Objective: The aim of the study was to determine crying behavior of infants aged 0 to 4 months, and to identify parents’s approach to crying and shaking.

Material and Methods: Two hundred and twenty five mothers of 242 babies were included in this descriptive study. A questionnaire consisting of 35 questions was administered to the mothers. The questionnaire comprised questions about the sociodemographic characteristics of the baby and the mother, reasons for crying, infant’s crying behavior, and the parent’s approach to calm the baby. The parents were also asked if they shook their baby. Statistical analysis was performed using the chi square, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests.results: The ratio of mothers thinking that their infants cried often was 55.6%. Hunger was the first reason given as the cause of crying. Median for daily crying was 60 minutes . There was no significant difference between the crying duration and sex of the baby, gestational week, breastfeeding status and infant’s age. It was reported that 21.6% of the babies cried for more than three hours per day and 7.9% of them cried more than three hours per day, more than three days per week, for longer than three weeks The three most common soothing techniques used by mothers were carrying in the arms, breast-feeding and rocking. The percentage of the mothers who thought that crying was harmful for the baby was 25.9% in mothers with less than 8 years of education and 13.3% in those with more education (p=0.027). The percentage of mothers that got angry when their babies cried was 26.2%. Three mothers reported that they shook several times their babies to calm if they cried excess.conclusion: Informing the parents on neurodevelopmental characteristic and crying pattern of a baby and appropriatesoothing technique when the baby cries is important from the neonatal period, especially for angry mothers and less educated ones

Keywords: Crying, Infant, Soothing, Technique