirt and pants. If you have a long-sleeved shirt and pants, your baby should have that and a vest or a sweater.
3. Check if your baby is hungry.
This can be complicated if your baby is crying very hard, so it’s usually good to go through the crying checklist before your baby is crying out of control. The easy check is to rub your baby’s cheek with your thumb. If your baby turns his head and opens his mouth, he is hungry. If he doesn’t do this, you can still try to give him milk. If your baby is immediately happy, then he was definitely hungry. If he keeps turning his head away and rejecting the bottle, move on to check something else.
4. Check if your baby is bored.
This is last on the quick checklist because it takes the most time and energy for you to fix. If nothing else is the problem, your baby is possibly crying because it’s bored. Pick up your baby, get a noisy, flashy toy, and start playing. If your baby is soon laughing and enjoying it, without any more crying, you found the problem. Play with your baby, making funny sounds and big facial expressions, talking and touching as much as possible. This solves the baby crying and builds a relationship at the same time.
These are the main causes of baby crying and their quick fixes that I have experienced with my babies. Sometimes there will be some other problem, and none of these fixes will work, but for the most part, this checklist will get you through most of your baby’s crying until around the age of one.