Does your baby have enough rich and nourishing stimulation?

This page belongs to collection of short articles and videos in plain language, called When baby cries a lot in the first few months of life. Together, these articles and videos will give you a brief and simple summary of the Possums 5-domain approach to the crying baby. For comprehensive information on this topic, please consider reading The discontented little baby book.

As challenging as it sounds, it can really help to spend as much time outside the house with your baby as possible during the day.

This requires planning, to set up arrangements such as

• Meeting with friends

• Attending parent groups

• Going for regular walks (even a few times a day), or

• Dropping into your workplace.

It’s good to have lots of activities planned for the week ahead, because you’ll probably already be exhausted when you start the day! It helps to know exactly what you are going to do, because then all you need to do, even if you don’t feel like it, is take one step after the other until you’re out the door and at your first activity or appointment.

The person doing most of the care of the baby often looks at me in disbelief when I suggest they need to plan to be out of the house a lot. How can they find the energy to do that, with such an unsettled baby? But actually, over and over, carers tell me that although the week was still hard, it was actually so much easier when they were out a lot – because the baby loved the rich sensory stimulation and was more dialled down.

When you have an unsettled baby or a baby who cries a lot, you need to reach out and ask for support from all the friends and family members that you can think of! If you can find someone to take your baby out for a walk while you rest, this might help too.

Here are some other useful ideas for rich sensory motor stimulation.

• Babies who spend time each day in a baby carrier cry less. You can find out carrier use here, here, and here.

• Babies are often much more dialled down when they are carried tummy down over your arm looking out, rather than up against your shoulder, because they love to be seeing the world around them.

You can find a lot more information in the section called Protecting your baby or toddler's sensory motor development, starting here.

Acknowledgements

I'm grateful to Professor Sophie Havighurst, Ros June, and Caroline Ma at Mindful, The University of Melbourne, for their feedback on the articles and videos in When baby cries a lot in the first few months of life. They helped me keep the language plain and the concepts as accessible as possible, for this brief and simple version of the Possums 5-domain approach to the crying baby.

Recommended resources

What is sensory motor nourishment and why does it help with baby sleep?

Filling your baby's sensory tank

Plan enjoyable days outside the home to help with baby sleep

Go for lots of walks when you're caring for a baby or toddler

Spend as much time in nature as possible when you're caring for a baby or toddler