Crying Cures

It's the end of a long day, and your baby is crying. Actually, wailing is more like it, and his shrieks are draining your very last ounce of patience. You've fed him, swayed him, and sung his favorite lullaby, all to no avail. Why is he so miserable?

First, a little perspective: Crying is a baby's primary form of communication. "However, infants sometimes cry for no apparent reason, and that can be perfectly normal, especially between 1 and 3 months of age," says Parents advisor Wendy Sue Swanson, M.D., a pediatrician at Seattle Children's Hospital. So if your little one has been fed, burped, and changed, is warm and comfortably dressed, and still won't stop, don't waste a lot of energy trying to figure out what's wrong. Simply focus on getting him to calm down. We've asked parents to reveal the sob stoppers they turn to when all else fails.

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