Hamburg/Leipzig (dpa) - Mia was born and started to cry. All babies do.
But Mia did not stop. At the age of three weeks, she cried for eight
hours at a stretch, almost without interruption and apparently without
cause.

It drove her father, Thomas Bruch, to distraction.

Parents who are at their wit's end because of their infant's
constant squalling should seek help. They can find it these days at
many children's hospitals and "crybaby clinics."

"If a child cries for at least three hours, on more than three days
per week, for a least three weeks, we call it a crybaby," remarked
Margret Ziegler, a physician at the Munich Children's Centre's "crybaby
consultation".

Such children, she said, usually did not calm down easily, were open to stimuli, and had trouble finding their own rhythm.

Peter Hiermann, a crybaby consultation therapist at the University
of Leipzig's Children's Hospital, advised against giving crying-prone
children too many new stimuli in the first months of life.

"Strong stimuli soothe crybabies for a short while only," he noted.

Ziegler said the child should sleep regularly and be awake for periods as brief as possible - an hour and a half at most.

The cause of chronic crying is generally not pain or the famous three-month colic.

"You and your paediatrician should determine whether physical or
organic causes play a part, of course," advised Evelyn Taplik-Kossak,
from Hamburg's crybaby clinic.

A blockage or tenseness could be behind the bawling. A food
intolerance or shortage of mother's milk are also possible, Ziegler
said. For many crybabies, however, these are not the causes.

Experts agree that stress during pregnancy and depression related
to childbirth are especially important factors. In Taplik-Kossak's
view, the birth itself plays a key role. A delivery that is too fast or
premature "results in stress for the baby," she said.

Finally, the child's temperament matters. "Some children simply have initial difficulties," Hiermann noted.

An infant's constant crying can exhaust the parents and make them
feel helpless. In many such families, the situation gradually becomes
more and more tense.

"It seems to the parents that the child is screaming at them, and
they have the feeling that they're doing everything wrong," Taplik-
Kossak said.

As soon as parents start to feel hostile, they should leave the
room, Hiermann advised. "Put the baby down safely and walk away," he
said.

Crybaby clinic workers try to restore peace in the family through
discussions and relaxation techniques. Mia and her parents improved
their relationship after six consultation sessions.

"She's a changed person," Bruch declared, "a completely normal
child that sometimes cries and then calms down." He advised all parents
of chronic criers to seek assistance. "You're not a failure if you do,"
he said. (dpa)