I can hear it now: ‘Dad, I thought you hated being shushed’

FAMILY: I’ve had to go against my own beliefs in order to soothe my crying daughter
 

I ‘ve never been one to take kindly to being shushed. Just ask my wife.

I much prefer phrases like be quiet and keep it down. Heck, I might even take a shut up over the “Shhhhhhh!”

I don’t know why I hate it. I just do.

Well, when my baby daughter Alexandria is old enough to read these columns, she’ll be calling dear old dad a hypocrite.

That’s because one of the greatest tips I’ve learned so far as a new parent is that infants, particularly newborns, find shushing soothing.

My wife passed this information along to me after reading The Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp. I’ve been working my way through the book to pick up any extra tidbits of info.

Shushing is one of Karp’s five S’s, which help calm even the crankiest of babies.

I must say, I’ve been known to use all five at once when trying to soothe Alex.

One of my colleagues asked me if swearing was among the five. Alas, it is not, but would be a candidate for a sixth S.

Karp’s five S’s, for the record, are: swaddling, shushing sounds, side/stomach position, swinging and sucking.

Swaddling involves tightly wrapping the baby in a blanket to mimic the feel of mom’s womb.

The side/stomach position involves placing your baby, while holding him or her, either on her left side to assist in digestion or on her stomach to provide reassuring support. Once baby is asleep, you can put him or her safely on his or her back.

Shushing mimics the sounds baby would have heard while in the womb. We even have this great chair that plays that sound, along with many other noises. Any kind of white noise — vacuum cleaner, alarm clock radio turned to a station that doesn’t come in — will also work.

Swinging is pretty self-explanatory. Newborns get used to being rocked around while inside the womb. Nothing different once the baby is out in the real world.

Sucking is known as one of the most comforting baby mechanisms. Breast, bottle, pacifier and even a finger will do the job.

With Alex, she absolutely hates being swaddled. The problem is, if she isn’t swaddled, she startles herself with her flailing arms not long into her sleep. Apparently, this is normal.

Lately, she’s been mixing bottle feedings into her schedule, which has created a scenario where she is becoming less interested in breast feeding because the bottle is easier.

Sometimes, she rejects both.

This is when I run the S table. I’ll swaddle her first. Then I’ll head for the rocking chair, bottle and pacifier in hand. I’ll position her on my lower chest/upper stomach, turned in toward me, pretty much on her side. I’ll rock or swing her, whichever works best. I’ll give her a bottle or pacifier.

By this point, I can usually tell how easy or difficult it is going to be to put her to sleep.

On the occasions when she’s fighting sleep or in a cranky mood, I’ll add the fifth S, the one I am so dead set against personally. I’ll actually shush my own baby.

The louder she cries, the louder I shush. As if magically, it works. Believe it or not.

Within seconds, she’s sucking away on the bottle or pacifier.

Not too long after that, she’s asleep.

Written by Jan Murphy, originally posted on June 6th, 2009, at www.thewhig.com