New Evidence on Unexplained Early Infant Crying by Ronald G. Barr

Explanations for this and implications for the management of infant crying and colic are discussed. The findings support the responsivity hypothesis and show that infants with high responsivity are upset by undressing, putting down, and sustained handling.

High responsivity during the neurobehavioural assessment also predicted those infants who cried a lot and met a definition of ‘colic’ at home. Newborn infants who exhibited high responsivity during the neurobehavioural assessment cried, rather than fussed, the most at home. The infants’ crying over 24 hours was recorded in parental diaries. Infants were tested for their response to two standard, mildly challenging, procedures: a neurobehavioural test involving undressing, putting down, and handling, and the Guthrie test, involving a painful heel prick to obtain a blood sample. The sample included 93 eight-day-old infants from a community sample (47 females, 46 males mean birth weight 3457g mean gestation 39.4 weeks mean Apgar scores 8.28 at 1 minute and 9.59 at 5 minutes). The remarkably similar onsets and shapes, including the distinct peak patterns in the early months of life, of the age-related hospitalizations and crying serve as indirect evidence convergent with common sense and the anecdotal reports that early crying is a likely stimulus for Shaken Baby Syndrome. According to recent reports the incidence of AHT has almost doubled since the current recession began. The results suggest that, in the presence of variation in feeding practice greater than that which is typical for our society, feeding interval may be a significant factor in early (but not later) crying behavior furthermore, this effect is independent of and additive to the soothing effect of short response latency. One report found 89 of parents who shook their babies visited a doctor seeking baby calming help before the assault occurred. This study examined the hypothesis that the crying is due to high infant responsivity, and provides evidence about the types of stimulation that trigger crying in infants who present with high responsivity. The average age is 3.5 months and the 1 trigger is infant crying. possibility that etiologically ' unexplained ' cases could be infants whose crying was at. Unexplained crying in infants aged 1 to 3 months is a common concern for Western parents and health services. Subsequently, Brazelton's ( 1962 ) study of ' normal ' crying.

New Evidence on Unexplained Early Infant Crying by Ronald G. Barr