The Happiest Baby on the Block

I had resolved to throw away the baby books, but I loosened my stance when I learned about a book that wouldn't make me feel guilty, but rather might actually help reduce the stress of caring for a newborn. Can't lose there, I decided.

Pregtastic produced a show on the topic of the "Fourth Trimester," a term I had never heard before. The guest was Dr. Harvey Karp, a Los Angeles-based pediatrician who wrote the book The Happiest Baby on the Block. The book teaches parents and caregivers methods for how to calm a crying baby. "Colic" is the most often cited blame for fussy or inconsolable babies, but Dr. Karp's research points to a different cause. It wasn't just the promise of being able to calm my baby in minutes, and with practice, even seconds, that intrigued me, but also his explanation of why newborns cry.

The term the "Fourth Trimester" is based in the theory that babies are actually born three months too early. Many animals can walk and even run within hours of birth, because their survival depends upon it. Although this is not the case for human babies, they have bigger brains than their animal counterparts, and Dr. Karp theorizes that big-brained babies can only be born safely if they are born early...say three months early. This new world, where the baby isn't held, fed and inundated with noise (the womb it turns out is a noisy place) 24 hours a day can be unsettling to some babies. Thus, Dr. Karp's techniques for calming a crying baby are rooted in replicating the experience in the womb and turning on the baby's calming reflexes. He has nicknamed the five techniques the "5 S's," and practically promises that when used together and correctly, all but the fussiest of babies (who may then truly have colic or an underlying health problem) can be calmed quickly.

1. Tightly swaddling a baby mimmicks the womb's compactness.
2. Using side or stomach positions to mimic the position the baby was used to being in, since a baby was never flat on his or her back in the uterus (not to be used when putting a baby to sleep, of course, just for calming).
3. "Shhhing" the baby to mimic the wooshing sounds of the womb.
4. Swinging or jiggling the baby to mimic all the motion if felt before it was born. (Reading about this technique makes me think every time I go for a walk or run up or down a set of stairs that fetuses really are getting bounced around a lot.)
5. Finally, sucking also acts as a calming reflex.

Dr. Karp's book is an easy read, even if it is a bit repetitive as he tries to drive home some very simple points. However, he goes into much more detail about the fourth trimester, calming reflexes and how the techniques work, than I could even begin to do in this entry.

Since I have spent so little time around newborns, (and was able to hand them back to their parents the second they started to fuss) I have no idea how well these techniques work and whether I'll be successful with them. I have really bought into Dr. Karp's theory though, because I haven't heard about anything else that is as effective. While I wonder why such supposedly simple and effective techniques haven't caught on like wildfire, I'm willing to give them a try. I've read the book cover-to-cover and Chris has been warned that the accompanying instructional DVD is on its way through inter-library loan.