TOKYO, Oct 03 (Nikkei) - If your baby is crying heavily, carrying the child as you walk for five minutes is an effective way to calm the infant and induce sleep, researchers led by Kumi Kuroda of Japan's national scientific institute Riken have found.

Letting that baby sleep in your arms for another eight minutes helps prevent the child from waking once put in bed, said the international research team, which experimented in search of the best way to put infants to sleep. The experiments were done with 21 babies, seven months or younger, and their parents in countries including Japan and Italy during daylight.

The procedure initially tested four different kinds of motions for 30 seconds and compared the babies' reactions. "Carry and walk" produced the best effect, while putting the baby in a buggy and moving it back and forth had low but positive results. The other two options, "Hold the baby and sit" and laying the baby in bed, had no effect.

The team then tested the length of the walk, finding that after five minutes all babies stopped crying and around half fell asleep. ...continue reading