At least, that’s the conclusion of a study reported in New Scientist:
PARENTS of bawling babies take note: comforting them may work better than leaving them to cry – at least during the first few weeks of life…. “The hands-off approach appeared to backfire: babies fussed and cried 50 per cent more at two and five weeks”
Interestingly, the difference between ‘hands-on’ and ‘hands-off’ in terms of time spend holding the babies each day was only about an hour and a half (ten hours vs. eight and a half). Also interestingly, babies who were held for 16 hours a day cried just as much as the ten-hour ones.
Full story here: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19025545.000?DCMP-NLC=nletter&nsref=mg19025545.000
Letting babies cry will only end in more tears