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The Baby Fact Check · June 4 · 16 min

Newborn Crying: What Cries Mean, the "Crying Peak" and Baby’s Safe Person - S1 E3

Hearing your baby cry is one of the hardest parts of early parenting - but how much of the advice around how to soothe your crying newborn is backed by science? In this episode of The Baby Fact Check, new dad Greg Foot is joined by a trusted expert to fact check some of the most common pieces of social media parenting advice around newborn crying: “If my baby cries a lot, I’m doing something wrong.” “Babies often cry more with their safest person.” “You’ll know every cry and what it means, if you pay attention.” With help from Professor Dieter Wolke (University of Warwick), Greg explores the “crying peak”, why some crying is simply unavoidable, and how to cope when nothing seems to soothe your baby. This episode includes a brief archive clip of a TV item on the Dunstan Baby Language from a 2006 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, used here for commentary and factual analysis. If you’ve seen a piece of parenting advice you’d like us to fact check, email us on thebabyfactcheck@gmail.com Join The Baby Fact Check Family on Patreon: patreon.com/TheBabyFactCheck Follow us on social media: Instagram: @TheBabyFactCheck TikTok: @TheBabyFactCheck Facebook: @TheBabyFactCheck The Baby Fact Check is a Science Media Studio production. Series Producer: Greg Foot Content Producer: Graihagh Jackson Video Producer: Adrienn Rusz Audio Mix: Jonnie Howard Recorded at: The Raspberry Pi Foundation, with help from Daria Hupov & Peter Simison Special thanks: Teddy’s mummy, Katrin!

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transcript

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show notes

Hearing your baby cry is one of the hardest parts of early parenting - but how much of the advice around how to soothe your crying newborn is backed by science?

In this episode of The Baby Fact Check, new dad Greg Foot is joined by a trusted expert to fact check some of the most common pieces of social media parenting advice around newborn crying:

  • “If my baby cries a lot, I’m doing something wrong.”
  • “Babies often cry more with their safest person.”
  • “You’ll know every cry and what it means, if you pay attention.”

With help from Professor Dieter Wolke (University of Warwick), Greg explores the “crying peak”, why some crying is simply unavoidable, and how to cope when nothing seems to soothe your baby.

This episode includes a brief archive clip of a TV item on the Dunstan Baby Language from a 2006 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, used here for commentary and factual analysis.

If you’ve seen a piece of parenting advice you’d like us to fact check, email us on thebabyfactcheck@gmail.com

Join The Baby Fact Check Family on Patreon: patreon.com/TheBabyFactCheck

Follow us on social media:
Instagram: @TheBabyFactCheck
TikTok: @TheBabyFactCheck
Facebook: @TheBabyFactCheck

The Baby Fact Check is a Science Media Studio production.
Series Producer: Greg Foot
Content Producer: Graihagh Jackson
Video Producer: Adrienn Rusz
Audio Mix: Jonnie Howard
Recorded at: The Raspberry Pi Foundation, with help from Daria Hupov & Peter Simison
Special thanks: Teddy’s mummy, Katrin!

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