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September/October 2002 Featured Stories
Thank You Dr. Karp!

by Miriam Knight

How many times has a parent, grandparent or babysitter wished that crying, colicky babies came with an off switch? Well it turns out they do. It is called the Calming Reflex and it works like magic! Eminent pediatrician and child development specialist, Dr. Harvey Karp, discovered how it works and describes the techniques in "The Happiest Baby on the Block" (Bantam, 2002, $21.95).

Dr. Karp embarked on his mission to understand the source of colic in 1980, when, as a member of the Child Abuse Team at the UCLA School of Medicine, he consulted on several severely injured babies whose screams drove their stressed-out parents to commit horrible acts of abuse. The medical system didn't have any good solutions so he began to research the area.

First, he studied the differences between the newborn brain and that of a 3-month-old baby. He eventually came to the conclusion that the first three months after birth should be regarded as the "fourth trimester." He realized that developmentally the baby was still a fetus that had been summarily ejected from the womb into a harsh and scary environment. The brain was growing so quickly that the baby needed to be born "early" because otherwise it wouldn’t get through the birth canal.

His second major revelation was that there were several cultures around the world where there was NO colic. Our ideas about why babies cry were mostly myth. In his experience only 2% of babies truly have gastro-intestinal problems; 98% of crying has nothing to do with that. Dr. Karp spent years, researching, refining and finally teaching the techniques that have been endorsed by leading pediatricians, and thousands of Los Angeles parents, from working moms to superstars like Madonna and Pierce Brosnan, have turned to him to learn the secrets for making babies happy.

Dr. Karp has been in practice for 25 years and is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles. He is deeply involved in The Children's Health Environmental Coalition and is a medical spokesperson for CHEC's National Environmental Childproofing Campaign. He was recently honored with the 2001 Socially Responsible Medicine award by the Los Angeles chapter of Physician's for Social Responsibility.

So what is this magic switch all about? Dr. Karp sums it up as the Five "S"s - swaddling, side/stomach position, shushing, swinging and sucking. Babies are used to the loud sounds, tight quarters and rhythmic movement of the uterus, and lying on their back, alone in a quiet room is frightening. Swaddling is an ancient technique that fell out of favor in our permissive age, and Dr. Karp demonstrates how to do it right in his video. Placing the swaddled infant on the side or stomach is immensely comforting and avoids triggering the startle reflex. In many cases, that is enough to quiet the baby. Once the baby has calmed down she can be turned on her back for sleeping—the position recommended by doctors to avoid SIDS.

If not, proceed to shushing in the baby’s ear (using a vacuum cleaner, radio on static or other source of white noise works too). Your volume should match the baby’s crying, getting softer as she relaxes. The shushing is combined with a side to side jiggling motion that babies find irresistible. This swinging can be taxing to the exhausted new parent, and in the absence of an extended family and many willing arms, Dr. Karp warmly recommends mechanical swings and pacifiers. "I’m not anti-technology!" he said, as long as it doesn’t replace ancient wisdom.

These are simple techniques that recreate for the baby the comforting security of the womb, and trigger the calming reflex. Babies don’t come with a user manual, and if instinct and love were enough, babies would never cry. You have to learn the skills, because, as with a knee reflex, the calming reflex only works when it is triggered in precisely the right way. That is why Dr. Karp produced not only a book, but an accompanying video to demonstrate exactly how to swaddle, shush and swing.

It was amazing to watch the video and see baby after baby turn from a frantic, red-faced bundle of misery into a relaxed, sleeping cherub IN MINUTES! The babies are so deeply relaxed that they sleep one or more hours longer. Another great thing about these techniques is that fathers can learn them just as well as mothers.

I believe this is truly one of the most useful books on parenting to come along in decades. I intend to give it to any expectant parents I know, along with the video. In fact, Dr. Karp offers the two together at a discount on his website, www.happiestbaby.com.