Surviving Crying

Summary:

Around a fifth of infants cry a lot without an apparent reason during the first four months after they are born. This ‘excessive’ infant crying is often called ‘colic’ and blamed on indigestion. Recent evidence shows that only 5% of infants taken to the doctor because of excessive crying are unwell. However, the crying can distress parents and lead to maternal depression, poor parent-child relationships, problems with child development and infant abuse in extreme cases. By developing NHS services which support parents whose babies cry excessively, we hope to improve the parents’ wellbeing and coping, infant outcomes, and how NHS money is spent. ‘Surviving Crying’ has been developed to potentially be one such NHS service. The Surviving Crying intervention includes a website, a booklet based on the website and/or a programme of CBT-based sessions by a qualified practitioner to support parental coping. This cluster randomised controlled trial will compare the clinical and cost effectiveness of usual NHS services v’s usual services plus the Surviving Crying intervention.

Type of Study: Displaying a poster

Non-Commercial Study

Recruitment Duration:

Until 31/10/2025

Practice Activity:

Displaying Poster

Opportunistic recruitment when a parent attends the practice, provide an invite letter.

Practice Eligibility Criteria:

GP Practices within Newark & Sherwood, Mansfield & Ashfield and Rushcliffe

Practice Target: N/A

Participant Eligibility Criteria:

Inclusion Criteria:

· Parents/Carers aged 18 years or older with a healthy infant up to 20 weeks old (at time of consent), who express concern about their infant’s excessive crying

· Able to give written informed consent