Beginners Guide - Why is Baby Crying?

The very first thing to do is figure out why your baby is crying. As you may have guessed, babies do not have any other form of communication with us at an early age. In a perfect world, our kids would be able to speak to us from birth but unfortunately, that would be highly unlikely.
It's the way of life in the early years and it's important to learn how to read the signs. First and foremost, if a baby feels uncomfortable, they will let you know. This includes when they feel too hot, cold, hungry, pain and even for bowel movements. It's a pretty large list as it is but those are the most common that come to my mind.
So how exactly do you determine what is causing them to cry? You will need to learn their tendencies by paying attention to their signals. Simply ignoring it will not help your cause because as mentioned above, crying covers everything from minor to major problems. Yes babies do cry occasionally for no apparent reason, but that's how you become a better parent. Learn to decipher the baby code and you're golden! It's not as hard as you think but it does take some time and patience.
Once you start to figure out your child's tendencies, you will notice that some of the crying occurs in an almost scientific schedule. Learn that schedule and you pretty much only have to worry about the unexpected crying which could be associated with the major and life threatening problems.
Here are a few things to check for...
1) Is your child hungry? Try to feed them breast milk / formula (or baby food if they're old enough) and see whether or not they will eat.
2) Does he/she need a diaper change? Simply feel the diaper for the extra baggage or if it's the other, I'm sure your nose would let you know.
3) Are they hot or cold? Simply remove / add a layer one by one to help regulate their temperature or turn on a fan/heater.
4) If their clothes are too tight, you may notice that it causes your child to be irritated. Simply check for the markings on their skin that was left behind by the elastic bands on their clothes.
5) Pick up your child and gently rock them or stroke their head slowly. Sometimes they just want to be held. If needed, you could always walk around the room while holding them.
6) Alternatively, sometimes they just want to be rocked back and forth. You could put them in a cradle and rock them or sit in a rocking chair while holding your child.
7) The famous pacifier.. if you're going down this route you can try putting one in their mouth to stimulate their need to suck. Just remember that one of these days you will need to ween them off of it :)
8) Perhaps they have to burp (commonly after a feeding session). Simply hold them up and rest their head on your shoulder and gently pat their back to help release those nasty gases.
Remember to never shake your child vigorously. Sometimes anger, and frustration get the best of us but this is definitely not going to help. You can seriously harm your child (short term and even long term disabilities) and most importantly you can kill them. Seriously, their bodies are very fragile at this age and it won't take much to snap them in half.
I'm not a doctor but I have some experience in looking for other signs as a parent. Take these suggestions as a guide only, and always check with your doctor as they are the expert. Especially if the above don't help calm your child, you may just very well have a more severe problem on your hands and need to have it checked out asap.
Lastly, invest in a digital thermometer - it helps! Those traditional thermometers won't be able to get even a borderline accurate reading because it's nearly impossible to keep it in their mouth, arm pit or anal orfice. Within seconds you can get a good reading by inserting the digital thermometer into their ear. You won't regret the purchase - it came in very handy in our household.
If you want to find out more about parenting tips, please visithttp://zedphoria.com/2008/beginners-guide-why-is-my-baby-crying/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Zed_More