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Kristi Discovers How to Calm Kyle’s Colic with the “Jell-O
Head” Jiggle

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Kristi and John’s son, Kyle, was a big, apple-cheeked baby with a
wave of copper hair. He would be fine one night but scream for
three hours the next! Kristi called for help after her five-week-old
baby had been shrieking at the top of his lungs for hours. I made a
house call.
Kristi describes what happened that Sunday night:
“As luck would have it, Kyle finally fell asleep moments
before Dr. Karp arrived. I didn’t really want Dr. Karp to
wake him up or even touch him. Sure enough, when he
placed his stethoscope on Kyle’s chest, he started shrieking.
“Dr. Karp apologized for waking him, but reassured us
that Kyle seemed healthy and his biggest problem was that
he was having trouble calming. Then he deftly swaddled
and jiggled our frantic baby, and we were stunned that
within a minute Dr. Karp had Kyle resting angelically on
his lap as if his last explosion had never happened.
“John and I practiced the technique and did okay, but
we wimped out and asked Dr. Karp to put Kyle back to
sleep before he left. Our boy did great that night, but the
next day he was unbelievably fussy. And we just didn’t
feel comfortable trying the tricks we had learned the night
before.
“Finally, my mom came to the rescue. She wrapped
Kyle tightly, placed him on her lap (laying him on his side
with his head cradled in her hands), shhhhed loudly, and
did what I like to call the ‘Jell-O head.’ She wiggled her
knees back and forth, making his head quiver between her
loosely cupped hands, like Jell-O on a plate. At first, Kyle
resisted her efforts. He strained against the blanket and
cried even harder. However, after three or four minutes he
quieted, and after fifteen minutes he was fast asleep!
“My mother repeated this miracle many times
throughout her stay with us and I began to view her as the

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expert on Dr. Karp’s method. I found that I had a hard
time doing the Jell-O-head part, but I kept working at it
and eventually began to feel more confident.
“At first it took almost twenty minutes for this trick to
settle Kyle into sleep. But soon I got it down to ten
minutes, and by the time he was seven weeks old I could
take him from shriek to smile in two minutes flat.
“The more I practiced, the more I learned that the
crucial steps for Kyle were tight swaddling and the Jell-O
head. Gentle rhythms helped him when he was already
quiet, but to calm screaming he needed almost an
earthquake. Then, after a short time, he would heave a
huge sigh and tension seemed to leave his body. I felt like
a great mom! By four months of age, Kyle was adorable,
happy, and doing fine without swaddling, the swing—or
the Jell-O-head jiggle.”
Kristi, John, Kyle, and Cassandra