Best Ways to Soothe a Crying Baby

My friend Martha learned about colic the hard way: Her firstborn, Will, began crying for no apparent reason when he was 1 week old. Whenever she walked by my house with her stroller, I could hear the high-pitched wails. (The kid had some lungs!) Walks helped Martha get back into her skinny jeans, but they did little to pacify poor Will. "We tried everything to soothe him," Martha says. "We drove him around in the car. We gave him gas drops. We changed formulas. We tried two different reflux medications. Nothing worked."

If your newborn fusses and cries sometimes for hours on end, then you, too, may have a case of colic on your hands; up to 26 percent of babies get this diagnosis. Colic usually starts at 2 weeks, peaks at 6 weeks, and is gone by 16 weeks. It's long been defined as unexplained crying for more than three hours a day, at least three days a week, for three weeks or more—but this is just a rule of thumb, and your infant doesn't need to meet these exact criteria to be considered colicky. Although it's true that all babies cry, those with colic do so with gusto. We're talking earsplitting screams that seem to come out of nowhere and could shatter a window. The crying jags can happen at any time; evenings are notoriously brutal, however. Luckily, there are tricks for calming the fussiest of babies and for getting through this difficult stage (and it is just a stage!) without totally losing it.