why is my baby crying? infant crying 101

Crying is literally the only way baby can tell you something is wrong. This is their bread and butter of communication until they start to gesture, sign, or talk. Since that's not happening anytime soon, learning their crying cues can make an unpleasant situation last a little bit shorter! 

I had read that moms know the differences in baby's crying and can tell if it's a hunger cry, a pain cry, a wet diaper cry, etc. I am not one of those gifted individuals apparently. At least not yet! While I don't know 100%, there are ways of telling what kind of issue is afoot. 

the pain cry

What it sounds like:
​When baby is in pain, the cry is usually sharp, piercing, high pitched, loud, and most importantly sudden. It's like were okay were okay, BAM! hysterical in seconds. Leaving parents bewildered like... woah what just happened? Did I miss something? 

Here's my cheat sheet for this kind of cry:

• Problem: Is it a diaper rash pain?
  • Solution: Lather up with that cream on any spot that looks red. Make sure they are wiped and DRY before putting diaper back on. ​Once baby cried for like a half hour straight we thought we had tried everything! Then, I put cream on his hiney and he instantly stopped crying. Problem solved. 
• Problem: Is it a gas pain?
  • ​Solution: We have three go-to remedies...
    1. ​​Massage: Bicycle kicks and rubbing the belly in a downward motion (from ribs downward)
    2. Gripe Water: This is a natural way to release gas bubbles from the inside using basically ginger water
    3. Windi Stick: Releasing gas from the outside using a tube that you stick in baby's butt. I wrote a post just about the Windi stick you can check out here
• Problem: Are they cold? (I feel like this only applies to really tiny newborns like a month and under). This cold cry sounded like a pain cry because it was so intense when my baby was first born!
  • ​Solution: Add more clothes! I used these wearable blankets a lot because I was so nervous to leave a loose blanket in the bassinet!

the hunger cry

Perhaps it is different if you have a formula fed baby, but for my breastfed baby, he eats about every 2 hours and immediately after waking up. So if it's been awhile, that's my first go-to. 

​What it sounds like: 
For us, this is a slow wind up. It starts as fussing and quickly escalates to crying if food is not provided in about 30 seconds. It is for sure hunger if it as accompanied by these cues:
What it looks like:

• Turning head from side to side
• Fingers in mouth
• If you're holding them, sucking on your arm or other body part that is nearby
• Clenched fists (but to be honest, my infants fists were often clenched and if they are crying they are likely clenched anyway so I didn't find this to be particularly helpful. 

the wet diaper cry

This is more of a whine. If it's not the above two things, this is what we try next and is remedied easily by changing the diaper. 
What it sounds like:  This is more of a whine in our house that just wont stop until we change him. 
** Make sure you put on that diaper cream to avoid a painful rash cry later on! Also, if baby hasn't pooped in awhile and I hear a lot of farts and attempts at pooping, i'll put the Windi stick in to avoid a potential hysterical scream later. 

the teething cry

What it looks like:
This to us looks a lot like hungry. There's a lot of biting fingers almost furiously. Binky gets spit out a lot when this is the problem. When you go to feed, baby pushes you away. 
​What it sounds like:  
This is a whine that has short little bursts of shouting at you. In between trying to bite things, he lets out a small, short wail. Pushing hands into the jaw repeatedly. 

Our solution is using one of the teething toys, Teeth Tamer syrup, or Camilia. Check out my post on Teething to learn more! 

the overtired cry

This is my least favorite cry. I find it is hardest to remedy if baby is fighting sleep. This is the cry where you tried everything above and nothing worked and you have to wait until they tire themself out. There are a few tricks that work for us....

• Relaxing music
  • In our house, YouTube videos of Moonlight Sonata or our new favorite one that has these beautiful landscape pictures that would help an adult get to sleep
• Binky
  • This is the first thing we do whenever baby is crying and it works to calm him down maybe 70% of the time
• Walking around the house
  • We try to keep a rhythm and run the same route
  • Ideally in a darkened room. When it's too bright baby wants to look around and gets stimulated more
• Rocking in the Snoo
  • I feel like the first time I put baby in, he is not happy to be there. We usually take him out, walk him around, and re-try the Snoo when he is drowsier. 
• Avoid talking or anything stimulating! Talking signals baby's brain that it's time to learn, not time to sleep. So at night I never engage baby in chatter. I will shush and use white noise type sounds only.

repeat again

Sometimes if the crying goes on for too long, one of the issues that wasn't initially the problem becomes the new problem. What do I mean? For example, after baby cried and cried about his rash, and we fixed the rash, he began crying again shortly after because he worked himself up and got hungry and sleepy. Usually if baby cried a lot and then stopped and started again, a quick feeding and putting him down to sleep does the trick. 

Below is a video I watched (several times) from YouTube on Newborn Cues!
It was immensely helpful!!!
​Highly recommend you check it out!

Do you have any suggestions on how to soothe a crying baby? 
​Please write in the comments below!