Crying babies

Specialties NICU

Published

I've been trolling through a lot of the older threads here lately, just trying to soak up anything I can--Merenstein and Gardner is my friend.

Last night was my first night on my own (just doing feeder/growers right now). I have one infant who is a bit of an oddball--a bit 'neuro-y' as some other nurses have described her. When she's mad (and it's not hard to get her mad), she arches like crazy, some cortical thumbing has been noted, and she's really hard to console. She gets so frantic that she won't suck on her pacifier, instead she just continually roots. She doesn't nipple particularly well. She scooches herself out of her swaddle.

She sometimes calms with cuddles, tight swaddling, or being held in a 'centered' position (arms in, legs bunched up, upright against the chest), but not always.

It's hard not to get flustered with her (esp since I'm new and not particularly adept at methods of consoling or cuddling or even keeping that stream of soothing talk that other nurses do)

I'm not sure if I'm asking anything particular right now--is it normal to get flustered with a kid like that (I've seen references here to dreams of jumping out a window to escape screaming babies), or are there any good ideas to calm a baby?

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

We tell the residents that all the time lol

Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

The NICU residents usually know it w/in their 1st wk in the unit--it's the Surgical team ya gotta watch out for!!

I'm telling you guys, the Mamaroo brand chair has SAVED our sanity many times! That and Toots Sweet..

I've never seen anyone try iphone music, but now we can't since we just got all our electronic devices taken away and night shift managers to enforce it.. boo.

Also, I'm glad we're not the only place that the residents come waltzing in at 6am to examine and never know how to "leave it like they found it"!!

Sucrose and the thing that works for practically every kid is something I call gentle bouncing. Swaddle, put them up on your shoulder and gently move up and down and around. Talk to them in a quiet, soothing voice. Sometimes though there are just those kiddos that scream their heads off. Just do your best and know that sometimes theres just nothing that works.

Specializes in Skilled Nursing/Rehab.

I love this thread... so many helpful suggestions! I did not realize that the sucrose solution is called "sweet-ease." That totally makes sense! Our nursing instructors taught us about it, and we used it on our OB rotation (only 2 days), but I always thought of them as "sweeties!" Maybe there are brands that use both spellings... anyway, very interesting!

Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

I work PICU and float sometimes to NICU. There is one nurse over there who cannot tolerate a crying baby - seriously. She INSISTS that they 'need their diaper changed' and that a wet disposable diaper is the cause of all NICU crying.

Which is fine that she thinks that, as she will change diapers on any of my kids that so much as makes a peep! Honest-to-goodness, the last 12 hours shift I worked over there, I have three feeders and I changed a grand total of two diapers. She did all the rest. It's hilarious.

Specializes in NICU.
I also have been successful using my iPod on my phone to play them some soothing music. Can't do that much now, because there's one particular heifer on my unit that will write you up for doing it, because she's convinced it's "the wrong kind of music" and non-therapeutic."...

In our NICU we had families who donated approximately 20 CD players, and twice the number of lullaby CDs. Some CDs were " A Child's Gift of Lullabyes.", "Bless My Little Girl", "Bless My Little Boy", "Sleep, Baby, Sleep" and "Baby Go To sleep" tapes, which have heartbeats set to rhythmic music, Mozart, Bach etc.

We bring the CDs to the infant's' bedside and & play the music for them. Some babies will fall asleep to the music, & wake up if it's turned off. I think the rhythmic sounds helped drown out all the beeping and alarms in the NICU.

And threaten the life of anyone that even walks NEAR the babies bed while she sleeps.

While I appreciate the environmental services personnel changing the linen bags and emptying trash, I feel like I want to cry sometimes when they walk through slamming garbage can lids after I have just gotten a withdrawal baby to sleep. Or when the parents walk in 1 hour after the baby's feeding has ended and pick the withdrawing baby up, fuss when them for 15 minutes, then put them back down in their crib and leave for the night.

Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.
While I appreciate the environmental services personnel changing the linen bags and emptying trash, I feel like I want to cry sometimes when they walk through slamming garbage can lids after I have just gotten a withdrawal baby to sleep. Or when the parents walk in 1 hour after the baby's feeding has ended and pick the withdrawing baby up, fuss when them for 15 minutes, then put them back down in their crib and leave for the night.

Or vigorously shake the plastic bags.... :devil:

Specializes in Skilled Nursing/Rehab.
Or vigorously shake the plastic bags.... :devil:

Because of this quote, tonight I attempted to open a plastic laundry bag quietly, just as an experiment. It is harder than it sounds! :no:

Specializes in NICU.

To echo what others have said about NAS kids and some "Neuro" kids, sometimes all you CAN do it walk away for a breather and have a CAP or someone try and hold them. Every kid is different. Some take to swings, and some don't. Sometimes all they want is to be held upright on their bellies. We have volunteer cuddlers who round on our unit sometimes and they can help hold when you or others on your unit cannot. They can be lifesavers! We also try swings, sucrose, etc. Bouncing helps too. I agree with others when they say it is okay to ask for a different assignment if you cannot bear to think you can take another one. We have all been there!

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