by Cherie Stirewalt

Surviving a baby with colic truly deserves an award of some sort. The relentless screaming can really drive you to the edge.

Unfortunately for the parents of a colic baby, most of the focus of surviving is usually geared towards how to relieve the suffering for your baby. But, what about your suffering?

Here are 10 tips on HOW to keep your sanity while enduring a fit of colic.

1. Buy a baby monitor with lights that indicate the level of noise coming from your baby. Take this monitor with you everywhere, put it on mute and get as far away from the screaming as possible. Physically check on your baby every now and then to make sure everything is alright. When the levels on the lights stop dancing, chances are your baby has calmed down.

2. Put on headphones. Listen to music. Keep the above monitor with you to determine when baby has calmed down.

3. Take a shower. The warm water will relax you, and the noise will drown out the ear-piercing crying.

4. Go for a walk. Exercise is great for alleviating tension and the motion might settle the baby down.

5. If possible, find a sitter and leave. Go shopping, run errands, go work out, go for a walk. Get some distance between you and the baby. Don’t leave the baby unattended. Make sure you have a sitter first!

6. Call friends or family on the telephone. Don’t bottle up your frustration. Let it out. Complain to your hearts content. Your friends and family will understand and you will feel better.

7. Do something therapeutic with your hands. Paint your fingernails, color in a coloring book, do some housework. Anything that diverts your attention away from the crying and towards something constructive.

8. Vacuum. The vacuum cleaner will drown out the screams coming from the baby. Also, the frequency of white noise output by a vacuum is particularly effective in calming a colicky baby.

9. Surf the internet. Look up ways to calm a colic baby!

10. Keep telling yourself the colic will eventually go away. Take it day by day and know there IS a light at the end of the tunnel. Colic does not last forever!

Remember, you are not an incompetent parent if you’ve done everything possible to relieve your baby’s colic and you need to step away from the situation for a while. This simply makes you human.

About the Author
Cherie is the webmaster of www.colic-baby-bootcamp.com and specializes in teaching parents methods for handling a baby with colic. Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cherie_Stirewalt.

They aren’t a necessity, but they are definitely a big help when it comes to having a newborn. Especially if you are not co-sleeping and have your baby in another room at night time. Baby monitors have become many parents’ best friends, allowing them to move around and still keep tabs on their babies.

Baby monitors aren’t a new idea. They have been used for decades, and will continue to be used for decades to come. There are many different types of baby monitors at all different prices that can meet the needs of all parents. From the $20 monitors that allow parents to simply hear their babies, to the monitors that run $100-$200, and include a TV so that mom and dad can actually watch their baby sleep and see them when they wake up or are playing in their room.

Baby monitors have many functions. Some parents put their baby in a separate room from the first day they bring them home. A monitor allows them to hear the baby and wake up at night when the baby wakes up. For parents who have their baby sleep in the room with them during the early weeks, a baby monitor can be used to listen for the baby to wake up, while mom and dad are getting things done. If you live in a large house you might carry the monitor around with you so that you can hear the baby where ever you are. Or it can allow you to go out and work in the garden, or sit by the pool with your other children.

As your baby gets older your monitor can allow you to keep an eye on him while he is playing in his room, or sneaking into a sibling’s room to get in trouble. They can also help you “spy” on your toddler when they are supposed to be going to sleep, but is instead sitting in their crib playing with a toy. They can allow you to let your child have a little freedom, while having the confidence that you are involved in what they are doing and can make choices to protect them.

Monitors are also mobile. They normally plug into the wall or run on batteries, so it is easy to pack them up and take them with you whether you are going on vacation or just over to a relative’s house for an afternoon birthday party during nap time. It can be argued that the baby monitor is the most useful baby item for parents. It is definitely one that many parents can not live without.

By Sarah Cooke

What is a baby monitor & why do I need one?
It might seem like an obvious question these days, but baby monitors are a relatively new innovation. At the most basic level they give the parent freedom from keeping a constant vigil at their baby’s bedside (cot-side or Moses basket-side!).

A baby monitor normally consists of a transmitter and a receiver unit. The transmitter is placed near the baby and the parent keeps the receiver unit. This way the parent can hear instantly if their baby needs reassurance while doing other things around the house – or maybe catching up on some well needed rest!

Baby Monitor Types
Baby monitors now fall into three main categories. There are the traditional audio baby monitors . These alert the parent if the baby starts to cry or seems restless or uncomfortable. Audio/visual baby monitors take this a step further by letting the parent see and hear their baby. These consist of a camera unit with a microphone and a receiver unit with a TV screen and speaker.

Lastly, there are sensor baby monitors (also called respiratory baby monitors). These offer peace of mind by immediately alerting the parent if their baby’s breathing becomes significantly uneven or even stops completely.

Audio Baby Monitors
Audio baby monitors fall into two further types: analogue and digital . Analogue baby monitors traditionally were subject to lots of interference from other household items that gave off a wireless signal. While this still can be true of cheaper analogue monitors, today most have more than one channel enabling you to select one that is interference free and incorporate technology that lessens outside interferences such as the Philips Cordless Babysitter.

To guarantee an interference transmission and reception you will need a digital baby monitor . Remember that a baby monitor is essentially a radio transmitter and receiver and digital radio (should you have one!) is superior to normal radio reception. The higher-end digital baby monitors use something called DECT technology . This technology came from digital walkabout phones and stands for Digital Enhanced Cordless Technology.

DECT monitors will select a channel automatically from 120 channels and often encrypt the channels to stop any eavesdropping. Because of this technology these monitors are normally more expensive, but (like the Philips Digital Baby Monitor and the BT Digital Monitors) they guarantee interference free transmission and often come with several useful extra features:

Audio baby monitors – things to look for:

• Number of channels
• Rechargeable parent unit
• Belt clip for portable convenience
• Light display on the parent that shows noise level even if the sound is turned down.
• Low battery indicator
• Night light on baby unit
• Two-way transmission – so you can talk to your baby from the parent unit.
• Temperature gauge – remember the ideal nursery temperature is around 18C (65F)

Audio/Visual Baby Monitors
A recent innovation – these monitors let you see and hear your baby. This gives obvious added benefits such as seeing if your baby has come out of their blanket, or if they are sleeping in an awkward position etc. However, these baby monitor may also be useful for older children so you can remotely check on them if they are playing by themselves in another room.

The range of audio/visual baby monitors can be limited by your house layout. If your house has normal partition (or stud) walls then the range will be around the quoted 30m. However, if you live in an old house with solid internal walls the range will be reduced – especially if the signal has to pass through several walls. This will not apply when you are directly below or above a nursery as the signal only has to pass through a wooden floor (or floors) and should therefore be perfect.

AudioVisual Baby Monitors – Things to look for:

• Night vision – sounds obvious but some come without it! This is essential for night time viewing. All our audiovisual baby monitors come with night vision.
• Number of channels – helps in finding the best channel but can also enable you to add extra cameras later.
• Standby mode – if you have a portable parent unit the screen can be draining on the battery. Some units such as the Tranwo Gigaair automatically come out of standby mode if you baby makes a noise.

Sensor Baby Monitors
Also called respiratory baby monitors these monitors consist of sensitive pads that go underneath your baby’s mattress. During the first year of life, infants can experience irregular breathing patterns or even stop breathing completely.

These monitors can alert when your baby’s breathing changes due to a cold, high fever, or other illness. The Babysense II will continually detect your baby’s motion and breathing movements, and set off a sound and visual alarm if breathing movements ceases for over 20 seconds or if the breathing rate slows to below 10 breaths per minute.

REMEMBER , a sensor baby monitor is an added precaution and safeguard which can help peace of mind but it must be combined with the important recommendations of “Safe Sleeping” (sleeping on the back, not overheating of baby’s room, not smoking around the baby).

Sensor Baby Monitors – things to look for

• Certifications – the Babysense II is currently the only Household Movement Monitor to carry complete CE registration as a Medical Device and to comply with 93/42/EEC Medical device Directive.
• Mattress type – some sensor baby monitors will not work properly with a spring mattress
• Mattress thickness – check your mattress thickness. Some are certified for thicknesses up to 12cm and some for thicknesses up to 14cm.
• Mattress base – sensor monitors work best on a flat base. This should be no problem with a cot, however, if used in a Moses basket you are advised to put the basket on a flat base.

About the Author:
Sarah Cooke. Mother of two and Director of MonitorMyBaby – Baby Monitor Specialists A site specialising in all types of baby monitor.