UK tots No1 cry babies
British infants’ bawl skills among the best in world
BRITAIN’S babies are among the world’s biggest bawlers, a study claims.
Along with infants in Canada, Italy and Netherlands, they out-cry other countries while toddlers in Denmark, Germany and Japan have the fewest tears and tantrums.
Warwick University researchers claim to have formulated the first universal chart for normal amounts of crying in the first three months.
It says babies wail around two hours a day on average in that time. Crying peaks at two hours 15 mins at six weeks but reduces to one hour 10 minutes by week 12. Some tots were found to cry as little as 30 minutes a day and others for more than four hours .
Prof Dieter Wolke analysed studies of 8,700 babies. Highest levels of colic – crying more than three hours a day for at least three days a week – were found in the UK (28% of infants at 1-2 weeks), Canada (34% at 3-4 weeks) and Italy (21% at 8-9 weeks).
Denmark and Germany had the lowest rates of around 6% at 3-4 weeks. The Wessel criteria, used to determine whether a baby has colic, were formulated in the 1950s. But with changes in childcare and family units, Prof Wolke wants new guidelines. He said: “We may learn from looking at cultures with less crying and if this is due to parenting or factors relating to pregnancy experiences or genetics.” The findings will be published in The Journal of Pediatrics.