Surviving the Crying: Infant Colic Family Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe life with a baby who has colic, told by mothers, fathers, grandparents and a foster carer. The families range from a single mum in Manchester and a teenage mother in Boston to two dads who adopted their son at four days old, two mums splitting the evening, a first-time father at fifty-one and a household with three older children. They live from Pune to Portland and Tokyo to Wellington, some with a confinement nanny or a whole extended family, one with a husband at sea for nine months. Parents describe carriers, warm baths, swings, walks in the rain, pacifier debates, a dairy-free diet that left one mother hungry, formula changes, and a cartful of gadgets that did less than walking. They write about going back to work at twelve weeks, video meetings with a baby on the chest, night shifts, a caesarean wound and arguments with a partner. Some babies settled in a single night and one cried for nearly six months. A few turned out to have something else going on, including a problem with milk, a tongue-tie and an injury found one evening. The hardest moments are told plainly: a father who put his son down safely and walked away, a mother whose low mood was more than tiredness, and a call to 911.

Who it's for

For parents and carers walking the floor with a crying baby, for those expecting their first, and for the grandparents, partners and friends who want to know how to help.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 265 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.