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How to put a crying baby to sleep... the scientific method

2022-09-13T20:32:55.695Z


When babies cry too much and can't sleep, mothers should hold them for about five minutes before putting them to bed, according to a study.


Sleep tips for kids 1:48

(CNN) —

It's every parent's nightmare: an exhausted baby who won't stop crying when it's time for bed.

Even worse?

The baby eventually falls asleep in your arms, but wakes up again and starts sobbing when you lay him down in the crib.

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The solution is a pair of magic numbers — five and eight — according to Japanese researchers who conducted experiments with 21 mothers trying to put their little ones to sleep.

Here's how it works: Walk with your baby for a minimum of five minutes without jerky movements, at which point your little one will be calm, if not asleep, according to the study.

Then sit and hold the baby for another eight minutes before gently placing him in the crib.

According to study co-author Dr. Kumi Kuroda, team leader of the Affiliative Social Behavior Unit at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science in Saitama, Japan, placing the sleeping infant in bed without first sitting quietly for eight minutes full ended in disappointment.

"Although we did not predict it, the key parameter for successfully putting sleeping babies to bed was the (delay) from sleep onset," Kuroda said in a statement.

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"I raised four children and ran these experiments, but even I couldn't foresee the key results of this study until the statistical data came out," Kuroda added.

The time guidelines may be helpful for some parents and caregivers, but they won't necessarily work for everyone, said Atlanta pediatrician Dr. Jennifer Shu, medical editor-in-chief of the American Academy of Pediatrics website for parents.

Walking for at least five minutes puts many babies to sleep, according to the study.

Then sit for eight minutes before placing them in the crib.

"Babies are different and (some) may not all respond to this system," said Shu, who was not involved in the study.

Parents and caregivers shouldn't use this technique regularly if a baby can fall asleep on their own, added Shu, who also co-authored "Heading Home With Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality."

"The goal should be to make sure the baby gets a good night's sleep with this or other techniques, and eventually to encourage him to fall asleep on his own, both at the beginning of bedtime and during the night (when he wakes up)," Shu said in an email.

Heartbeat data is key

The study, published Tuesday in the journal Current Biology, examined the impact of four calming behaviors on crying in babies.

Mothers were asked to carry their baby while walking, walk with their baby in a stroller or "crib mobile," hold their baby when sitting up, and finally put their baby directly into a crib or cot.

The researchers monitored the baby's heartbeat and videotaped each session to record and time the response.

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Sitting and holding a crying baby didn't work, according to the study: Monitors showed the baby's heart rate increased and the behavior continued.

Unsurprisingly, putting the crying baby directly into the crib didn't work either.

Only movement calmed the babies, the study found.

Within five minutes, all babies carried by walking moms had stopped crying, heart rates had slowed, and 46% of babies were asleep.

An additional 18% of babies fell asleep within a few minutes, the study found.

However, the five-minute walk resulted in only the crying babies falling asleep.

"Surprisingly, this effect was absent when the babies were already calm beforehand," Kuroda said.

The researchers saw similar results when parents pushed babies in strollers, but the impacts weren't as strong.

Now comes the even harder part: putting sleeping babies to bed without waking them up.

A third of the babies in the study woke up immediately after lying down, no matter how gently.

But it wasn't the contact of the bed with a baby's body that woke them up, the study found.

Instead, the monitors showed that the baby's heart rate response spiked when the baby first separated from the mother's body.

However, when the babies were held for an additional eight minutes, they entered a more stable sleep state, one that did not waver when separated from their mother, the researchers found.

Why does charging them work?

Human babies, like other mammals, respond to what's called the "transport response," an innate reaction seen in species with babies who are too immature at birth to walk or care for themselves.

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You see it in nature videos all the time: mother lions, tigers, and other wild cats, as well as their domesticated cousins, carry their babies by the neck.

The same goes for wild and domestic dogs, mice and rats.

Great apes, monkeys and other primates carry their babies on their backs, where they calm down and cling, as do opossums and giant anteaters.

Marsupials like kangaroos, koalas, and wallabies have specialized pouches to cradle their babies as they grow.

The answer seems instantaneous: Once mom picks the baby up and starts moving, the baby is relatively compliant and the heart rate slows, according to research by Kuroda and her team.

Unfortunately, it seems that humans aren't as lucky as other mammalian mothers and need to carry their young longer to get the same response.

There is another thing that sets people apart: the need for human babies to learn to sleep on their own.

"Carrying or rocking a baby fully to sleep creates a routine that the baby will learn to expect," Shu said.

"When the baby wakes up in the middle of the night in a stage of light sleep (as we all do), it may require that the routine be done again."

For babies 4 months and older, the AAP recommends putting them to bed when they're drowsy rather than waiting for them to fall asleep completely.

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And don't be too quick to soothe a baby older than 3 months when he wakes up, the AAP recommended.

Just like adults, your baby may move, fuss, and go back to sleep.

Be sure to follow safe sleep guidelines: Babies should always be put to sleep on their backs for naps and at night, in an approved crib without bumpers, pillows, stuffed animals, comforters, or blankets.

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Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2022-09-13

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