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Day 63 of 120 · Week 9

The crying curve bends

Last reviewed · 3 min read · 6 sources · Plain-text version

Crying drops to about an hour a day by 10 to 12 weeks, and colic nearly disappears. Plus a two-minute check for a shriek that sounds different.

A Black mother in evening light holds her nine-week-old upright against her shoulder, the baby calm, a grandmother folding laundry on the bed behind.

If the evenings have felt shorter lately, that's not your imagination. This is where the crying curve bends.

Heart

It gets easier, and now is about when. Across 28 diary studies of 8,690 babies, fussing and crying averaged about 2 hours a day (117 to 133 minutes) for the first 6 weeks, then dropped to about 68 minutes by 10 to 12 weeks. Colic fell from 17% to 25% of babies in the first 6 weeks to 11% at 8 to 9 weeks and 0.6% at 10 to 12 weeks (Wolke et al., 2017). The AAP says colic is usually gone by 3 months, sometimes 4 (AAP). The numbers are moving your way.

Head

One kind of cry deserves a closer look. A shrieking or panicked cry? Check for clothing that's bothering your baby, or a strand of hair caught around a finger or toe (AAP).

Body

Hard evenings still happen; the rule hasn't changed. It's never safe to shake, throw, hit, slam, or jerk a baby. If you feel yourself losing control, put your baby in a safe place like the crib, leave the room for 10 to 15 minutes, and call someone for support (AAP). If you're afraid someone might hurt or shake your baby, call your pediatrician now (AAP). A crying baby on their back in a bare crib is safe for the length of a walk down the hall.

Try today

  1. The baby lies in only a diaper on a changing pad on the floor, the mother's hand resting on the belly while she looks closely at the baby's bare toes.

    The shriek check

    Time: 2 minutes, the next time a cry sounds different · Crying eases in the guide

    1. Lay your baby on a safe, flat surface and keep a hand on them (AAP).

    2. Undress them down to the diaper.

    3. Look at every finger and toe for a hair wound around it (AAP).

    4. Check the seams, tags, snaps, and the diaper's edges for anything pressing or pinching.

    5. Dress them in something soft and go back to soothing.

    Make it work:

    Nothing turned up and the cry goes on? See Watch for.

Watch for

  • Normal

    an hour or so of fussing a day now, often in the evening (Wolke et al., 2017).

    Call your pediatrician right away

    if your baby cries nonstop for more than 2 hours and can't be consoled, cries when touched or moved, or has a bulging soft spot (AAP).

  • Normal

    a shriek that ends when a hair is unwound (AAP).

    Go to the ER now

    if your baby isn't alert when awake, or seems "out of it" (AAP).

  • Normal

    a cry that's loud and furious and then over.

    Call 911

    if your baby is not moving or is very weak (AAP).

For you

The mother hands the baby to the grandmother at the front door at dusk and steps out onto the porch alone, shoulders dropping.

"Worn out from the crying" is still a call, even now that the crying is less. The AAP says to call your pediatrician within a day if you're worn out from the crying (AAP). An average curve bending doesn't mean it has bent in your house yet, and nine weeks is a long time. Overwhelming tiredness is on the CDC's list of urgent maternal warning signs; if it feels like more than tired, tell a provider (CDC).

If the evening is the hard hour, hand it off on purpose, the whole hour, and go somewhere you can't hear it.

If you're the partner: tonight, be the one holding the baby when the shriek check turns up nothing.

Sources

This guide is general education that summarizes published research and guidance from groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC, and the WHO. It isn’t medical advice, and every child develops on their own timeline. Your pediatrician knows your child; if something feels wrong, call them. In an emergency, call 911.

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