Start by considering feeds if your baby cries a lot in the first months of life
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.
When you have a baby who cries and fusses a lot, we need to make sure that feeds are working well for you and your baby. This means checking that
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Your baby doesn’t have a conditioned dialling up with the breast, or a conditioned dialling up with the bottle if your little one is bottle feeding
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You are not feeling you have to burp or hold your baby upright after feeds
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You are offering either the breast or the bottle frequently and flexibly, whenever you think it might dial your baby down. The amount they feed will vary and feeds don’t need to last for long. It’s important to offer feeds frequently – but also make sure that the baby doesn’t feel under pressure to feed.
A lot of crying babies are given unnecessary and unhelpful medical diagnoses, so it can be good to talk over any diagnosis that your baby is given with your GP or local NDC Accredited Practitioner before you act on it.
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
Frequent flexible breastfeeds help make baby sleep easy
Does burping or holding your baby upright after feeds help with sleep?
How to avoid the four great disruptors of baby's night-time sleep
When does a baby have conditioned dialling up at the breast and what to do about it
When does a baby have conditioned dialling up with the bottle and what to do about it
