DURATION AND PATTERN OF CRYING IN THE FIRST YEAR OF LIFE

In a prospective study of fetal and postnatal growth and development i n a group of babies whose mothers were residents of an inner-city heal th district in the north of England, the total amount of crying of 157 infants was recorded at four periods during the first year of life by means of a 24-hour log. The mean number of crying episodes reduced fr om 4.4 at six weeks to 1.5 at one year. Early crying predicted later c rying. It was not possible to predict which babies would cry a lot exc ept that breast-fed infants tended to cry less. Mothers' perceptions o f whether their babies cried a lot correlated with their perception of sleep difficulties. Rapid response to crying was associated with sign ificantly less crying overall.