Dear Barbara and Joyce,
As we all know, slow repetitive movement is effective for keeping babies calm. However, for turning on the calming reflex of upset babies the movement needs to be vigorous (in addition to swaddling and often with white noise added as well).
Hunziker and Barr showed that carrying babies in slings greatly dimished their crying (Increased carrying reduces infant crying: A randomized controlled trial. Pediatrics 1986; 77:641 …at 6 w avg cry 2 hours …no decrease freq of episodes just of duration.) However, when Ron Barr did a study of carrying colicky babies, he found that carrying did not decrease crying in these fussy babies at all! (Barr RG, McMullan SJ, Speiss H, et al. Carrying as colic “therapy”: A ranmdomized, controlled study. Pediatrics, 87:623-630 1991)
Fussy babies need vigorous movement to activate their calming reflex. That is the reason the swing is on the fast speed. In fact (as I show on my video) for really fussy babies the swing seat often needs to be jiggled quickly for 20 seconds .
Of course, it is best for babies to be in their parents arms, however for parents who are exhausted, parents of multiples, parents wthout extended support groups, parents with bad backs, and as I mentioned, parents with very fussy babies who need lots of motion...the swing is a valuable tool. The better a parent is able to keep baby calm the less likely she is to stop nursing because: she suspects that her milk is not good...her family is pressuring her to switch to formula...her letdown and milk production are being inteferred with by stress and exhaustion.
I have had a few babies sleep in the swing at night because it was the only way their parents cuold get them to sleep more than a couple of hours at a stretch.
Best wishes,
Harvey Karp
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