What Everyone Aught To Know About Music Research For Crying Babies
Most parents are willing to try just about anything when they find themselves awake at 2:00 in the morning with a crying baby. Common suggestions for soothing an inconsolable infant range from rocking to nursing and driving to strolling. Recently, as a result of the “Mozart Effect” research from the University of California at Irvine, mother’s the world over have been intrigued by this idea. Similarly, music research for crying babies has uncovered interesting findings that can help parents to learn how to soothe their inconsolable baby.
The most famous music research for crying babies involved the relatively recent study by Dr. Francis Raucher, Dr. Gordon L. Shaw and their colleagues at the University of California at Irvine. The “Mozart Effect” demonstrated that listening to music improved students’ test-taking abilities in school. Furthermore, classical chamber music gave results that were superior to both popular rock music and complete silence. Now, it’s important to note that their results only showed a statistically significant rise in test scores for a very short time (15 minutes to 1 hour) after listening to about 10 minutes of music. There were no long term improvements found.
The American public went crazy with this knowledge. As a result of this study, the astoundingly popular “Baby Mozart” program was born, which has sold millions of products around the world; their premise is that babies do learn through music and that music can both soothe crying babies and help them to develop social, emotional, language, and other skills. Zell Miller, the governor of Georgia, showed how influential the Mozart Effect study was, when he declared in 1998 that the state budget would include $105,000 a year to provide every child born in Georgia with a classical music CD when they leave the hospital!
In addition, there is some very intriguing music research for crying babies that was done at the University of Western Sydney. Dr. Stephen Malloch, a Research Fellow at the University’s MARCS Auditory Laboratories at Bankstown Campus conducted a study that spanned a three year period and aimed to see what influence music therapy had on infants in intensive care. His findings are astounding. They found that the babies who were given music therapy maintained whatever level of irritability and crying that they had when they were admitted, while the babies who were denied music therapy deteriorated in their irritability and crying behavior. The deprived babies coped less and less with their hospitalization as time went on, and this influenced how quickly they healed and how quickly they gained weight. The babies who had music therapy, on average, went home earlier and were healthier, than those who didn’t.
This study is truly intriguing as it relates to music research for crying babies. One very important point that it shows, is that music therapy will not, necessary, be a magic bullet to make your child stop crying. However, the music may be soothing them, and helping them to maintain their level of agitation; thus keeping them from becoming even more agitated.
There are many easy ways to incorporate this music therapy for crying babies into your daily routine. Buy a CD player, and play the same type of music consistently throughout your pregnancy. Many mothers report that their babies identify with the music they heard in the womb, and are able to be soothed after birth with similar music. Keep a CD player in your baby’s room, and play music as he falls asleep. Have a copy of similar music in the car, to soothe him on long rides. Research therapy for crying babies has also found that babies are soothed by sounds that remind them of the womb. Such sounds include rhythmic, monotonous, low-pitched and humming sounds with slowly rising crescendos and decrescendos and a sound patter that repeats at a rate of 60 to 70 pulses per minute. You can purchase many CDs with these qualifications from companies that market to moms trying to soothe their babies.
Along with actually purchasing appropriate music, there are other ways to create similar soothing effects. Use a loudly ticking clock, the vacuum cleaner, the dishwasher, the washing machine, a bathroom fan or an air conditioner to try to soothe your baby. Similarly, running or dripping water from a faucet can sometimes do the trick. If you have a metronome in the house, set it to 60 beats a minute and place it by the baby. Many babies are soothed by vibrations. You can wrap a vibrating toothbrush in a diaper and place it near the baby. Believe it or not, it might be just the thing to lull him to sleep! Finally, make your own lullaby recording. Tape record yourself singing to your baby. She will love listening to your voice and will particularly love slowly rising and falling melodies with repetitive themes that gradually fade away.
Being patient with a crying baby is a monumental job. The trick to surviving these months, particularly if the baby is experiencing colic, is to try out many techniques and see what works for your child. Music therapy for crying babies does support the use of music as a tool to soothe and relax. It’s certainly worth a try – after all, what have you got to lose!?
