Better to comfort babies than let them cry

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

LONDON - Comforting babies is better than letting them cry and ultimately results in fewer tears, at least during the first few weeks of life.

British researchers who compared the benefits of soothing bawling babies or letting them settle themselves found that holding and comforting them minimized the crying.

"The hands-off approach appeared to backfire: babies fussed and cried 50 percent more at two and five weeks," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.

"And they were still crying more after 12 weeks," it added.

Ian St James-Roberts, of the University of London's Institute of Education, examined the benefits of different approaches used by British, Danish and American parents who kept a diary of their baby's behavior and their own responses.

Some parents held their babies for up to 16 hours a day and quickly answered their cries while others had them in their arms much less and left them crying for awhile.

St James-Roberts said comforting the baby on demand, rather than a very high level of comfort and care, minimized the tears.

"But it makes no difference to the unsoothable bouts of crying that are the core of colic," he told the magazine.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13068627/

[arwensun1965 1]

Oh duh and these men just thought of this after how many thousands of years

[MichelleandCraig 1]

Well, Corey was my first and only child...so he was in my/our arms practically non stop when he was first born anyway!heh...later, as he got older, I would let him cry and fuss for a little bit, but I would check to see if he really! needed anything ...like changing, or if it was time for him to eat....most of the time you can get to know what a cry means...if they are just ticked off, or tired, or whatever...but I can recall many times where he would lay there just fussing before a nap or whatever...kind of halfheartedly....kind of like 'c'mon mom....if I keep this up are you gonna come and get me??c'monnnnnnn' If it was his naptime,etc I just let him fuss....if it wasn't I usually caved...but only because I liked playing with him so much! M.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Funniest thing is when kids cry but there are no tears.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Funniest thing is when kids cry but there are no tears.

That describes me as an adult.