The Happiest Baby on the Block; Fully

You don’t have to worry that responding to his cries might teach bad habits. Limit setting only becomes important after around nine months. (Location 459)

best pain medicines of the 1800s—gin and opium. It sounds incredible to us today, but fussy babies everywhere were dosed with these powerful anesthetics…until the 1970s! (Location 1699)

The secret of swaddling is keeping the arms snug, while leaving the blanket loose around the knees and hips so they can bend and open easily. (Location 1945)

Letting the blanket touch the cheek When a blanket touches the cheek of your hungry baby, it fools her into thinking it’s the breast. That can set off the rooting reflex and cause her to cry with frustration when she can’t find the nipple. So keep the blanket off the face, by making the swaddle look like a V-neck sweater. (See the DUDU wrap instructions beginning on this page.) (Location 1953)

But a more appropriate name for these moms would be Galactic Goddesses because the words galaxy (and galactic) come from the ancient Greek word gala, meaning “milk.” Legend has it that all the stars in the sky came from milk sprayed out of the breasts of the goddess Juno. Hence, we call our galaxy the Milky Way! (Location 2728)

So don’t worry if the paci is your baby’s fave stress reducer and she resists your attempts to take it away. If you insist on removing her beloved binky she’ll probably just switch to her thumb, which is a much bigger problem! It’s almost impossible to wean thumb sucking until your baby decides to stop on her own (which may take many years). Furthermore, (Location 2786)

By weaning it around six or seven months of age, you can reduce pacifier use from many times a day to nothing, in less than a week. (Location 2824)

Of course, when your baby fusses you should first check to make sure he’s not hungry, wet, or lonely. (Even if he just finished feeding, try offering just a little more to eat.) If feeding, holding, and skin-to-skin contact don’t seem to be working, the 5 S’s usually do the trick. But if they don’t help, here are some other things to consider: (Location 2891)

4th S: Swinging Gentle, slow, wide swings are great to keep calm babies calm, but they’re totally ineffective for screamers. To calm those babies: • Use quick, teensy wiggles (just one to two inches, side to side), two or three times per second. • Always support your baby’s head and neck. • Hold the head a little loosely in your hands, so it can sort of jiggle…like Jell-O on a plate. (Location 2952)

Some of the homeopathic treatments recommended for colic are chamomile, colocynth, magnesium phosphorica, and pulsatilla. Some parents swear by them, but there is no convincing evidence of benefit. Over $2.5 billion has been spent by the National Institutes of Health to test herbal and other alternative health remedies. (Location 3168)

(Some babies finish a feeding, but fuss a little later when they realize they need just an extra ounce to “top off the tank” in preparation for sleep.) But, ignoring early signs to get a bit more sleep is actually smart. An extra hour of rest can improve nursing by reducing depression, preventing mastitis, and boosting your milk supply. That’s why hundreds of breast-feeding clinics help nursing moms succeed by teaching them swaddling and (Location 3358)

Note: As with swaddling, only use white noise during fussy periods and sleep, not 24/7. It’s also a good idea to play white noise—quietly in the background—during the bedtime routine. It signals to your baby that his sweet glide into dreamland is about to begin. (Location 3428)

Believe it or not, your baby’s teeth may start coming in as early as three or four months. That’s when you have to start preventing cavities. Once your infant’s teeth come through, keep the sucking periods to under thirty minutes at a time. Sucking on a bottle or breast for long periods bathes the soft new teeth in sugar solution and encourages cavity-causing bacteria to grow. If your little one wants more sucking, offer a pacifier or a bottle of water or unsweetened herbal tea, like mint or chamomile, made with boiled water, then cooled, during the first three months of life. (Location 3464)

A study of breast-fed babies found that two simple scheduling tweaks yielded a big improvement in sleep in the first two months: • Waking for a “dream feed,” between ten P.M. and midnight. • Responding to nighttime cries with a few minutes of holding or a diaper change before feeding. (Location 3504)

You can help avoid this problem by swaddling, using a pacifier, and turning on rumbly white noise before you place him into the bassinet. Those all reduce the abrupt change your baby experiences when you transfer him into the bassinet. (Location 3738)

When my baby falls asleep at the end of a feeding, should I do a burping and risk waking him up? Yes, burp him to keep him from spitting up in his sleep. While you’re at it, also check to see if he needs a diaper change. Don’t worry about waking your baby. After a feeding, he will feel a little “drunk,” and he should slide back into sleep quickly when you use the 5 S’s and wake-and-sleep. Note: It’s also a good idea to put ointment on your baby’s bottom at bedtime, to protect his skin from any middle-of-the-night pee or poop. (Location 3742)