Tip 9: The 15 minute cry rule

Rules are often times not followed but they are still important to remind us of such a caution. One such rule thats often times ignored is to leave your baby alone to cry for a while before you pick him/her up. This tip was actually from a visiting health official to my home. It is interesting that in the city of Shinjuku, Tokyo, the city council allocates funds to increase the birth rate and support parents with newborn children. In the first month when babies are registered at the city ward office, a health official is sent to visit the home and give a free check up for the baby and explain the many health facilities around the city that is free for the baby. I was very impressed by this Japanese lady's friendliness who came to visit our home one weekend and I decided to ask her for tips to reduce the crying of Haruka. Japanese are usually polite people who would not offer advices unless prompted genuinely. So, she said its a good idea to leave the baby alone for 15 minutes then only carry her. Actually I asked this question with the intention of hoping my wife Tomomi would consider it more often, but I think its not an easy task.

A mother has a super instinct to know the reasons a baby cry. If asked, mothers sometimes utter a reason so fast as though they and the baby share the same body. It can be because the baby is hungry, the baby has a wet or soiled diaper, the baby has colic/wind in the stomach, the baby did not sleep well and is grouchy, the baby is restless and has teething tendencies, the baby is alergic or uncomfortable to its surroundings and is irritable, the baby wants to go out to watch the children play or simply the baby wants to be carried for no reason at all but being close to his/her parents. There are probably a host of theories on the internet on whether to carry a baby when he/she cries. But in my opinion, a 15 minute rule is not such a long time to get too worried about especially if you know the baby is doing fine. I guess it boils down to preach less, and take on the servant undertaking to act then when we have spent enough time with the baby, we can say we have abided with the rule and enjoyed its benefits. Time to spent more time with the baby :) Maybe baby Haruka is crying because she misses seeing daddy.