If your baby seems to be crying for no reason, it can be difficult for you to soothe him or her.

It is particularly important that you remain calm.

• You can sit down with your baby in a calm environment and hold him or her in your arms.
• You can walk up and down the room with your baby in your arms in a quiet environment.
• If your baby cries continuously and this is difficult for you to bear, you can also use earphones/earplugs to relieve the situation while you walk up and down with your baby in a quiet environment.

Sometimes your child may not stop crying even after you have tried everything to calm him or her down. Remember that your baby has been born into a whole new world, which can sometimes be confusing and very exciting.

You help your child feeling safe and secure by staying calm yourself and reducing the number of stimuli in the environment:

• Keep bright lights and loud noises (radio, TV) to a minimum in your baby’s presence.
• Avoid fast movements (e.g. baby bouncer, baby gym/play bow).
• Your baby can best absorb new situations, games and contact when he or she is in an awake, calm and attentive state.
• Let your child sleep in a quiet room (away from family activities).

To help your baby feel safe and secure, you can also establish certain daily routines:

Try to repeat activities regularly in a certain chronological order or in the same way so that they become predictable for your child. These include:

• A regular daily rhythm will help your baby to regulate itself better: Feeding/breastfeeding after waking up, time to play together and get to know each other e.g. when changing the diaper, resting and relaxing together, bedtime.
• Put your baby to rest and sleep as soon as you notice the first signs of tiredness.
• You can sing nursery rhymes to your child at bedtime or talk to him or her in a calming way.
• It may help your baby if you cuddle him or her and go into direct skin contact.

Babies also tend to cry when they are overtired and overstimulated. In the event of restlessness and whining, try to get your baby calmed down and sleep again early on. Your baby still needs support in the first few months.

• Babies calm down and regulate themselves when sucking. They therefore like to suck on their hands and calm down themselves with a pacifier or when breastfeeding. Offer your child a pacifier when he or she is whining or when you bring him or her to bed. Sleeping with a pacifier is safe and harmless.

The older your child gets, the less they will usually cry – they learn to calm down themselves more and more. It can be very difficult for parents to assess how quickly they should react to their baby’s crying. You can help your baby to self-soothe from around three months.

• If your baby is only whining but not yet crying, you can try to give your baby a moment to learn how to calm itself.
• It is important to find an individual way to react to your babies crying that you feel comfortable with. There is no danger of over-indulging newborn babies. You can hold your crying baby as often and as long in your arms as you want to calm him or her.

You should know that sometimes, despite your best efforts, your baby will not calm down. Your baby’s crying can be very stressful for you and feelings of sadness or anger may arise. If you are worried that these feelings may overwhelm you, please seek help immediately. For acute crisis situations, you will find an emergency plan and emergency contacts in the Emergency & Help section.