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Distinguishing infant prolonged crying from sleep-waking problems

Ian St James-Roberts1, Emma Peachey

  • 1Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London, 27-28 Woburn Square, London, UK. i.stjamesroberts@ioe.ac.uk

Archives of Disease in Childhood
|January 12, 2011
PubMed

Insights

Most infants experiencing prolonged crying at 5-6 weeks of age sleep through the night by 12 weeks. This suggests separate causes for infant crying and night waking, rather than a general regulation disturbance.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Pediatrics
  • Infant Behavior

Background:

  • Excessive infant crying and night waking are common parental concerns and healthcare issues.
  • These behaviors are often linked to a generalized infant regulation disturbance.
  • However, crying and night waking manifest differently across ages and times.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if prolonged infant crying at 5-6 weeks predicts night waking at 12 weeks.
  • To differentiate the causation of infant crying versus sleep-waking problems.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of data from two longitudinal studies.
  • Infant crying data collected via validated behavior diaries.
  • Sleep-waking data gathered using standard parental questionnaires.

Main Results:

  • A weak, significant association between early crying and later night waking was found in only one of two studies.
  • The majority of infants with prolonged crying/colic at 5-6 weeks were sleeping through the night at 12 weeks.
  • These infants were not more prone to night waking than their peers.

Conclusions:

  • Most infants with significant early crying settle to sleep through the night by 12 weeks.
  • This finding supports the hypothesis that crying and night waking have distinct underlying causes.
  • Infant sleep-waking issues likely stem from the maintenance of signaling behaviors, not a generalized regulatory problem.
Abstract

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