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Parenting is a very special privilege. With this privilege comes responsibility. The love you have for your child cannot be compared to any other. Mothers love their children even before the day they are born. Dads tend to be clueless until they see their child and feel and touch them after birth. Mom and dad love in different ways, but each of them love their child deeply and want the best for them. No parent wants to see their child cry. When a child cries, parents tend to respond immediately and do all they can to stop the crying and soothe the child. Sounds reasonable doesn't it? Yes and no.

The sound of a crying baby certainly gets attention. A crying baby is like a siren. It is loud, gets your attention, and can be annoying. The most important thing a parent must do when their child cries is find out why. Why is this child crying? The reasons can be many and varied. Believe it or not, when I was younger one of the first things my mother would check is to see if a safety pin was sticking the baby. Back then, cloth diapers were the only choice and pins were used to keep them fastened. Today that is not an issue. Child safety is still very important and must be considered. Is the baby crying because of pain? Check for any rashes, pinching or other things that would be obvious. The next things to consider are things you cannot see. Is there evidence of fever? Is the baby grabbing at his ear, or has the child just been fed and have bloating and gas? Once you have determined all of these things and ruled them out you need to make the hard decision to allow your child to cry themselves to sleep.

Babies have no means of communicating what they want except to cry. They may not want anything more than to be with you. When you put them to bed for the night and leave the room, the baby wants you back so they tell you by crying. You go back into the room, pick up the baby and the crying stops. The baby seems to settle down so you lay him down again, kiss him on the head and leave the room again. You are not out of the room more than a few minutes and the baby starts crying again. The cycle starts all over with the same result. After going through this a few times many parents decide to take the baby out of the crib and bring them into their bed or stay up with them and walk the floor. At this point the only one getting rest is the baby. Allowing this cycle to go on for any length of time will wear a parent out and disrupt the whole household.

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