I have interviewed the doctor (Dr. Ron Barr) who developed this several
times. The goal is to prevent child abuse by helping parents to better
understand infant crying, especially what we call "colic." His studies have
found that parents often feel guilt and anger about infant crying, so the
idea is to show that all babies cry, some babies cry more than others (and
he has studied societies around the world and found that while baby-wearing,
fast response, etc. can reduce crying significantly, there is still a range
of crying - and some babies do have more "unsoothable" crying than others),
the baby isn't doing it to bug you or because he's manipulating you, and you
are not a bad parent because your baby cries.  His research-based approach
to soothing: "Contact, carry, walk and talk." He also talks about fast
response to crying - don't let the baby get worked up or it will take longer
to calm down. But he also says that if parents feel they can't take the
crying - if they are worried about hurting the baby - they should put the
baby down in a crib or safe place and walk away until they calm down.

I'm not sure how this is taught in hospitals or what all the elements of the
program are, but these are some things I know Dr. Barr talks about.

Teresa Pitman (wow, two posts in one day!)

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