Infant excessive crying: Temperament, development and parenting stress

Excessive crying, one of the most frequent concerns presented to pediatric clinicians during the first three months of life has been linked to the cessation of breast feeding, interfering with the developing infant-parent relationship and child abuse. Also known as colic, excessive crying denotes crying and fussing for at least three hours per day, on at least three days per week, in a healthy and well-fed infant. This non-experimental prospective longitudinal study tested the relative value of temperament, development and parenting stress in predicting crying. A sample of 24 mothers (12 with excessively crying infants and 12 with non-excessively crying infants) was recruited from three pediatric primary care sites. Crying, temperament and parenting stress were measured on enrollment and at four months of infant age. Instruments included The Baby\u27s Day Diary, The Early Infancy Temperament Questionnaire, and The Parenting Stress Index. At six weeks rhythmicity and distractibility were associated with crying through regression modeling. The parenting stress category of competence differed significantly between the two groups and was also linked to crying through regression modeling. At four months regression modeling revealed that crying was associated with distractibility, intensity and persistence. Parenting stress differed between the two groups in competence and isolation but no parent stress variable was associated with crying through regression at this time. In comparison to standardized temperament scores the excessive crying infants differed in rhythmicity and distractibility at six weeks, but were within the norms at four months. An overall regression model was constructed using the significant predictors from both time points and overall changes in crying over time/development. This revealed relations between rhythmicity and parent (feelings of) competence at six weeks and overall change in mean total crying and unsoothable crying over time. The data was interpreted to support the role of development or temperament development in excessive crying. The change in rhythmicity (of biological functions) is conceptualized as an indication that maturity may be related to a transient inability of some infants to regulate crying. Parent feelings of (in)competence in relation to excessive crying may stem from the difficulties encountered in attempting to soothe the crying infant