Babies Who Are Only Happy When Held

New babies don’t cry to be picked up, but they often cry because they’ve been put down. The living warmth, support, and gentle movement of your body, with the sound of your heart and breathing, are much closer to what your baby is used to than the solitude of the crib.

For a while, your baby may only be content when you’re holding her. When you can, rest on your bed or a couch (you don’t have to sit up to have her on your lap), prop yourself up a little, and lie her against your chest. When you want to move around and do things, you could try slinging her on your front in that same position. Check that your sling gives her adequate head support.

When you must put her down, try wrapping her up, so that she feels held by the receiving blanket. Fold it into a triangle, lie the baby with the middle of her head on the middle of the long, let her take up her usual curled up position, and rap her into it, bringing the ends of the blanket down over her shoulders, leaving her hands near her mouth, and tucking the ends of the blanket under her bottom, so only her weight is holding them. Do remember, though, that a wrapped baby is a warm baby and she won’t need as much bedding as usual.

Penelope Leach, Ph.D., is one of the world’s most respected (and best-loved) developmental child psychologists. She is most widely known for her best-selling books on child development and parenting. They include Babyhood, Children First: What Society Must Do — and Is Not Doing — for Our Children Today, the classic Your Baby & Child: From Birth to Age Five (now in a new edition for a new generation), and Your Growing Child: From Babyhood Through Adolescence.