Team led by Japanese researchers reveals best way to put crying baby to sleep:
The evidence-based soothing strategy was derived from experiments carried out in Japan and Italy, which were analyzed and published in the journal Current Biology on Tuesday.
[Senior author Kumi] Kuroda and colleagues wanted to explore this further in humans, and to compare the effect against other comforting behaviors such as rocking in one spot.
They recruited 21 mother-baby pairs aged 0-7 months, and tested them under four conditions: carrying while moving, held still by their sitting mothers, lying in a still crib, or lying in a rocking cot.
Crying decreased and heart rates slowed within 30 seconds when infants were transported. There was a similar effect when they were rocked, but not when held motionless.
[...] This suggested that, contrary to assumptions, maternal holding was insufficient to calm a child, and the transport response was an important factor.
Next, they looked at the impact of carrying infants for five minutes, finding that the activity put 46 percent of them to sleep, and an additional 18 percent fell asleep in the minute after.
This showed that not only did carrying stop crying, it also promoted sleep.
But there was a wrinkle: when infants were put to bed, more than one-third became alert within 20 seconds.
Electrocardiogram readings showed the babies' heart rates rose the second they were detached from their mother's bodies.
However, when the babies were asleep for a longer period of time before being put down, they were less likely to awaken.
Kuroda said she found this surprising, as she had assumed other factors like the way they were placed in bed or their posture would play a role, but this was not the case.
Journal Reference:
Kumi O. Kuroda,A method to soothe and promote sleep in crying infants utilizing the Transport Response, Current Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.08.041. www.cell.com/current-biology/f ... 0960-9822(22)01363-X
(Score: 4, Informative) by EJ on Saturday September 17 2022, @06:30PM (2 children)
Old news
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 17 2022, @06:40PM
Native Americans knew this one--
https://pieceworkmagazine.com/carrying-and-protecting-little-ones-native-american-cradleboards [pieceworkmagazine.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 17 2022, @09:16PM
To promote sleep in babies, have mom drink beer 60 minutes before nursing. Worked for my wife.
Note that your CDC does not recommend this. Try this at your own risk.
--
When I see video of Zelenskyy discussing Russian atrocities, I think to myself - I have that same outfit.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Username on Saturday September 17 2022, @06:48PM
My guess is that this inhibits predators from tracking humans down while they move. My brain tells me those babies that cried during transit led to their tribe being ate by wolves and saber-tooth cats. Crying while alone probably made it easier to find missing baby, and a way to sacrifice one so the tribe can escape the pride of lions.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Barenflimski on Saturday September 17 2022, @06:53PM
This is truly amazing that it took millions of years and billions of babies before a group of Japanese scientists finally figured out how to put babies to sleep. Who knew? This will make great reading material for our future AI overlords.
+1 Human Race
(Score: 4, Funny) by bradley13 on Saturday September 17 2022, @07:26PM (1 child)
This takes research? Literally any parent of a colicky baby has learned this. Walking, yes. Stairs, even better. Finally asleep? Lay down very gent...WAAAAH!!!
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2022, @02:44PM
Actually the summary is misleading. The method is slightly different from what you mention and it's something like this:
1) Carry baby and walk around till baby stops crying and/or falls asleep.
2) Hold calm/sleeping baby and sit down till baby is in deep sleep.
3) Lay baby gently down in bed/cot.
Step 2) is important. If you go straight from 1) to 3) you are more likely to get the Waaah!
As for those moving cots (autorocking/bouncing etc), a still cot might be better:
(Score: 2, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Saturday September 17 2022, @07:42PM (1 child)
No one has mentioned the washing machine. Strap Baby into his car seat, sit car seat on washing machine, and start a load of laundry. You may or may not need to secure the car seat to the washing machine, but Baby will soon fall asleep, with no need to lay him in a crib.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 18 2022, @02:08AM
Just don't pick that time to do the heavy load of towels where the unbalanced machine bucks all around the room like a bronco.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday September 17 2022, @08:21PM (3 children)
...you can only do so much of this: if you do it EVERY time a baby cries, you modify it's behaviour to cry EVERY time.
Sometimes you just gotta let little Jimmy cry and cry and cry: he cries himself to sleep and maybe another time and then they sleep on their own.
Coddle them and you've got a nightmare in the making.
Walk around on tiptoe all the time so the baby wakes up at EVERY noise; nightmare in the making.
Form a routine (like they won't sleep without both mom and dad singing to them) and ....nightmare in the making (like when one of you has to work instead of singing)....
Some, yes. All the time...... nightmare in the making...
But yes, movement is best: rocking, walking, driving, washing machine (like Runaway said). But sometimes you just gotta let them scream it out.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Interesting) by istartedi on Saturday September 17 2022, @08:36PM (2 children)
Walk around on tiptoe all the time so the baby wakes up at EVERY noise; nightmare in the making.
I wonder how much good or bad came from my early childhood featuring: steady din of a nearby Interstate, planes flying overhead, and the occasional loud car.
I remember being about 4 and asking my Dad about the loud cars. "That's teenagers with hot rods" he said. By then though, I think the original hot-rod era was long gone, but my Dad still called them that. They were most likely "muscle cars". OTOH, the planes man, I went through a phase where they scared the shit out of me. I really had to get used to that, and thunder. Then once you get used to it, you actually like it. We went to air shows. Loved it. Thunderstorms make me nostalgic now. It's interesting how we get shaped to our environment and then the higher level functions kick in: Loud cars? Hate 'em. You're a douche with that motor, son. Get a muffler.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday September 17 2022, @10:47PM (1 child)
The other day i heard a guy 'revving' his engine, with the deep rumbling muffler and i thought "Just like a Harley Davidson, i'd get REAL TIRED of listening to that all fecking day".
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Sunday September 18 2022, @06:43AM
A few years ago after some idjit wrote off my car by slamming into it while parked outside my place, I had to borrow my partner's parents' car, a Subaru WRX, so we could get around to various car yards to find a replacement. 1/10 - would not recommend. That low-frequency muffler throb gave me a serious headache after a couple of hours (and grouchy mood to go with it).
(Score: 4, Funny) by Snotnose on Saturday September 17 2022, @10:23PM (2 children)
Are you saying I did it wrong?
My ducks are not in a row. I don't know where some of them are, and I'm pretty sure one of them is a turkey.
(Score: 2) by corey on Sunday September 18 2022, @12:10AM
My mum put a little bit of sherry in my bottle. She said it worked well.
Looking at this, I was curious but then I didn’t wanna know. That baby stuff is in my rear view nowadays and I want it to stay that way. I often tell new dads that live with a baby is like being in jail for a year. Everything stops, you can’t do what you want any more and like just basically sticks. But there’s an end to that coming, you just gotta push through it day by day. It’s not like you’ll be patting your 6yr old to sleep any more.
(Score: 3, Funny) by canopic jug on Sunday September 18 2022, @06:37AM
Or apply chloroform after using a small bell or a clicker [doglab.com]. Eventually it'll fall asleep upon hearing the sound without needing more chloroform.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Some call me Tim on Sunday September 18 2022, @02:41AM
Sometimes with a real rock!
(thanks Bugs Bunny)
Questioning science is how you do science!