They're supposed to be nursing... I don't know why people are being weird and complicated about this. If the baby is crying, breastfeed.
The breastfeed strategy worked probably less than half the time for my oldest.
I'm glad this works / worked for you. If only it were this simple for the rest of us!
1a.) Formula is expensive, takes minutes of effort to prepare, and not always obtainable.
2.) Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Comfort nursing at certain stages of the child's life will end up sleep training them in a negative way.
3.) Some babies are born with impairments that do not allow them to nurse effectively, or at all.
4.) Moms need a break from nursing too.
Babies cry for very few reasons, and reason number one, two, and three, is hunger.
When teething number one two and three are teeth.
Then for our son, it grew less and by the time he was 3 months old, he was a very happy baby.
What took you so long to start teething?
It's basic common sense, if babies evolved to scream for no reason for long hours in the wild, early humans would have been killed off by nocturnal predators ages ago.
Some humility would serve you well.
Some babies, even toddlers, scream loudly for extended periods with no way to console them. Our neighbor a decade ago had one such child. They were great, loving parents. The kid was obviously happy and content. Yet, every night, for several hours, she was a siren. They saw lots of doctors. They started with co-sleeping, for what it's worth. In the end, a separate bed and a parent reading a book with ear plugs [for several hours] seemed to cause the child the least distress.
When the child was 2, and still screaming, a new neighbor moved in. They spread neighborhood gossip of child abuse. They called the police and child protective services. Luckily, their case was so well documented, it was not an issue. The issue was "resolved" with better soundproofing.
The kid is a teen now. Extremely kind, well adjusted, helpful, smart, and, a sound sleeper. She's obviously loved very much her entire life. I think the parents did a great job.
Shrieking children for hours is very much a modern phenomenon.
yeah it’s a modern phenomenon because overzealous regulatory agencies gatekeep parents’ access to opium lotions
They slowly run out of energy while trying to suck and you only realize in horror when they don’t wake up from their hypoglycaemic “nap” by themselves anymore.
Breastfeeding is a wonderful thing and it’s an important default more mothers should be able to practice for as long as they and their child need and want to.
It’s also a highly complex process that often even a lactation consultant won’t be able to “fix”.
So yeah no shame, just empathy for all involved.
Feeding suddenly gets 1000x harder especially when deciding to go down the commendable road of pumping. All while potentially suffering from additional knock-on effects from lack of often very effective comforting-through-breastfeeding for example.
Even if health, general well-being and circumstances allow getting breast milk into a baby over even just the minimally recommended time can be one of the hardest things you’ll ever witness your partner go through.
For the lucky - majority I’m hoping - it can be both very fulfilling and sensual bonding probably even relaxing to the mother as well.
Be very thankful if that’s so in your case.
The advice is still not generally applicable.
(About half the parents in the world, fathers, aren't even capable of producing milk.)