The crying infant: understandable only in a multidisciplinary perspective

The parents' perception of how much their infant cries does not always correspond to the objective amount. The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between the parents' perception of the infants' crying and the objective amount of crying and to explore the factors of conceivable importance to the perception of infant crying as well as to the measurable amount of crying. The group studied consisted of 122 infants and their parents. According to the mothers' perception — responses to a questionnaire — 86 of these were non-crying and 36 crying infants. According to the mothers, 22 non-crying infants cried as much as or more than those who were considered as crying. Nine categorized by their mothers as crying infants cried less than those categorized as non-crying. Thus, there was a mismatch between subjective and objective crying and non-crying. One factor found to be relevant for the mother's experience of the infant's crying was the explanations the parents gave about crying in their infant. Objective crying differed significantly between the families who had 0–1 siblings and those who had two siblings or more. Correlated with objective crying were the father's age, the father's perception of his wife's recent delivery and the mother's emotional feelings recorded in diaries during the observation weeks. Correlated with subjective crying in the infant were pain relief during delivery and the mother's emotional feelings.