'PURPLE Crying'

Before reading this page, you could read a more general KidsHealth page about babies and crying.

Find out what you can do when your baby cries

There is something called 'the period of PURPLE crying' which refers to a time period when some babies begin crying more and may be hard to settle. This usually starts at about 2 weeks of age and peaks at 8 weeks. It usually ends by 12 weeks of age.

The letters in PURPLE stand for the common parts of non-stop crying in babies:

P - peak pattern (crying peaks around 2 months of age, then decreases)
U - unpredictable (crying can come and go for no reason)
R - resistant to soothing (baby may keep crying no matter what you do to try to soothe them)
P - pain-like look on baby's face
L - long bouts of crying (crying can go on for hours)
E - evening crying (baby cries more in the afternoon and evening)

Parents may feel guilty and angry if they can't soothe their baby. The period of PURPLE crying tells us that if a baby is not ill and parents have tried to soothe baby, it is alright if they cannot stop baby from crying. Some babies are going to cry no matter what. The good news is that the period of PURPLE crying will end!