Interventions to Support Parents Whose Babies Cry Excessively: Systematic Review.

Authors

Ayten Bilgin, Alice Betteridge, Jayne Brown, Elaine M Boyle, Traolach Brugha, Francesco Fusco, Marie Stracke, Stephanie Louise Swift, Dieter Wolke, Ian St James-Roberts

Published in

Pediatrics. Oct 15, 2026. Epub Oct 15, 2026.

Abstract

Parents report that around 10% to 20% of babies cry a lot without an apparent reason during early infancy. This "excessive" infant crying can lead to adverse outcomes, including parental depression, breastfeeding cessation, impaired parent-child relationships, and, in extreme cases, infant abuse. Cost-effective parent-support services are needed.
To assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions designed to support parents of excessively crying babies.
MEDLINE, Embase, EconLit, Web of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO, CINAHL and CENTRAL were searched from inception to 8th April 2025. The NIHR CRN database and handsearching were used to identify further studies.
Comparative studies reporting parental outcomes for any intervention supporting parents of excessively crying infants aged ≤1 year were included.
Two independent reviewers conducted data extraction and assessed risk of bias. Meta-analysis was performed when possible; otherwise, narrative synthesis was conducted.
Meta-analysis found that educational interventions significantly reduced parental stress or anxiety. Narrative analyses produced mixed findings, but components common to successful educational interventions were indicated. Meta-analyses of studies administering probiotics to infants found significant improvements in parents' quality of life but not in parental depression. No safety data and limited economic evidence were found.
Few studies measured similar enough parental outcomes to be pooled in meta-analysis. Risk of bias ranged from unclear to high risk.
Educational and probiotic interventions show promise for supporting parents of excessively crying babies. Additional controlled trials employing evidence-based interventions and outcome measures and cost-effectiveness analyses are needed to build on these findings.

PMID:
42875030
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 15 Oct 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.