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Dugger’s eyes opened wide when he saw how I handled his
baby girl, Bobbie. The moment Bobbie cried, I placed her
cheek in my palm and rolled her small body onto my
sleeve, resting her chest and stomach against my forearm
—Bobbie calmed in mid-scream! Then I jiggled her up and
down like I was the most nervous person on the planet and
she was asleep within two minutes.

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Dugger later told me, “Football was my favorite sport
when I was a boy, and I carried the ball as if it were a
treasure. But I never would have felt okay handling
Bobbie like that if I hadn’t seen you do it first. Now I
carry Bobbie like a football every day and I can usually
make her fall right asleep.”
In real estate, the most important rule is: location, location, location.
In baby calming it’s position, position, position!
There’s no question that fussy newborns are easier to calm when
they’re lying on their side or stomach. Many babies are happy to lie on
their backs when they’re in a good mood, but it’s a tough position to
calm them in when they get cranky. Other babies feel insecure on their
backs even when they’re not fussy. These irritable infants often quiet as
soon as they’re put on their sides or have their tummies draped over
their parent’s shoulder or forearm.
Why Do the Side and Stomach Positions Make Your Baby
Happy?
The side and stomach positions work so well because:
They trigger the calming reflex by imitating your baby’s position in the
uterus. Before birth, your fetus was never flat on his back. He spent most
of his time on his side in the fetal position—head down, spine rounded,
knees pressed against his belly. Over millions of years this position
became a potent trigger for the calming reflex, keeping fetuses serene so
they didn’t accidentally move into a bad position or kink their umbilical
cords.
Once out of the womb, bending your baby’s neck down a bit, touching
his stomach, and laying him on his side activate position sensors inside
his head that trigger the calming reflex. Specialists in the care of
premature infants place them flexed and on their sides as soon as these
tiny newborns are healthy enough to be handled. (Even many adults find
coiling up into the fetal position comforting.)

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“Tummy touching” might also turn on calming as a reflex left over
from our ape ancestors. For millions of years it has been crucial for ape
babies to stay still when they were tummy-to-tummy, clutching their
mama’s fur. It’s possible that those animals who were soothed by the
sensation of tummy touching thrashed less, fell less, and therefore
survived and passed their genes along to their own babies.
The side and stomach positions keep your baby from accidentally setting off
his Moro (falling) reflex. Cuddling a fussy baby on his back is a little like
calming and pinching him at the same time! The holding part feels great,
but lying on the back can make some young infants feel insecure. In that
position, any twitch or cry can trigger the brain’s position sensors and
unleash the Moro reflex, making your baby shriek and fling his arms out
as if he’s being dropped out of a tree.
On the other hand, putting your baby on his side or stomach makes
the position sensors in his head send out a message that says, “Don’t
worry. Everything’s fine!” (Once your baby’s Moro has been turned on, it
may take his brain a minute or two after he’s rolled onto his side or
stomach for an all-clear message to be recognized and the calming reflex
turned on.) Some infants are so sensitive to position that just rolling
them from their sides slightly over toward their stomachs calms them,
and rolling them a tiny bit from their sides toward their backs makes
them panic.