Babies cry more in Britain, Canada, Italy and the Netherlands than in other countries, while newborns in Denmark, Germany and Japan cry and fuss the least, researchers said yesterday.
In research looking at how much babies around the world cry in their first three months, psychologists from Britain have created the first universal charts for normal amounts of crying during that period.
“Babies are already very different in how much they cry in the first weeks of life,” said Dieter Wolker, a professor in University of Warwick’s department of psychology who led the study.
“We may learn more from looking at cultures where there is less crying — [including] whether this may be due to parenting or other factors relating to pregnancy experiences or genetics,” Wolker said.
The highest levels of colic — defined as crying more than three hours per day for at least three days per week — were found in babies in Britain, Canada and Italy, while the lowest colic rates were found in Denmark and Germany.
On average, babies cry for about two hours per day in the first two weeks, the study found.
They then cry a little more in the following few weeks until they peak at about two hours and 15 minutes per day at six weeks. This then reduces to an average of one hour and 10 minutes by the time they are 12 weeks old.
However, there are wide variations, with some babies crying as little as 30 minutes per day and others more than five hours.
The paper speculates that reasons for differences between countries could range from levels of social inequality through to caregiving styles, maternal soothing techniques and patterns of feeding.
Bottle or mixed feeding was associated with reduced duration of colic from three to four weeks of age onward.
The research, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, was a meta-analysis of studies covering about 8,700 babies in countries including Germany, Denmark, Japan, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain.
Wolker said the new crying chart would help health workers reassure parents whether their baby is crying within a normal range in the first three months, or might need extra support.
Additional reporting by The Guardian
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