Post by Suzee Skwiot.
More from The Stir: 11 Reasons Your Baby Might Be Crying
"My mom used to lay me on a blanket in front of the stereo with KISS playing on a record!" "If feeding, changing, and burping don't help, then we put in Best of Leslie Gore's CD. Our babies automatically stop crying once that first song comes on... 'It's My Party.'" "My older son always calmed down when the opening theme for Star Trek: The Next Generation started." "I learned this at the birth center where I had him: I used to say 'Shhhhh!' in his ear. It worked." "I once tried to breastfeed my baby attempting to lean over her while she was STRAPPED INTO HER CAR SEAT as we were hurling down the highway on an endless road trip. Totally insane!" "Hand them to Dad! Not sure that really gets them to stop crying, but hell, it saved my sanity."
And finally (and most honestly):
"Beer! Not for baby, but you!"![]()
The sounds of a wailing baby can be so piercing that sometimes you'll try anything to get them to stop crying. Right, parents? When you've listened to hours of non-stop sobbing and restlessness, you're willing to test out crazy theories to soothe the baby.
Sometimes all it takes is some nursing or a drive around the block, but when those sure-fire ways won't do, you have to resort to other methods. We checked in with moms to see what wild things they've done to get their baby to stop crying:
"I used to pretend that my son's stuffed bear was punching me in the face -- good-naturedly, of course -- and then I'd pretend to fall down and he'd die laughing. I only realize now (11 years later!) how bizarre this sounds." "When my son was a newborn he would cry non-stop every evening for hours, so we followed the advice in the book, 'The Happiest Baby on the Block.' We swaddled him very tight, shook him carefully like you would a cocktail shaker, and ran the vacuum. We would do this for about two hours straight every single night. It was exhausting, but it was better than listening to him cry. It worked." "When my daughter was gassy, the only thing that would work to stop her from crying was to put her in her stroller and take her for a ride on gravel. The bumpier, the better. You'd think you'd want a nice, smooth ride for the stroller, but nope!" "We ran the vacuum and it would settle her down instantly. But I got tired of running the vacuum all the time so I downloaded an audio file of it and played that instead. I didn't want to kill the Dyson. It's way too expensive." "To stop my baby from crying, [we'd] act like we were all beating each other up (because it's hilarious)." "The only thing that ever worked to get my daughter to stop crying was to pat her butt. Over and over and over. Not hard. I wasn't spanking her. Just pat, pat, pat, pat, pat on her bottom until she calmed down."More from The Stir: 11 Reasons Your Baby Might Be Crying
"My mom used to lay me on a blanket in front of the stereo with KISS playing on a record!" "If feeding, changing, and burping don't help, then we put in Best of Leslie Gore's CD. Our babies automatically stop crying once that first song comes on... 'It's My Party.'" "My older son always calmed down when the opening theme for Star Trek: The Next Generation started." "I learned this at the birth center where I had him: I used to say 'Shhhhh!' in his ear. It worked." "I once tried to breastfeed my baby attempting to lean over her while she was STRAPPED INTO HER CAR SEAT as we were hurling down the highway on an endless road trip. Totally insane!" "Hand them to Dad! Not sure that really gets them to stop crying, but hell, it saved my sanity."
And finally (and most honestly):
"Beer! Not for baby, but you!"
What's your craziest trick to get baby to stop crying?
Image via Rene Jansa/shutterstock