What do restlessness and crying mean?
Restlessness and crying are the most common symptoms of babies not feeling well. There can be various reasons for this.
Possible causes of restlessness and crying
- Perhaps your baby is hungry or thirsty.
- Your baby may be in pain because he or she is teething or suffering from three-month colic.
- Very often small things such as a wet or too tight diaper are the cause of restlessness and crying in babies.
- Your child may just be bored or annoyed that they can no longer reach a toy.
- Babies can also sense the psychological stress of a tense parent and react with restlessness and crying.
Restlessness and crying: What helps?
The simplest explanations are usually the right ones! In many cases, it helps to talk to your baby in a calming way and to reposition it or pick it up for a while. However, if your child is behaving differently than usual, you should consult a doctor.
Tips for determining the cause of restlessness and crying
If your baby is not calming down, you can ask yourself the following questions to find out the cause:
- Is your baby dressed comfortably and loosely – or is something pinching?
- Could the diaper be full or wet?
- Is he hungry?
- Does it have a tummy ache?
- When was the last time your baby drank? Does it perhaps have gas?
- Is it teething?
- Does it hurt somewhere that you cannot assess with certainty (earache, headache)?
Restlessness and crying: When to see a doctor?
If you are unsure why your child is crying, you should ultimately consult a pediatrician. Sometimes there are clues in the baby’s behavior. For example, babies often grab their affected ear when they have an earache.
In other cases, it is very difficult to assign a cause to the crying and restlessness. For example, there are serious illnesses (such as intestinal engorgement) that do not cause any external symptoms other than seemingly causeless crying!
You must therefore take it seriously if you are unable to calm your baby as usual!
If your baby is generally jumpy and often cries for a long time for no apparent reason, you should have your pediatrician investigate the cause. Your doctor will clarify whether the chronic restlessness and crying may be due to a congenital disorder.
