Why do young infants cry so much, and what actually helps?

Most crying in the first few months is normal. It builds from about two weeks of age, peaks at six to eight weeks — when an average baby fusses or cries a little over two hours a day — then settles by three to four months. Run through hunger, a wet diaper, tiredness, temperature and the need to be held. Crying with fever, refused feeds, vomiting or an unfamiliar cry needs a same-day check.

For a newborn, crying is the only means of expression she has. I am hungry, I cry. I want to pee, I cry. I have peed, I cry. I want to be held, I cry. It is also how a baby shuts out too much of the world at once — her way of saying that enough is enough.

We see a great many babies who are crying “excessively” according to the people carrying them. To a parent, even a little crying is excessive. The scene is familiar: the baby is bawling, three anxious faces are leaning over the cot, the mother is in tears herself, and the whole household is in a tizzy. So the first useful question is not how to stop the crying. It is whether this amount of crying is actually unusual.

Is this amount of crying normal?

Almost always, yes. Pooling 28 studies of nearly 8,700 infants, babies in the first six weeks of life fussed or cried an average of 117 to 133 minutes a day, falling to about 68 minutes a day by ten to twelve weeks. That is an average, so half of all babies cry more than that and are still perfectly well.

The pattern matters more than the total, and it is remarkably consistent: a rise from around two weeks, a peak at six to eight weeks, then a steady fall.

Two things follow from that curve, and they are the most useful things in this article. First, if your six-week-old is crying more than your friend’s three-month-old, nothing has gone wrong — you are simply at different points on the same curve. Second, the crying will get better on its own. You are not failing to fix something fixable.

Why is it always worse in the evening?

Because crying clusters. In the early weeks it bunches into the late afternoon and evening, which is exactly when the household is most tired, dinner is being cooked and everybody has the least patience left. This is normal, it is not caused by anything you did that day, and it fades with the peak.

What is colic, and how is it defined now?

The definition parents were given for years was the rule of threes: crying at least three hours a day, at least three days a week, for at least three weeks. That rule is still used to select babies for research, but it was never much use in a consulting room — no exhausted parent is timing anything with a stopwatch, and waiting three weeks to name the problem helps nobody.

The current criteria describe colic as recurrent, prolonged periods of crying, fussing or irritability in a baby under five months, beginning and ending without obvious cause, which the caregivers cannot prevent or settle — in an infant who is otherwise growing and feeding well. The last clause is the one that matters. colic is a description of a well baby who cries a lot. It is not a diagnosis of illness, and roughly one baby in five meets it during the peak weeks.

What are the everyday reasons a young baby cries?

Work down this list before anything else. Most crying is answered somewhere in it.

Hunger

The commonest reason by a distance. The signs come before the crying: fussing, lip-smacking, a hand going into the mouth, and the rooting reflex — stroke her cheek and she turns her mouth towards your hand.

A wet or dirty diaper

Tolerance varies enormously. Some babies demand a change that instant; others put up with it for an hour and then complain loudly.

“I am tired, help me sleep”

Watch for the yawn and the dulling of attention, and act then — before the vicious cycle starts, where being overtired makes settling harder, which makes her more tired still. Young babies sleep 14 to 18 hours a day in short stretches.

“Hold me”

Babies want your touch, your smell, your voice and the sound of your heartbeat, which is what they listened to for nine months. Indulge in that as much as you can. You cannot spoil a baby in the first few months — that is simply not how it works. If your arms give out, use a sling or a front carrier and keep her against your chest.

Wind and gas

A young gut deals clumsily with even milk, and the gas produced can bloat and gripe. If the fussing comes reliably soon after a feed, suspect this — and burp her properly first, before reaching for anything else.

Too hot, or too cold

The baby, bundled up for the evening walk, is now sweating indoors, or the air conditioner is running at full blast on her. Feel the back of the neck, not the hands and feet, which are cold on a comfortable baby.

Teething, from about four months

The first tooth usually appears between four and seven months, occasionally earlier. Run a clean finger along the gum and you may feel the ridge of one coming. Before four months, teething is very rarely the answer, whatever the neighbours say.

Too much of everything

The new baby is the family’s attraction. Add a curious sibling, the television and a doorbell, and she protests in the only way she has. swaddling and a quiet, dim room work better here than any amount of jiggling.

Or the opposite: boredom

Some babies simply want a change of scenery. The terrace, the garden, other mothers with babies the same age. Our clinic’s WhatsApp groups are organized by the children’s ages for exactly this reason. You are welcome to join even if you do not come to us — send us your child’s name and a WhatsApp number.

What actually settles a crying baby?

Once the list above is exhausted, soothing is mostly about recreating the womb: contained, warm, rhythmic and noisy.

• Skin to skin on your chest. The single most reliable thing, and it steadies your own nerves as much as hers.
• Swaddle for a young baby — snug around the arms, loose at the hips, and only while she is awake and watched. Once she can roll, stop swaddling.
• Steady white noise. A fan, an exhaust, running water. Rhythm and monotony are the point.
• Movement. Walking, a sling, gentle swaying. Not vigorous bouncing.
• Sucking. Once you establish feeding, sucking at the breast, or a pacifier works wonders.
• A warm bath, then a dim room and no conversation.

Give each one a fair few minutes. Cycling through six soothing techniques in ninety seconds is itself overstimulation.

Do gripe water, gas drops, or colic medicines work?

Mostly no — and this is where families in India spend the most money to the least effect.

• simethicone (gas drops) performs no better than a placebo in controlled trials. It is harmless. It is also not doing what you think it is doing.
• gripe water is not a regulated medicine. Formulations vary from bottle to bottle and have historically contained alcohol, sodium bicarbonate, or sugar. There is no good evidence that it helps. We do not recommend it.
• You should give nothing sedating — including some traditional preparations — to settle a baby.
• One probiotic is the exception, and it has real evidence behind it. In pooled trials, breastfed colicky babies given a particular strain were about twice as likely to halve their crying within two to three weeks. The benefit in formula-fed babies is much less clear. Ask us before you buy any of them — the strain and the dose decide whether it works, and most products on the shelf are neither.

Could it be a milk allergy?

Sometimes, but far less often than the internet suggests. Cow’s milk protein allergy affects a small minority of infants and rarely announces itself with crying alone. Look for the company it keeps: blood or mucus in the stool, eczema, persistent vomiting, diarrhea, or poor weight gain.

If we suspect it in a breastfed baby, the mother removes all dairy from her own diet for two to four weeks, and we watch what happens — a proper trial, with a plan, not a permanent guess. In a formula-fed baby, it means a specific type of formula, chosen for the baby’s age and history. Please do not switch formulas on your own; almost every family who does has changed three times by the time we see them, and no one can then tell what worked.

Separately, and regardless of allergy: no cow’s or buffalo milk before the first birthday. Breast milk first, and a formula appropriate for the baby if breastfeeding is not possible.

When should you call us the same day?

Everything above assumes a well baby who cries. These are the signs that say otherwise. The first one on the list is the one mothers get right and doctors should listen to.

What if you cannot cope any more?

What we do when you bring in a crying baby

We take the history, and then we undress the baby completely and examine every part of her: eyes, ears, mouth, chest, abdomen, groin, back, every finger and every toe. We weigh her and plot the growth. We watch a feed if there is any doubt about feeding. Most of the time we find a well baby and can say so with confidence — which is the whole point of the visit. Sometimes we find the hernia, the ear infection or the thread, and then we are very glad you came.

You are not wasting our time by bringing in a baby who is crying. Telling you that nothing is wrong is a real answer, and it is the one we most like giving.

So how long does this last?

The peak is at six to eight weeks. By three months most of it has gone; by four to five months, families barely remember it. In the meantime: sleep when you can, accept every offer of help, put the baby down when you need to, and ring us when something feels wrong. You are doing better than you think you are.

Written by Dr. Neeta Nathani, MD, pediatrician, in private practice since 1991 at Nathani Clinic, Vikas Centre, Chembur, Mumbai. First published 26-Jan-2018; fully rewritten and re-checked 9-Sep-2026.