by Laura Falin posted in Parenting

I've paced the floor with babies more nights than I can count. There might be an actual groove in our kitchen linoleum from where I walked it, back and forth, with one particularly colicky baby from 2-3:30 every morning like clockwork.
Some problems are obvious -- if you have a hungry, or sick, or gassy baby, they're going to be unhappy. But sometimes babies just cry. I'm sure there's a reason, and it would be great if they could just tell us what it is, but in the meantime, we just have to do the best we can to calm and reassure them.
Lucky for us, some of the best ways to calm babies don't require any extra materials or training or anything. U.S. News and World Report says one of the best methods is one that comes naturally to a lot of people -- a long, slow "shhhhhhhh." It's strange when you think about it. Usually when we "shh" kids, we're hissing it while they're saying something inappropriate in church or yelling while we're on the phone. It isn't soothing or reassuring. But a long, slow "shhhhhh" noise in a baby's ear is different. Some experts think it mimics the sounds babies hear in the womb.
"Consider what babies hear in utero ? the close-up sounds of their mother's blood circulation, breathing and digestion, along with the muffled drone of noises in the outside environment. Babies are used to hearing many sound waves all at once, which is what we produce when we say "shh." Th...