<yes, and it is this disbelief that my child was actually in pain that
led me to videotape her crying. that got my doctor's attention. then he
finally let me test her poop and there was blood.

I would love to know how someone determined that these babies are not in
pain? How do you figure out if the Mom is just over reacting to the
babies scream? Or if Mom in under-reacting all day to baby's needs? Or
if this child is in actual agony - all without seeming to question the
mom's judgment?>

Dear Rachel,

As you know only too well, a baby's scream is one of the most alarming
sound a new mother can hear and not being able to soothe her baby can
quickly lead to feelings of incompetence, exhaustion and doubts about
the quality of her milk.

Unfortunately, during the first few months, most moms have a very hard
time deciphering the cause of their baby's cries.  Several scientists
have performed sophisticated acoustic analyses on newborn cries only to
find that during the first months of life it is very difficult if not
impossible to tell from the sound of the cry alone if a baby is cold,
hungry or in pain.  This is especially true for passionate and intense
babies whose cries may rapidly escalate into screams even when they are
just startled by the telephone.

The point I was trying to make in my earlier Lacnet entry was that it is
easy to figure out if a baby is really in pain...not by the sound of
their cry, but by their response to the 5 S's.  Once parents become
experienced with turning on their baby's "calming reflex" by doing the
5S's they can usually calm their baby in minutes...or less.

Real pain would not vanish with swaddling, shushing and jiggling.
That's why Dr. Stanley Inkelis, director of the Pediatric Emergency
Medicine, Harbor-UCLA Hospital uses the 5 S's before doing any
laboratory test when a screaming infant is brought to his ER.  "The 5
S's are quite simply the best way I know to calm crying babies."

So, rather than manipulating a mother's diet or putting a baby on a
highly processed, hypoallergenic formula, parents can simply do the
5S's.  If they are done correctly and the baby continues to wail then it
is appropriate to consider the various medical causes of infant crying.

Harvey

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