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I love seeing how many different ways we classify our kids,..
. Here I have bitty babies, (newborn) floppy babies (can turn over) crawling babies, walking babies, little friends, (from about 13 mo to 17 mo) friends,... over about 18 months,.. then,.. we have big kids (anyone who rides a yellow school bus) they are usually my own girls, my remaining school aged childcare boy, . then we have "bubby's" Any teenage/young 20's man/boy is a bubby here. . Girls over driving age are called teenagers,... Then you have Mommys and daddys and mamaws and papaws.
. Here I have bitty babies, (newborn) floppy babies (can turn over) crawling babies, walking babies, little friends, (from about 13 mo to 17 mo) friends,... over about 18 months,.. then,.. we have big kids (anyone who rides a yellow school bus) they are usually my own girls, my remaining school aged childcare boy, . then we have "bubby's" Any teenage/young 20's man/boy is a bubby here. . Girls over driving age are called teenagers,... Then you have Mommys and daddys and mamaws and papaws. I carry newborns in a snuggly for the first week or so I get them. I love me some newborn babies. 
Disclaimer: Newborn babies are the exception to the following. Once the kid can flip over then we start weaning them off of the hold me/walk me/rock me. Once they can manage their heads up off the floor then we move to more of a gravity based day. Make friends with gravity and make your own fun.
I do not use motion or rhythm to solve crying. I don't use swings, rocking, bouncing, patting, or carrying a child around to solve crying.
When I have crying children I make sure they are fed, have an excellent schedule available to them for sleep/rest/activity, have plenty of age appropriate toys, and good lovins. If they are crying even with all of that then I stay out of their crying.
I have very little crying here. It's so rare that when they cry it startles me in a panic kind of way. If one of the kids under two start crying there is something really wrong. My kids over two don't cry. I can't even think of the last time one of them cried. hmmm I'll have to think about that one.
The newbie babies (older babies like eight months or so) cry but it only takes a few day care days to get them to go into our ways. In the meantime we just hang on and ride it out with them. We hold them but ALWAYS sitting on the floor and NEVER walking around with them other than getting them from point A to point B.
I have an amazing set up and a full time staff assistant with a low adult to child ratio though. I've been at this for a while so I have a LOT of resources to make every little piece of this go well. I have a LOT of space too.
I didn't have that when I started so I have been where many of you ladies are with the cry kids and it was difficult. I learned along the way to never use motion to solve crying. Motion solving begets more crying.
It's really important to stay super calm when you have a kid crying when everything in their world is wonderful but they still don't like it. I know that sounds silly but it's so important to send the message to the baby that you are calm and that you expect them to be calm. Calm assertive leadership is felt by the tinest of the babies. They are like little puppies... they can sense when their leader is off kilter. So even if you have to fake it stay calm and put a plain look on your face. I let them know I'm not agreeing with their instability and I'm not going to be a part of it. I give them the body language that shows them that I'm not a part of it.
When you touch them be sort of floppy with your fingers and hands. Light superficial touching is so very calming. Try to swirl their bellies with your fingertips from side to side. I do that over their onesies and they settle down pretty quickly. Do this with their hair and with their hands and wrists. Send them the message of calm with everything you do and they will calm down.
If they are wailing for no reason other than they want to be picked up and carried I just drop to the floor and offer them my lap. I turn them away from me and have their backs melt into my stomach. Then I just hold them and fiddle with their hair, their fingers, etc.
Pretty soon I bore the bejeezus out of them and off they go ::
It's hard to explain but it really works. Just stay calm and if you have to... put them in a safe place where they can have some me time and fuss it out.
If you start to get tense or it gets to you don't hesitate to separate the baby from you into a safe place. You should always have an escape plan to regroup. I know some States like California don't allow this but if I lived there I would be breaking the law. It's VERY important to have a place to put a child so that you can regroup and rethink. If this was taught in our classes and required in our State regs we would have a lot less burnt out providers and a lot less abused kids.
Disclaimer: Newborn babies are the exception to the following. Once the kid can flip over then we start weaning them off of the hold me/walk me/rock me. Once they can manage their heads up off the floor then we move to more of a gravity based day. Make friends with gravity and make your own fun.
I do not use motion or rhythm to solve crying. I don't use swings, rocking, bouncing, patting, or carrying a child around to solve crying.
When I have crying children I make sure they are fed, have an excellent schedule available to them for sleep/rest/activity, have plenty of age appropriate toys, and good lovins. If they are crying even with all of that then I stay out of their crying.
I have very little crying here. It's so rare that when they cry it startles me in a panic kind of way. If one of the kids under two start crying there is something really wrong. My kids over two don't cry. I can't even think of the last time one of them cried. hmmm I'll have to think about that one.
The newbie babies (older babies like eight months or so) cry but it only takes a few day care days to get them to go into our ways. In the meantime we just hang on and ride it out with them. We hold them but ALWAYS sitting on the floor and NEVER walking around with them other than getting them from point A to point B.
I have an amazing set up and a full time staff assistant with a low adult to child ratio though. I've been at this for a while so I have a LOT of resources to make every little piece of this go well. I have a LOT of space too.
I didn't have that when I started so I have been where many of you ladies are with the cry kids and it was difficult. I learned along the way to never use motion to solve crying. Motion solving begets more crying.
It's really important to stay super calm when you have a kid crying when everything in their world is wonderful but they still don't like it. I know that sounds silly but it's so important to send the message to the baby that you are calm and that you expect them to be calm. Calm assertive leadership is felt by the tinest of the babies. They are like little puppies... they can sense when their leader is off kilter. So even if you have to fake it stay calm and put a plain look on your face. I let them know I'm not agreeing with their instability and I'm not going to be a part of it. I give them the body language that shows them that I'm not a part of it.
When you touch them be sort of floppy with your fingers and hands. Light superficial touching is so very calming. Try to swirl their bellies with your fingertips from side to side. I do that over their onesies and they settle down pretty quickly. Do this with their hair and with their hands and wrists. Send them the message of calm with everything you do and they will calm down.
If they are wailing for no reason other than they want to be picked up and carried I just drop to the floor and offer them my lap. I turn them away from me and have their backs melt into my stomach. Then I just hold them and fiddle with their hair, their fingers, etc.
Pretty soon I bore the bejeezus out of them and off they go :
:It's hard to explain but it really works. Just stay calm and if you have to... put them in a safe place where they can have some me time and fuss it out.
If you start to get tense or it gets to you don't hesitate to separate the baby from you into a safe place. You should always have an escape plan to regroup. I know some States like California don't allow this but if I lived there I would be breaking the law. It's VERY important to have a place to put a child so that you can regroup and rethink. If this was taught in our classes and required in our State regs we would have a lot less burnt out providers and a lot less abused kids.
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