What Is Colic—And What Can I Do To Help My Baby?

Donya Leonard of Lethbridge, Alberta, recalls a time when her daughter Ryleigh was screaming so much, she and her husband didn’t know what to do. “We were exhausted,” she says. “Finally we just put her in the crib and we collapsed in bed. When we woke up, she was asleep. I had no idea how long she had been sleeping.”

In an ideal world, you would never leave a baby to cry it out. But if your nerves are frayed, you’re sleep deprived, and you fear you could lose your patience with your baby, hand her over to someone else, or put her down in a safe place, like a crib, take a deep breath, and leave the room. Remember that shaking a baby may damage her fragile brain, sometimes fatally. Put someone else in charge, even for ten minutes, so you can make yourself a cup of tea, read a magazine, meditate or find some way to relax.

“Parents need a lot of support to get through this period,” says Jeremy Friedman of Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. “If they can, it’s a good idea to mobilize family resources so they can get a break.”