Safe sleep and crying

Put your baby to sleep on the back for every nap and every night. This is the single best way to lower the risk of sudden infant death.

Side sleeping is not safe. Your baby can roll onto the tummy from the side. Babies with reflux should also sleep on the back. A healthy baby protects the airway even when lying flat.

Once your baby can roll both ways alone, you do not need to turn them back. Keep putting them down on the back.

• Use a crib or bassinet with a firm, flat mattress and a fitted sheet.
• Keep the bed empty. No pillows, no bumpers, no loose blankets, no soft toys.
• Do not use sleep positioners, wedges or inclined sleepers.
• If your baby falls asleep in a car seat, swing or carrier, move them to their bed as soon as you can.

Never sleep with your baby on a sofa or an armchair. This is one of the most dangerous places to fall asleep together.

Keep your baby’s bed in your room, close to yours, for at least the first 6 months. You can hear and see your baby, and feeding at night is easier.

Do not share your bed with your baby. The risk is highest in the first 4 months and in babies born early. It is also higher when a parent smokes, has drunk alcohol, or takes medicine that causes sleepiness. If you feed your baby in your bed, put them back in their own bed before you fall asleep.

Smoke harms your baby’s lungs and raises the risk of sudden infant death. This includes cigarettes, argileh and electronic cigarettes.

• Do not smoke during pregnancy or around your baby.
• Keep your home and car fully smoke free.
• Ask visitors to smoke outside, far from your baby, and to wash their hands after.

Overheating raises the risk too. Keep the room comfortable, ideally between 16 and 20 °C. Dress your baby in one more layer than you would wear. Do not use a hat indoors.

Touch the chest or the back of the neck to check. Cool hands and feet are normal. If your baby is sweaty or the chest feels hot, remove a layer. Keep the bed away from heaters, radiators and direct sun.

Healthy newborns often cry 1 to 4 hours a day. Crying usually increases from about 2 weeks of age and starts to settle around 3 months.

Many babies have a fussy time in the late afternoon or evening. They cry and are hard to calm, even when fed and changed. This is often when you are most tired. It does not mean you are doing anything wrong.

First check the basics. Is your baby hungry, wet, too hot or too cold? Does your baby need to burp? Then try:

• holding your baby close, skin to skin
• rocking, swaying or walking
• a soft, steady sound, like humming or a fan
• a gentle back rub
• a loose swaddle, with room for the hips, and only until your baby starts to roll
• a walk outside in the stroller
• a warm bath, if your baby enjoys it

Some days nothing works.

Never shake a baby, however tired or angry you feel. Shaking can cause brain damage, blindness or death.

If you feel your anger rising, put your baby on the back in a safe bed. Leave the room for 10 to 15 minutes. Breathe, drink some water, or call someone you trust. Check on your baby, and go back when you feel calm. Crying in a safe bed for those minutes will not harm your baby.

Make sure everyone who looks after your baby knows this.

Call the doctor the same day if:

• the crying sounds different, like a high-pitched scream or a weak moan
• your baby cries for hours and nothing calms them, which is new for your baby
• your baby feeds poorly or vomits often
• you feel you cannot cope

Call the Red Cross on 140 or go to the emergency room if your baby:

• is under 3 months and has a temperature of 38 °C or more
• has trouble breathing, grunts or breathes very fast
• has blue, grey, pale or blotchy skin or lips
• is floppy, does not respond or is hard to wake
• vomits green or vomits forcefully again and again
• has a seizure
• has had no wet diaper for 8 hours

Read our guide to danger signs in newborns.