A crying baby is a regular thing, especially when discussing a newborn baby. But when your newborn cries when you put them down, it can be frustrating and, in some cases, worrisome.
A baby’s cries can break your heart, turn you into an investigator, or make you feel guilty and cause you to start thinking about what you might be doing wrong.
You want to help your baby sleep through the night and for you to have much-needed rest as well.
Newborn cries when put down
Some newborn babies are just fussy all of the time. Crying babies are nothing new, but when your baby does nothing but scream the moment you put them down, that’s somewhat outside the norm, and it can get on your nerves quickly.
Parents say they’re willing to try anything to help their little one fall asleep without hearing the baby crying when the little one leaves their arms and gets put in their beds.
This article is here to offer some help. Babies cry for all sorts of reasons, and the fastest way to help your babies calm down and get to sleep for the night is to figure out why it’s happening.
What to do when my baby cries
As we already stated, babies cry for many reasons. The frustrating part is that newborns aren’t verbal and can’t understand or communicate in a language that we can understand easily. So, as parents, we have to become amateur detectives and figure it out ourselves.
Investigating will most likely take some trial and error. We may decide that it must be one thing, work towards that remedy, and then discover that the reason for the fussy baby must be something else.
Since many of us aren’t pediatricians or detectives, we must develop a method to determine what is wrong with our little ones. The following are some tips for getting to the bottom of the issue so you can begin working towards a solution.
Stay calm
Remaining calm is easier said than done. Human babies are entirely dependent on their parents for every single thing that they need.
Parenting a newborn is a heavy task, even for the most well-seasoned and patient parents.
Keeping cool can be even more challenging when you have a problematic or fussy baby. You want the bedtime routine to go well.
You have an otherwise healthy infant, but the moment you get into bed after putting your newborn baby in the crib or bassinet, the baby’s crying shatters the silence, and you know that falling asleep is nothing but a dream that won’t come true tonight.
Parents get upset. We’re humans, not machines. Sleep deprivation exhausts us, especially when we have jobs, spouses, other kids, and a house to take care of.
The baby starts to scream, and all we want is for them to stop crying so we can get an hour of deep sleep. Sleep deprivation can lead to aggression. Your sudden mood change can translate into a harmful action, such as violently shaking your baby.
Shaken baby syndrome
A child’s brain and major organs cannot take the trauma of being shaken violently.
While you may think you will never shake your child in anger or frustration, it happens daily.
An exhausted parent who is sleep-deprived can quickly get upset by a newborn’s excessive crying.
Shaking a baby can result in severe injury and even death. And the truly tragic thing is that this is an entirely preventable issue.
You can, and you must step away when your temper flares. Anger is normal. Abuse is not.
If you find yourself exhausted, your temper is short, or you have thoughts of self-harm or harming your baby, call someone who can care for your baby. Step away from the situation. Call your doctor.
Your baby will not be fussy forever. You can get through this. You just need to get help.
Make sure that your baby isn’t sick
Is your child sensitive to the formula you are feeding? Does your child have gas? Does your child have a diaper rash or a sensitivity to the diapers you’re using? Does your baby have an ear infection?
Playing detective can be tedious, but ruling out possible reasons by process of elimination will get you the best answers to what is causing such stress on your little one.
If you can switch diapers or formula brands to make the baby relax, it will be well worth the week or so of looking into everything you give and feed your baby.
If you aren’t sure whether your newborn may be sick, schedule a checkup with your doctor.
Make sure you mention any unusual behavior, such as hair or ear pulling, a slight fever, or drawing up the legs after feeding and screaming.
What to do when the baby wakes up screaming
Once you have done your due diligence and have ascertained that your little one isn’t ill or reacting to the diapers, formula, or laundry detergent you use, it’s time to start thinking outside the box.
The following are some reasons that many babies cry.
1. Deal with separation anxiety
Separation anxiety occurs when your baby, who is used to being in your arms or by your side around the clock, feels fear or insecurity when they are away from you.
The womb, full of warmth and soft noises, has been your baby’s environment for nine months.
It can be a total shock for them and cause distress when your baby no longer has that.
What to do
- Give the baby a warm bath before bedtime.
- Use a white noise machine at bedtime, so the silence isn’t causing stress. New parents tend to think that quiet is needed for a baby to sleep well, but that’s not true. White noise is a muffled yet ongoing sound that can help your baby self-soothe so they can sleep for at least a few hours.
- You and the baby need to stop co-sleeping if you are experiencing increased crying when your baby is away from you. It is safer for a newborn baby to sleep in their beds than to co-sleep with you. Also, sleeping on their own will help your baby find ways to fall asleep alone and stay asleep without you.
2. Check that diaper
A dirty diaper is an easy fix.
Sometimes a baby falls asleep after feeding. When the baby’s body is in this relaxed state, the bowels relax as well.
Such a moment results in a diaper blowout that can bring babies from sleeping to turning purple crying in half a second.
Babies don’t want to lay in their poop. Being stuck in that situation can cause them distress. Soiled diapers are easy to fix, but it is an often-overlooked reason why a newborn cries when put down.
What to do
- If your baby is a middle-of-the-night pooper who doesn’t want to go back to sleep after being changed, have all the supplies you need on standby and nearby. A diaper caddy is an awesome idea.
- Have a spare diaper, wipes, and a wipe warmer near the crib so you can change the baby in the crib or right outside the crib.
- Soothe the baby, but quickly get the job done.
- Put baby right back into bed without any activity (unless baby needs to nurse, depending on sleep patterns and when your little one feeds regularly).
- Show that middle-of-the-night diaper change is a quick event. Putting your baby back to bed after they are in a clean and dry diaper will help your child learn that the crib is for sleeping.
3. Relieve stress
Your mental health affects your infant.
Older babies, particularly, are affected by your state of mind and mood.
If you are upset, having a hard day, or fighting with your spouse, your little one picks up on that and matches your energy.
While healthy living is ideal for all families, sometimes we can’t avoid a rough patch in life.
In these cases, do everything within your power to ensure that your little one can feel safe at home. Make your child feel secure in your love, regardless of what is going on in your adult life. Home should be a haven.
What to do
Whether your child is in the early months of life or a slightly older age group, they pick up on your stresses and moods and reflect on them by crying and refusing sleep.
- Create a safe and calm atmosphere in your child’s room so that even if the world is falling apart all around you, the room your child sleeps in is a place of joy and love.
- Mothers can hold their newborns and infants in a comfortable position in a glider or rocking chair in the room to soothe a stressed baby, and then once things are calmer, put the baby to bed.
4. Address hunger pangs
Human evolution has progressed a lot since the days of us living in caves and beating saber-tooth tigers over the head with a club to protect our children.
However, when a baby is hungry, crying has always been the human response and most likely always will be.
If your little one wakes from a nap screaming and sucking on their fingers and hands, they are most likely hungry.
Hungry babies will cry until the need for feeding is satisfied.
What to do
- Speak to a pediatrician to find out how much and how often to feed your child. It’s an easy mistake to make when it comes to feeding. For example, we fall into the pattern of three ounces of formula or breastmilk every four hours, and we don’t realize that it soon isn’t enough, and we end up with a hungry baby.
- Adjust your child’s feeding schedule and the amount they are being fed accordingly.
Why does the baby scream constantly?
If it’s not just sleep disturbed by screaming, you may have a different type of issue on your hands. Colic is one of the most common reasons for nonstop screaming in newborns.
Infantile colic
If baby screams when they have been fed enough, when you’re holding them, when they have tummy time, when they can sleep, and this goes on for hours a day, days at a time, then weeks at a time, you may be dealing with infantile colic.
Colic has no known cause. It happens when otherwise healthy babies cry for more than three hours a day, more than three days a week, for three days or more.
Colic peaks around age 4-6 weeks, or during the “fourth trimester,” when your child is still developing and getting used to life outside the womb.
There’s not much you can do aside from having a lot of patience, understanding, and help from other people.
Colic usually goes away on its own.
If the screaming doesn’t stop, you may need to discuss health concerns with your doctor to look for underlying causes for the cry that doesn’t stop.
Getting back to sleep
Not being able to sleep because of an infant’s crying won’t go on forever because it can’t.
No human being can stay awake all night, every night, forever.
Eventually, you will figure out what is wrong and what you can do to fix the issue.
Talk to your doctor, enlist your family to help you narrow down the causes for the crying, and try everything you can think of to calm your baby.
Don’t stop until you’re successful.
Take breaks when you need them. Eventually, your baby will sleep, and you will, too.