Crying in arms?

[Midwesterner04]

Hi everyone,

A friend of mine has an infant who for several months had lengthy crying episodes and could not be consoled by holding, nursing, rocking, or any other soothing techniques. No allergies or medical causes were found and the baby ended up being diagnosed with "colic."  This mama is now convinced that AP and taking-cues-from-baby approaches have nothing to offer families with fussy or higher needs babies and that AP literature, which often emphasizes the risks of long-term chronic crying is useless, impractical, and cruel. As someone who feels AP was very beneficial to my child (who embodied the Dr. Sears "high needs" checklist) and me through tongue-tie related nursing problems, GERD, multiple significant food allergies, some medical problems, and all the related crying, and having seen research on the difference between in-arms and CIO crying, I don't share her perspective.  My laptop recently bit the dust, so I have lost many of my files. I wonder whether any of you can share links to research that could help her to feel that all of her holding, rocking, cuddling, and nursing have not been for naught, even when the baby continued to cry? She also seems interested in any research or reputable-publication writing on babies who are pre-sleep tension-releasers.

I'd be so grateful for any help!

[NinasMommy]

i don't know how helpful this will be, but just the other day i was here searching for stuff about bed-sharing and some of the resources that came up were actually about CIO and its ill-effects, as well as the positive effects of holding and contact. 

i think i found the resource list in "Family Bed and Nighttime Parenting" which i think is under "Parenting". some of the links were not working, but maybe you could find the articles by searching for the title.

I also read a very good book titled Our Babies, Ourselves by, I believe, Meredith Small. Not sure how super duper helpful it would be, but gives the evolutionary reasons why AP makes sense. 

sorry i'm not more helpful, but thought i'd get the ball rolling for you.

good luck!