Dear Rachel,

<So the 5 s's are swaddling, swinging, shushing, ?, ?>

The 5 S's are swaddle (arms down and snug with no loose blankets),
side/stomach position (for calming but not for sleeping), shushing (as
loud as the baby is crying - remember inside the uterus the sound is
louder than a vacuum cleaner 24/7), swinging (a fast jiggly motion when
the baby is crying hard), and sucking.



<isn't much intestinal pain intermittent? >

Yes, intestinal pain can be intermittent, but in general, babies who cry
from GER disease or food allergies have bouts of persistent crying
lasting 20-60 minutes or longer.

For all other problems, a parent using the 5 S's should, in most cases,
be able to stop the crying....period.  Not have screaming outbursts
every 5 minutes.

<However I don't get too many calls from Moms with colicky babies where
the Mom or Dad hasn't tried every trick in the book. Do you really find
Moms who haven't tried soothing techniques?>

The reason most parents fail to calm their baby even when they do
"everything in the book" is because they are either not doing them
correctly or not doing them together.  The 5 S's work because they
trigger a neonatal reflex called the "calming reflex".  It is virtually
an automatic off switch for a baby's crying.

However, reflexes only work when they are activated exactly in the right
way.  If you hit someone's knee with a mallet but you are off by an
inch...nothing happens.  In fact, even if you hit the knee in the right
spot, but do it too softly...nothing happens.

The same is true for the "calming reflex".  If a parent wraps the baby
too loosely or with the hands our...it fails.  If the shushing is too
quiet or the jiggling is too slow, or the baby rolled slightly towards
the back...the all fail.  In facet, as I said, for really fussy babies
parents need to do several or all 5 S's all at the same time to trigger
the reflex and stop the crying.

I know all this sounds complicated, but it really isn't.  It is merely a
tweaking of the things that are already known...however, the reason I
wrote the book and made a video is because these techniques are a little
counterintuitive and most people need some guidance with them.

I am very pleased that LLLI will be promoting the video in their next
catalogue!


Harvey

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