Quadsville

But I cannot relate to the stories -- too many of them -- I have read recently about babies shaken and beaten to death or within an inch of their lives, simply because they wouldn't stop crying.

Teething, colic, gas -- any number of things can cause a baby to turn itself into a human siren. It's maddening, I know. But it's not personal. One thing babies do not cry for is spite. 

When my little girl went through a colicky phase, I asked the other women in my family how they dealt with the constant crying. One said she used to turn on the vacuum. Something about the intense white noise made her babies stop crying and fall asleep. Maybe it was sensory overload, I don't know. But I tried it, and most of the time it worked. (Unfortunately, I didn't have a vacuum then that had an air only setting and the brushes wore a patch in my carpet where I stood the vacuum while it ran.)

Sometimes, I would just have to put my little pumpkin head in her car seat and go for a drive. After a mile or so, she'd be out. And then I'd have to ever-so-carefully lift her carrier out of the backseat and tip-toe back up to our apartment without waking her.

If running the vacuum or going for a drive were not options -- like 2 a.m. on a 12-degree night -- I'd have to just put her down in her crib, shut the door and let her cry. I'd turn on some music or turn the TV up loud or just try to go back to sleep. Another thing babies rarely do is cry themselves to death. It may be painful to listen to, but if you're at the point where you think you might harm a baby, the best thing to do is put it down in a safe place and step away.

OK, parents of Quadsville, maybe we can help prevent some future tragedies by sharing more of our strategies for dealing with crying little ones. What got your kids to stop fussing? How did you help yourself stay calm?