Babies in Canada cry more than infants born in other countries: study

The sound of a baby crying can draw a sympathetic aw from any person, but after a few minutes it can be tough to listen to and according to a new study out of the University of Warwick, babies in Canada, U.K. and Italy cry more than other babies from different countries.

The study looked at the meta-analysis of 28 previous studies involving 8,700 infants that were born in countries which include Germany, Denmark, Japan, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and the U.K.

Dieter Wolke, the study’s author, calculated the average of how long babies fuss and cry every 24 hours across different countries in an infant’s first 12 weeks.

“Parents told us very often they say they were really surprised about the shock of how much a baby cries,” Wolke said.

“We wanted to look at it as a universal shout at how much babies cry and fuss and for that reason, we tried to bring together studies from across the world.”

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The study showed, on average, babies cry for around two hours per day at two weeks of age.

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Wolke said that time can increase to around two hours 15 minutes per day at six weeks.

The study also said some infants could cry as little as 30 minutes, while others cry up to five hours, in one day.

In Canada, babies at three to four weeks of age can cry up to 30 minutes more than the average infant.

“It seems to be that in Canada, the 30-minutes-more-crying at three to four weeks is just that they get their crying peak at an earlier time than babies in the other countries,” Wolke said.

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The study also looked at the statistics for colic, which can happen within the first three months of infancy.

“Colic means that you cry for more than three hours a day, more than three days a week, for more than three weeks,” said Dr. Dina Kulik, a Toronto pediatrician.

According to the study’s research, the highest level of colic was found in Canadian infants at 34.1 per cent. The U.K. followed with 28 per cent, and Italy had 20.9 per cent.

Denmark and Germany had the lowest levels of colic at 5.5 per cent at three to four weeks, and 6.7 per cent at three to four weeks, respectively.

“We don’t really know why some kids are more colicky than others. It might be related to feeding … It could just be temperament and personality from an early age,” Kulik said.

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Wolke said that while parents might be discouraged by constant crying in earlier months, it does significantly decrease after 12 weeks.

“It reduces to about one hour and 10 minutes. So it’s really the first three months where there is most crying,” he said.