Carrying a child while walking is the best way to calm him down, according to a scientific study

It’s an experience shared by almost all parents: the frustration of a crying baby who refuses to sleep. Researchers have decided to help them by scientifically determining which of the four commonly used methods turns out to be the most effective in calming a baby, who is upset for no apparent reason.

A baby calmed down in thirty seconds.

According to their study, published Tuesday in the journal Current Biology, walking for five minutes with a baby in your arms can work wonders. But before putting the baby to bed, scientists recommend holding the child still in your arms for another five to eight minutes.

“I raised four children,” said the study’s lead author, Kumi Kuroda, of the RIKEN Center for Brain Science in Japan. “But even I couldn’t anticipate the key results from this study, until the statistical data came in.”

The team of researchers had studied a similar mechanism in animals in the past: when small animals (dogs, monkeys, etc.) have to be transported, for example to escape a threat, their heart rate tends to drop and they become more docile . .

To compare a possible similar reaction in humans, the scientists studied twenty-one babies between zero and seven months, with their mother. Four techniques were analysed: carrying the infant while walking, carrying the infant while sitting, laying the infant in a bed, or laying the infant in a mobile crib.

When babies were held while walking, their heart rate slowed within thirty seconds, like in a rocking cradle, but not when they were still.

The end of crying and the beginning of sleep.

After five minutes, the fact of carrying the child in the arms allowed all the children to stop crying, and almost half of them fell asleep. But once they rested in their bed, the babies tended to wake up within twenty seconds for more than a third of them. And the way they were deposited (the posture or the delicacy of the movement) did not influence this effect.

The solution according to scientists: extend the baby’s sleep time before resting by sitting him up and holding him close to you for five to eight minutes after walking. This period corresponds more or less to the duration of the first phase of sleep, then still light, says the study.

“We need science to understand a baby’s behaviors,” Kumi Kuroda concluded, “because they are much more diverse and complex than we thought.”