Colic problems? Or just crying? How to calm your baby with a SIMPLE method.

When I was Christmas shopping back in December, 2008 I bought my wife a book whose cover promised to help stop a baby's crying.

It was called The Happiest Baby on the Block.

She got the book for Christmas, but I was actually the first to read it. You see, our baby girl was due in March, and the last thing I wanted was to endure the long bouts of crying that I remembered following the birth of my sister over thirty years ago. (This same sister grew up to get a Ph.D. I still like to remind her that I used to change her diapers. Hi, Julie!)

Anyway, I started reading the book before March and learned that it was easily possible to stop a baby's crying. Lots of people like to recommend you just put the baby down in a crib and let her "cry it out." Sure, that works, like after three straight hours of crying, the baby finally passes out from sheer exhaustion. Meanwhile, you, the parent, have totally lost your mind and are drooling in the corner.

It's "colic," they all say.

Maybe, maybe not. According to pediatrician Dr. Karp, author of The Happiest Baby on the Block, in some other cultures babies never get colic. But they sure do in America. Why is that?

After many years of research, Dr. Karp formulated a five-point method of relaxing a baby and turning on its "calming reflex." All babies are born with a few basic reflexes, and the calming reflex is one that few parents truly understand.

Dr. Karp makes the whole thing simple with his "Cuddle Cure." I'm not going to reiterate the entire method or go into why the process works. Here's one article, among dozens online, that goes into the Cuddle Cure. I'll just cover the highlights regarding my own experience.

The five "S's" of the Cuddle Cure are:

1. Swaddle

2. Turn baby on her Side

3. Shushing

4. Swinging

5. Sucking

As I said above, the book goes into tremendous--and easy to read--detail about how to do the above with your baby. Here are the highlights:

1. Swaddle: wrap her tightly in a swaddling blanket, or a "Swaddler" available at all baby stores. Note: the Swaddler makes the Cuddle Cure much easier.

2. Hold her on her side facing away from you.


3. Shushing: Going "shhh" into her ear or playing a white noise device.


4. Swinging: Rock her back and forth, rigidly, the more she's screaming, the faster you rock her. OR, jiggle her body, especially her head, as if she were a bowl of Jell-O. Jiggling GENTLY.


5. Sucking. Once she's calmed down enough, stick a pacifier in her mouth and hold it there--all while shushing and swinging.


Within five minutes, she will be calm relaxed, and falling asleep.

I guarantee it.

This method works.

I started using the Cuddle Cure within five days of her birth, and the first time I used it, it was almost frightening about how quickly she calmed down. Any time baby Alayna started crying for no apparent reason, that is, she was fed, had a clean diaper, not cold or uncomfortable, just crying, I would calm her using this method.

And it worked every single time.

Depending on the time of day or circumstance, she would generally fall asleep in three minutes, which was my average. More extreme cases took longer, that is, five to eight minutes. Other times, she would be relaxed enough to lie there and suck her pacifier with her eyes closed, but she wasn't sleeping, just totally relaxed.

And Mommy and Daddy were happy.

During the hectic first three months, the Cuddle Cure was a lifesaver. It kept my sanity intact and Alayna never got colic. She couldn't--I would never let her cry long enough for her to indicate that she had colic.

Granted, there were often uncontrollable problems that would hamper my using the Cuddle Cure. Most of all, gas. When a baby has gas pains, all the parent can do is offer her gas drops, rub her tummy, lift her legs, and hope it doesn't last. I would use the Cuddle Cure during these episodes, and she would be all relaxed until she suddenly buckled her legs and started yelling. In these cases, I would keep calming her until she relaxed again. Thankfully, the gas pains passed after two to three months.

I became the Jedi Master of the Cuddle Cure. When we were visiting family or friends, other people would see me do it and remark, "That's amazing! You should give seminars on how to do that!" I would explain that it was not my method, but it came from The Happiest Baby on the Block.

After three months, though, the baby transitions out of the stage where the Cuddle Cure works the best. Baby Alayna is four months old and weighs 13 pounds and is too big to be swaddled. In fact, in her last days of swaddling she would routinely fight her way out of the swaddler like Harry Houdini escaping from a straight jacket. Now she sleeps without the swaddler and seems just fine.

I still use the Cuddle Cure, but in a slightly modified way. When she's crying and upset, I will still do at least four of the five S's (no swaddle) and it still works. I think by now she's used to being calmed this way. So, when I turn her on her side, swing her, shush her, and put the pacifier in her mouth, she almost instinctively starts calming down because she knows what I'm trying to do.















The Cuddle Cure at work. "Thanks, Dr. Karp!"



I taught my wife to calm the baby this way, and she started using it and it works every time for her, too.

Next to the b
ook What to Expect the First Year, I can't recommend enough The Happiest Baby on the Block for any new parent, especially the Stay at Home Dad. What better way to keep from losing your mind than to be able to keep your baby from crying?