Houlton Regional Hospital receives purple crying caps for babies

    HOULTON, Maine — Houlton Regional Hospital received a gift of “Purple Crying Caps” from the Aroostook Council for Health Families.
The period of “Purple” crying is a normal developmental phase that all healthy babies experience between two weeks and four months, characterized by long periods of crying, according to Danielle Langley, director of the Aroostook Council for Healthy Families.
    “Not all infants cry for long periods of time,” she said. “They cry more during this period with some crying more than six hours a day and some crying only a couple hours, but it is still more than any other time in the infant’s life. Frustration with a baby’s crying is the No. 1 trigger for shaking and abuse.”
The letters in PURPLE stand for:
Peak of Crying – The baby may cry more each week, peaking at two months, and then less at three to five months.
Unexpected – The crying can come and go, with no explanation.
Resists soothing – The baby might not stop crying, no matter what.
Pain-like face – It may look like the baby is in pain, even when they are not.
Long Lasting – The baby might cry five hours per day or more.
Evening – The baby might cry more in the afternoon or evening, just when parents are getting home from work and tired from a long day.
Click for Babies is sponsored by the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome, Maine Children’s Trust and Maine Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Councils, of which Downeast Health Services is a member.  For more information about Click for Babies and to start knitting now to prevent infant abuse, visit www.clickforbabies.org.