Holding and walking baby stops the night-time crying

Don’t listen to mothers—scientists think they know best when it comes to soothing a crying baby.

They’ve worked out that holding the baby and walking with it for five minutes is the best way to calm a crying child at night.

“Many parents suffer from babies’ night-time crying.  That’s such a big issue, especially for inexperienced parents, that can lead to parental stress and even to infant maltreatment in a small number of cases,” said researcher Kumi Kuroda at the Riken Centre for Brain Science in Japan.

Her team tested the strategy with 21 infants against three other techniques: being held by their mother while she was sitting, left lying in a crib or lying in a rocking cot.

Walking while carrying the crying infant was the most effective, the researchers said, and the baby’s crying calmed and heart rate slowed within 30 seconds, although the best results were seen when the infant was held and walked for up to five minutes.

Even so, all the babies eventually fell asleep with any of the techniques used, and nearly half fell asleep. But around a third of the infants became alert again within 20 seconds of being put back into bed.  The researchers found that babies produce physiological responses, including a change in heart rate, when they are no longer in direct contact with their mother.

The best strategy is to hold a crying baby and walk with it for five minutes before sitting and holding it for another five to eight minutes before finally putting it back to bed.

Current Biology, 2022; doi: 1016/j.cub.2022.08.041

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