The Happiest Baby on the Block and The Happiest Toddler on the Block 2-Book Bundle pdfdrive com

Learning How to Shhhh with the Best of Them
As a nurse walked by the room of a first-time mother, the
door popped open and the father emerged, pushing a
bassinet that was practically vibrating from the cries of
his red-faced, screaming baby. In an attempt to help the
poor little girl, the nurse lovingly leaned her face over the
baby and let out a “Shhhh” as loud and harsh as a burst
steam pipe!
I’m confident that had she continued her shushing for a
few moments longer, the infant would have calmed. But

---

she was stopped in her tracks when the baby’s father
yanked the bassinet away. Glowering at her, he said,
“How dare you tell my daughter to shut up!”
Of course, this caring nurse was not telling the baby to shut up. But
this father reacted as he did because he didn’t understand that the nurse
was speaking in a different “language.”
In “adult-ese,” shhhh is a rude way of telling someone to be quiet or to
shut up. However, in this case the nurse was speaking “baby-ese,” in
which shhhh is a very polite infant greeting. All babies recognize the
“word” shhhh, and they love it!
Mothers all around the world shush their babies in exactly the same
way. Here’s how to do it:
1. Place your mouth two to four inches away from your
baby’s ear.
2. With your lips pursed, start releasing a shhhh sound.
3. Quickly raise the volume of your shhhh until it matches
the noise level of your baby’s crying. Try to sound like the
world’s most irritated librarian! This is not a gentle or

---

polite shush but a rough, harsh, insistent shhhh. But
remember, your shushing will sound much louder to you
than it will to your baby because her hearing is quite
muffled. And besides, her own screaming gets broadcast at
a jolting seventy to eighty decibels (louder than a vacuum
cleaner)—and that’s blasting right next to her ears!
Some parents feel it’s callous and vulgar to shhhh their
colicky baby or that it has an angry sound to their ears.
However, to a baby’s ears, shhhh is a sound of love and
welcome.
4. As mentioned earlier, calming your baby is like a dance
—but she is leading. You aren’t guiding her into quiet,
you’re following her there. So, don’t soften your shhhh
until her decreasing cries show you she’s ready for it.
When you first try shhhhing, your baby should quiet within a minute
or two. And, after you get really good at it, you may find she calms in
seconds. However, once your fussy baby settles, she will probably need
continuing, moderate white noise to keep her from returning to crying.
This shouldn’t be a surprise to you. After all, she used to be serenaded by
this loud sound 24/7, so needing it for a few hours, or even all night
long, is a major compromise on her part.
(It’s fun teaching your older children how to shhhh. It makes them
more involved in baby care, and they feel so proud when they can calm
the baby’s cries just like daddy and mommy!)
Mary and Sigfried were delighted at how well shushing helped soothe
their crying three-week-old baby, Eric: