Tips for soothing an unsettled baby

Hi all,
I'm currently working on a series of articles to go out weekly to new mums for the first year of their babies' lives and one of the things I want to include is some tried and true tips for soothing unsettled babies.

So I'd love to hear what worked or didn't work for you?!

Hugs,
Emma

mine was take time out and hand the baby to nana it works relly well ,or a warm bath for baby and you and massage i lrent the iloveyou massage from my doctor and it worked wonder for james .hope that helps

put in pram and rock or shake the pram - also got told years ago to put a rolled up carpet or a towel and push over that cause it give a little bump

Also baby massage worked for #1 but the other 2 hated it

I often found that my girls would get unsettled around what we now call "jungle hour(s)" in our house, about 5 pm, right when mike was getting home from work and you wanted to start cooking dinner.    I found that a front pack worked for some of that if baby really couldn't be put down.
but I then learnt to bath baby about 4.30 give her a feed, and often it would settle her to sleep just before that cranky time started which meant usually i'd then have about an hour to get dinner sorted so that even if she woke up after that, dinner maybe just needed dishing up, or i could pop her on to feed and still eat my dinner, or if she woke sometimes and was happy to wait I could pop her in the bouncer until ihad finished my dinner.

I do have what i now call the "bounce and shush" method, lol, which i still use now at work and tended to work well with my girls when they were little.   Swaddle well, hands in, turn to face the outside world (face away from you) hold them upright in between your breasts, with head just up on your chest, one of your arms across their chest and one across their body or holding under their bum - however they prefer., talking gently to them, kinda bouncy-walking (as if you are dancing slowly in a bouncy sort of way) and shushing as you go. i do tend to end up with the hand that's across their chest tapping gnetly on their arm, or sometimes tapping their bottom gently in time with my shushing and moving. i think it works in that same way as the pushing over a bump in the buggy, a familiar rythym of movement, tapping, noise, and you aren't having baby faced towards you crying in your face, so they don't pick up on your stress as much. I usually go for a small walk about in theis way talking gnetly about things we see around the house on the way etc, and while you're talking and nattering queitly about absolutely nothing, you calm down and they just get quieter and quieter and tend to either calm right down or often will fall asleep.

works for me nearly everytime no matter how upset the baby i am looking after is... my workmates probably look at me weird but it works... i just look a bit funny kinda quietly walking/dancing about.

when sitting down lie them down (face up) on your legs so head is by knees then move each leg up and down to make a rocking movement - works well with my one

The last few nights making sure she is swadded well and tucked in tight, I can then just pat her bottom and make sure the dummy is in and within a few minutes she is calm enough to be left to go to sleep on her own. I have found the pram doesn't work for us. Have used a sling a couple of times during the "witching" hour as she can then sleep while I can still get some jobs done

Walk!! That was my girls demand when she was upset (and I still have no idea how they can tell a jiggly walk from a jiggly sit!). Or if she got desperate and wouldn't sleep, I'd put her in my moby wrap and walk around and that normally worked. And if I can, take her for a shower, that seems to work every time - she loves it!

My tried and tested methods are (in no particular order):

- put in sling and walk
- in pram, running it over a bump consistently
- swaddle firmly and rock/sway in arms
- hold on shoulder and rock/sway or pat bottom rhythmically
- in bassinet on tummy, rock bassinet or pat bottom rhythmically
- tiger hold (as described by Chickoin above - this is really good if baby has upset tummy or wind)

Rocking fast is important as it stops baby from focusing on surroundings and getting stimulated .. the eyes can't focus and get tired doing so - so they eventually give up and close

Cuddle them facing out from you (their back to your tummy) or lying down on your forearm. This seems to help babies with sore tummies, reflux or not.

BTW , I don't think the shhh shhh shh thing calms them as such , I think its more a case of them going quiet cos they're wondering what the hell that noise is