Whether you are a brand new parent or a seasoned veteran when it comes to dealing with babies, sometimes it can be difficult to figure out why your baby is crying. This is the second part of a two part post listing ten common reasons for infant tears to help you when you feel like you have run out of ideas why your baby won’t stop crying.

The Rest of the Top 10 Reasons Babies Cry:

1. Teething. The pain of teeth breaking through gums is tough for babies to handle, especially because they do not understand what is happening. If you run your finger across your baby’s gums, you will be able to feel new teeth pushing against the gums during teething, and you will know that this is probably why your little one is crying right now.
2. Temperature. If a baby feels to hot or too cold, he or she cannot take off their clothes or blankets to adjust their temperature, so they do what they do best – start crying so that you can fix it for them.
3. Dirty diaper. While some babies can sit in a dirty diaper for a long time without making a sound, others are immediately irritated by the feeling of a messy diaper.
4. Needs to burp. If your baby seems to get fussy after each feeding, you may want to try burping the baby to relieve some of the pressure of gas that might be bothering him or her.
5. Illness. If none of the other suggestions seem to fix what is bothering your infant, he or she might be coming down with something. Check for a fever and contact your baby’s doctor to see if this is the problem.

It can be hard for all parents, both new and experienced, to ascertain the cause of their baby’s tears sometimes. This is challenging because without knowing why your infant is crying, it is hard to calm them.

Here is the first half of a list of ten common reasons why a baby might cry to help you soothe your little one.

Top 5 Reasons Babies Cry:

1. Hunger. Babies need to eat often to get the nutrients they need during this important period of development, so your little one might be hungry more often than you think.
2. Tiredness. An infant also needs a lot of sleep, but sometimes they can be too stimulated to sleep. Putting them in a quieter, calmer, or darker environment might help them get the rest they need.
3. Hold me. Your baby loves to be snuggled and held, so he or she might be crying to tell you that they want to be picked back up.
4. Pain. Without words, your baby has trouble telling you that something hurts. It might be a tag in their new outfit or a hair wrapped around their toe – look for something that could be causing them irritation.
5. Colic. Not sure if those tears mean that your baby has colic? Keep track of how often he or she cries. If the tears last for more than three hours a day, more than three days each week, and more than three weeks in a row, your little one might have colic. Speak to your medical professional for more guidance about this condition.

For the parent of a baby with colic, there are only a few questions that truly matter. First, how can colic be treated or cured. After they find out that there is no certain cure for the crying that comes with colic, there is only one question that remains: How long will the colic last?

When it comes to this question, there is some good news and some bad news.

The good news:

The good news is that colic is temporary. There will be a time when your child stops crying for no reason and his or her cries become less anguished. In most cases, children first show signs of colic around three weeks after they are born. The symptoms are the worst around weeks six through eight, and by week twelve, the symptoms have abated.

The bad news:

For some babies, colic symptoms persist until the baby is six months old. There is no way to tell if your child is one of the children who will outgrow it by the age of three months or if your little one will keep crying for another three months.

Regardless of whether your child outgrows their colic by three months or not until they are six months old, it is important to remember that it will end. If you feel overwhelmed or exhausted by your infant’s colic, ask for help from friends and family. Keeping yourself balanced is an important part to helping your child get through the challenges of colic.

Colic is a condition that occurs among infants fairly frequently. About one out of five babies can develop colic, although the severity of each case can vary.

The main way to tell if a child has colic is by the frequency and duration of his or her crying. Babies with colic are healthy, well-fed infants with no reason to cry; yet they cry loudly and seem to be in pain because they clench their fists, arch their backs, and flex their abdominal muscles. One way to tell if an infant has colic as opposed to just being fussy is by the rule of threes – A child that cries for three or more hours a day on three or more days per week for at least three consecutive weeks probably has colic.

If you suspect that your little one may have colic, it is important to discuss this with your medical professional to get a definitive diagnosis and ensure that it is not a more serious condition.

Colic – normal and usually temporary

It is important for parents of infants to remember that colic is a normal and temporary condition. Colic does not reflect any health problems or illnesses in an infant, and although the crying fits are painful to watch, the infant will not suffer in either development or growth.

Additionally, colic is temporary. Children generally outgrow colic around three months of age, although some continue to exhibit symptoms until six months. As the cause of colic is not fully understood, it is hard to explain why the condition passes on its own, but fortunately for parents who are raising a colicky infant, it does!

Despite the incredible progress in medicine and science over the past hundred years or more, the causes of colic remain something of a mystery. It is not a new condition, but there has yet to be a definite answer as to what causes colic and why one child develops the condition while others do not.

Estimates vary on the actual number of infants who are affected by colic, but generally range between 15 and 25% of all babies. Experts disagree on the single cause of this condition, but common explanations for colic include the following areas.

Causes of colic to look for:

Indigestion or gas.

Gas can be extremely painful for infants, so one explanation for the cause of colic is that the infant is crying due to the buildup of gas in their digestive system.

Immaturity of the baby’s digestive system.

One way of explaining the indigestion or gas is that the infant’s digestive system is so new that it cannot process the formula or milk that it is given. This immaturity leads to gas, indigestion, and pain, causing colic.

Allergies or intolerance.

A third potential cause of colic is that the baby has allergies or cannot tolerate certain compounds or foods.

Temperament.

Finally, some people think that colic is a reflection of a baby’s very sensitive temperament, and that they develop better self control as they get older than enables them to control their crying.

The actual cause of colic may be any one of these or a combination of them, but understanding what may cause the crying that indicate colic is a smart way to evaluate possible ways of treating it.