Rocking, feeding, shushing, bouncing, changing, cuddling. Repeat. You’ve tried everything you can think of to get your inconsolable baby to stop crying, but there she is, lying in your arms red-faced and still wailing. There is something about the pitch of a baby’s cries, the desperation of them, that gets under your skin and into your head. When all of the tried-and-true techniques – my go-to was holding my daughter and bouncing for ages on an exercise ball – don’t seem to work, parents can come up with some pretty creative ways to dry those tears.

7 weird but proven ways to get your baby to stop crying