Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Period of PURPLE crying

    Earlier in April the National Student Nurse's Association was held in Salt Lake city, which means I still was able to go to it this year even though I am technically on the old board. I love going to the conference because it inspires me to further my career in nursing and it gives me the extra encouragement I need for nursing school. I am still determined to get a master's degree, which would be a Nurse Practitioner and then hopefully a clinical doctorate degree somewhere in the future.

    At this conference BYU was able to present another resolution to the house of delegates, that was passed and will now be supported by NSNA. We also presented a poster on it as well. I am in full support of this resolution because it is so important and has the potential to help so many babies in such a simple way.
Celeste proposed the resolution and was our delegate. This was our poster we presented at the conference.

Our resolution was on the period of PURPLE crying. A program developed to inform new parents on the peak of normalcy of crying in their babies from two to five months. It is a program that gives a pamphlet and DVD for them to watch teaching about the different symptoms to recognize in their babies and what to do so they don't get frustrated to protect babies from shaken baby syndrome!
Purple is an acronym to help parents remember the symptoms,

Peak of crying. Your baby may cry more each week. The most at two months, then less at 3-5 months.
Unexpected crying. Crying may come and go and you don't know why.
Resists soothing.  Your baby may not stop crying no matter what you try.
Pain like face. Baby's face may look like they are in pain even if they are not.
Long lasting.Crying may last for five hours or all day.
Evening. Your baby may cry more in the afternoon and evening.

When you recognize these symptoms it is suggested that you try to do everything you can to soothe, comfort, feed, change their diaper, etc. if the crying doesn't stop put the baby down in a safe place and walk away to calm down.

1 comment:

  1. My baby just hit 2 months and I have noticed her crying a little bit more. She seems to cry when she gets startled - which she hadn't before. She is also having more unexpected crying, but it's easier to handle since I've been getting more sleep at night. Last night she slept for 7 hours! It's really hard to try to soothe your baby when you haven't slept much. It's so easy to get frustrated, so I think this awareness is a great idea! Way to go girl!

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