Babysooth: Calming Crying Babies for over 25 years

HOW WAS THE THE BABY SOOTHER CASSETTE WAS RATED BY PARENTS?

A 6 points scale was presented to parents to see how they rated ‘The Baby Soother'™. (The even number scale was chosen to help avoid verging on the mean score which tends to be the norm when odd number scales are used).

Respondents were asked to rate the sounds as ’Extremely effective’ down to ‘Totally ineffective’.

Extremely Effective - 29.7% ; Very Effective - 43.2%; Effective - 13.5% ; Moderately Effective - 2.7%;

Not very Effective 3.4% ; Totally Ineffective 5.5%

TOTAL — 100%

FULL REPORT OF THE FIRST RESEARCH;

THE INITIAL RESEARCH into The Jaygee Babysooth® sounds in the format of "The Baby Soother"™ cassette tape. Results of the research carried out by Roger J. and Patricia J. Wannell between 10 December 1979 and 30 September 1980 in and around Bristol and Bath, England.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the research undertaken between Dec 1979 and Sept 1980 has been to ascertain whether a cassette of sounds, inadvertently discovered in June 1979 STOPPED BABIES CRYING. Initially it had been observed to stop one baby crying, almost without fail for a period of six months starting when the infant was six weeks old. The brief to parents doing the testing was to use the tape within the NORMAL DAILY ROUTINE solely as last resort device to assist settling the baby who was restless, overtired etc and would not cease crying even though all his/her creature comforts had been attended to. It was not to be used as a substitute for parental love and affection or as a gimmick device. We found that no one abused this principle which suggests that maternal instincts are stronger than we had preconceived.

METHOD

The research was conducted using three modes of enquiry -Personal face to face interviews with questionnaires. Impersonal - postal questionnaires.Delegated tests carried out by Senior Midwifery Staff in Maternity Hospitals.

PERSONAL INTERVIEWS were carried out with 32 interviewee families for approximately one hour. Copies of "The Baby Soother"™ cassette were distributed to these volunteer parents after an appeal on Radio Bristol and BBC TV Points West News. The request was for babies noted for their incessant crying and fractiousness thus they were not a normal cross section of the baby populus. To have gone for this would have been a waste of time and tapes etc because only those with a problem need relief from that problem. Candidates were asked to telephone to be in the survey so a brief history of the situation was given prior to inclusion. Four candidates were considered to be unsuitable either because the problem was not severe enough or they had toddlers and in one case an insomniac boy of 10 years old. The interviews took place in the homes of the baby some 4-6 weeks after receiving the tape. Owing to the person to person nature of the interview we decided that any element of doubt about any part of the questionnaire would rate as a negative response, thus overcoming the will to please which can occur in this type of exercise.

IMPERSONAL INTERVIEWS were conducted via requests for "The Baby Soother"™cassette which came from parents following media coverage of the first survey results. It was decided to distribute the tapes on a commercial basis but to monitor each sale with a questionnaire accompanied with an SAE. This was a mistake and brought only a 52% response. We quickly changed the tactic to sending out the SAE 6-8 weeks after the dispatch of the tape. This proved far more effective and yielded an 80% response. We chased up the missing respondents and found that they had not returned their sheet because the baby had not cried sufficiently for the tape to be used (something we had realized above - hence the desire not to use a normal cross section of babies) or the parents had used the tape insufficiently to feel it had been tested, or they were complacent. In some cases the respondents had no telephone so were not contacted.

THE THIRD -MATERNITY HOSPITAL TESTS - were carried out by Night Sisters in Paulton, Bath Royal and St Martins Maternity hospitals (respectively). The request to do the test came from the three sisters following the Radio Bristol appeal. We gave the Sisters the same brief as given to parents and asked them to keep a note of the number of babies that the tape was used on and how the babies responded. The results were phoned through every few weeks. At first we wanted to know the successes but as these were so high we began to look at the deviants as the more interesting studies. Each Sister has over 10 years Midwifery experience and their chosen observations were therefore greatly valued. Each has handled literally hundreds of babies so their reaction to "The Baby Soother"™cassette vis-a-vis the crying baby was based on tremendous cumulative knowledge and experience. Independently the Sisters reported that the effect the cassette has on a baby is "amazing". We remained in contact with the Sisters for a period of eight months - mainly with a view to extending the number of babies to test (and to find deviants.) The latter did not occur.

According to the Midwives LITTLE FAILURE HAS BEEN OBSERVED IN THE MATERNITY UNIT SETTING (under 10%). Sister G. stopped observing after 100 babies but her hospital decided to make the cassette a nursing aid for daily use. Sister V observed over 100 and was then instructedby us to cease monitoring. Sister W left active nursing after reporting on 40 babies. I left instructions with the two remaining Sisters to come back to us if there was anything extraordinary to report.

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OVERALL RESULTS

Total number of babies tested - 324.

Number tested in Maternity Units 250* .

Number tested in the home 74**

The numbers are - Paulton Hospital = 100 (ceased monitoring).

Bath Royal Hospital = 100. St Martins = 40.

and 10 were done by a Harley Street paediatrician on behalf of Blossom Toys of Northamptonshire who wanted to use the tape in a commercial product. According to their director the cassette 'passed with flying colours' and the specialist was very impressed with it.

** In total 100 cassettes were distributed to parents for testing. Twenty-eight we interviewed at home at our first wave of inquiry. 46 returned their questionnaires in the SAE as part of the second enquiry. Seven reported over the telephone a general impression - which was positive and promised to return the questionnaires then did not. (These are in the 74 above but they have been left out of the analysis due to insufficient data.) Twelve cassettes were never used or insufficiently used to complete the questionnaire and 14 have not been accounted for, ie no telephone and no response to the SAE,

HOME TEST RESULTS

The tests in the home were carried out by parents often with the watchful eye of their Health Visitor/Midwife or Community Nurse. In the first enquiry the respondents had acknowledged a definite fretting pattern with their babies, prior to the arrival of the tape. With the supplementary research involving the postal questionnaires we do not know whether this was the case or not. Thus the first piece of research is probably more valid than the second. The brief to the parents was to use the tape for a period of at least four weeks or a minimum of 10 playings whichever was the longer. Use the cassette as part of the daily round and not use it if the baby was hungry or had a dirty nappy (diaper) etc. In other words as a point where all the usual feeding, changing, cuddling and rocking had been tried and failed. They were asked to follow instructions with the sounds regarding volume, position of the cassette recorder and so forth. They were then asked to note the results. In practice this is a fairly simple piece of research. If the baby has developed a pattern of crying for several hours at a time and the crying ceases within a few moments or minutes of the sounds being turned on then, if repeated with the same result, it can logically be assumed that the tape causes the baby to calm down.

AGES OF BABIES WHEN FIRST HEARING THE CASSETTE IN THE SUCCESSFUL USER GROUP

0-2 wks - 19; 3 wks - 5; 4 wks - 5; 5 wks - 5; 6 wks - 3; 7 wks - 3; 8 wks - 1; 9 wks - 4; 10 wks - 6; 11-13 wks - 2; 3-4 mths - 3; 4-5 mths - 1; 5-6 mths - 0; over 6 mths - 0; Total 57. . . . . . . . *7 verbals not used.

AGES OF BABIES WHEN FIRST HEARING THE CASSETTE IN THE UNSUCCESSFUL USER GROUP

0-2 wks - 0; 3 wks - 0; 4 wks - 0; 5 wks - 0; 6 wks - 0; 7 wks - 0; 8 wks - 0; 9 wks - 0; 10 wks - 0; 11-13 wks - 2; 3-4 mths - 0; 4-5 mths - 3; 5-6 mths - 2; over 6 mths - 3; Total - 10. . . . . . . *7 verbals not used.

Comparison of the two charts above quickly show that the cassette sounds are only acceptable to the baby if she/he is started on it under the age of 11-13 weeks, although there will be some success of a diminishing type up to four months. At this stage we looked into the successful group of users to see what other factors came into play.

DEGREE OF EFFECTIVENESS

Within the questionnaire/research there was a section which asked whether the cassette soothed the baby every time. Again the results quickly showed that the tape had a similar profile to that of a medicine/drug in that it affected some babies more than others and that it did not always prove totally effective. The 'failure' parents reported total failure, whereas the 'success' parents reported degrees of failure but none went below the 50% zone that we had imposed as prerequisite to determining success/failure.

4 babies reacted to the tape @ 6 playings out of 10.

1 baby reacted to the tape @ 7 playings out of 10.

5 babies reacted to the tape @ 8 playings out of 10.

9 babies reacted to the tape @ 9 playings out of 10.

38 babies reacted to the tape every time it was played.

This means inductively that we can say 91.2% of babies will find this cassette will soothe them at least 80% of the time. 66.6% will be soothed 100% of the time.

TIME and EFFECTIVENESS

In a section dealing with the 'time' taken to soothe parents were asked to note how long the baby took from the time the tape was switched on to the time baby calmed down to silence. Once again the results show a range of reactions seemingly peculiar to the individual baby. Most babies seemed to have their own personal pattern which became its norm recognizable to the parents to the extent that deviancy was quickly noticed and further investigations of the baby ís condition/state usually followed.

The span of times noted ranged from a few seconds up to 10 minutes. If the latter seems a long time, remember that the alternative could be a baby crying for two/three or even more hours. The home based infants reports averaged out a time of 5.29 minutes. The neo-nates in hospital were on the whole much quicker thus it could be surmised that the efficiency of the cassette wanes a little as the baby grows older. This is probably due to its increased awareness of stimuli in general.

Taking the whole test group in home and hospital, the time averages out at 3.36 minutes. Having made the above surmising it has to be noted , that there were babies started on the tape at 11 weeks who took only one minute and others at birth who took ten minutes. One observable pattern that emerged in the first wave research was that of 'crooning'. Several babies were quickly calmed from high pitched, high volume crying/screaming down to low level, low frequency crooning which would then go on for several minutes. Parents recorded a longer time until cessation of the latter but found their own distress relieved once the high frequency crying had diminished. Another observable pattern from the first wave research was that of The baby would cease crying - much as above - but interspaced in the silences were 'whimpering' often with sudden 'heaving sighs' .

OTHER GENERAL FINDINGS

FRETTING AND GENDER

Our research babies were biased in favour of boys over girls. The tapes were sent to boys and girls on a ratio of 6 male/4 female. It may well be therefore that boys cry more than girls!! (59% male to 41% female).

CRY BABY TIMES

We asked parents to indicate at what time they had recourse to use the cassette as we were curious to know whether it would be used solely as a night time device. As several noted more than one time the following analysis indicates a trend only.

.Midnight to 6 am. - 21.1%; 6 am to midday - 15.5%; Midday to 6pm - 11.2%; 6 pm to midnight - 52.2%;

From this it can be seen that the night time waking/crying was not the most important period but the 6pm to midnight one, which is the one reported in most baby publications. This prompted us to ask if the cassette had been of any benefit to the couple/family as a whole.

GENERAL BENEFIT

ALL the successful users claimed that they felt the Jaygee Babysooth sounds brought them a great sense of relief because it gave them something to fall back on when they could not stop the baby crying and their own stress levels were getting too high. 78% of the original survey group felt that it was helping to cement a better, more relaxed bond between them and their offspring. As it was needed in the evening it was also helping to relax tensions between husband/wife - mother/baby and father/baby.

Even the unsuccessful user parents felt that the cassette would be a great help to those babies where it was calming

LONGEVITY OF SOOTHING

The research set out to prove/disprove whether the sound soothed. It proved that the tape does soothe fussy infants as long as they are started on it within the ages given above. Whilst doing the research it became apparent that as the months went by the cassette seemed to calm babies for quite some considerable length of time. A follow up survey of the original 100 was not conducted but within the group several respondents were from our locality, some became friends, others were from among colleagues and others were subsequently bumped into in the streets whilst out shopping etc. Further discussions about the research/cassette became normal as did chats about the baby and from these we realized that the cassette was soothing babies up to the age of at least nine months. The original baby (mentioned in the introduction) was soothed for nine months and two weeks at which point he suddenly ceased crying and night waking thus no longer needed to use the Babysooth sounds

POTENCY OF THE JAYGEE BABYSOOTH SOUNDS

It has been found that the cassette has been used for things other than those given in the brief and this has illuminated the potency of the sounds. It seems that the analogy with drugs holds true once again. In some cases mothers in the original first wave research claimed that they were using it to help with feeding, ie playing the tape to soothe the baby whilst on the breast. In Paulton Hospital they have been using it to do minor treatments where they want the baby relaxed. Several parents claimed that the cassette helped to highlight illness because the baby was not soothed (contrary to the the normal pattern) therefore something was wrong and further investigation highlighted the problem. One parent pointed out that pre the tape they would probably have decided that the baby was being more 'bloody minded' than usual and left him to scream whereas post the cassette within two hours they had called the GP and the infant was on antibiotics being treated for an ear infection.

THE JAYGEE BABYSOOTH SOUNDS AND SLEEP

When the research project was launched the media presented headlines like 'Mothers Hail Sleepy Sound' and made much of sleep. We looked into this and found that the sounds do NOT ALWAYS put babies to sleep.9% of babies were reported as NEVER GOING TO SLEEP. 47% were reported as SOMETIMES GOING TO SLEEP and SOMETIMES REVERTING TO CRYING ONCE THE TAPE FINISHED. 44% were reported as ALWAYS GOING TO SLEEP EVERY PLAYING.So the media was wrong to describe the sounds in those terms and indeed in some cases it threw the research. We had four of the original first wave group who at first claimed the tape failed even though the baby was only a few weeks old. They told us that the sounds were played, baby would stop crying whilst they were on but NOT go to sleep ergo, a failure. The media message had been more powerful than our brief and instructions. We emphasized this more strongly with the second wave research.

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CONCLUSIONS AND SUMMARY

In conclusion it can be seen from the above that the Jaygee Babysooth cassette tape of sounds accidentally discovered in 1979 has a marked soporific effect on neo-nates and infants up to the age of 9 months or more. To have this effect the tape must be played to the baby within the first 11-13 weeks of life. The tape evokes its most efficient response on neo-nates which declines slightly as the infant gets older. It seems to have a calming influence on the whole family/couple who feel more able to cope with the crying knowing they have something to fall back on. R J WANNELL 1980.

VIDEO TAPE FILM RESEARCH 1981

Following the presentation of the 1980 Research Paper to Dr J Aidan Macfarlane, Consultant Paediatrician at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, researcher, writer and Community Medical Officer of Health, we decided to get visual proof of the affects of the tape now entitled 'The Baby Soother' to show people how it worked. Roger Wannell therefore made a video film showing 15 babies soothed by the tape. The film was shot in normal lighting when it was sufficient and with a 500 watt floodlight at night. Paulton Hospital allowed him access to their nursery at night and four of the babies were filmed there. The others were filmed at their homes which were within a 25 mile radius of Roger Wannell's home. All the babies were new and were not part of the 1980 Research Project."The film took ten months to make and many, many hours of fruitless travelling, and many hours of sitting with parents or night staff because contrary to what you might believe, babies do not cry on cue!! There was no editing of the film and once the video was switched on it stayed on. There was no selecting of babies except by the 25 miles radius distance. Parents were asked to be involved in the film at the time of receiving the Jaygee Babysooth sounds and were then approached by telephone. If there was no phone then we could not use them.

The parent was instructed to note the usual crying period and let Roger Wannell know when that was, and which days were most convenient to film. Only three of the home based babies were filmed in the day, one in the morning, one in the early afternoon and one in the late afternoon. The rest were all evening. The babies filmed were aged from one week to five months old. All the babies, without exception, reacted as per the 1980 Research. No baby filmed baby failed to be soothed.

SOUNDS ANALYSIS 1981

Following correspondence and conversations with Prof John Hutt , Head of Psychology (Keele University); Dr Kevin Murphy , Senior Consultant Audiologist (Royal Berks Hospital, Reading) and Mr John Barrett , Senior Lecturer of Psychology (Bristol University) it was decided to get an analysis of the Jaygee Babysooth sounds. All three gentlemen had done research on babies and sounds, in particular intra-uterine ones so were conversant with the effects of womb sounds on babies and wanted to see if there was anything of interest in the spectrum of this cassette. Dr Macfarlane supplied an international journal with details of worldwide published research on womb sounds with a spectrum analysis for comparison. I commissioned Mr Peter Rennie, Senior Recording Engineer and sound expert of James Yorke Ltd, Cheltenham to do the analysis and requested Mr James Scarlett, Senior Director and also sound expert to cross check the data. Jaygee Cassettes were presented with the following report:.

NOTES: The Jaygee Babysooth ® sounds are predominately sine waves with occasional square waves. There are three main rhythms (1) approx 300 beats per min as a background beat. (2) 32 repeats per min of main sound decreasing to 24 near the end of the tape. (3) A general surging of sounds repeating every 60 times a minute. No one sound totally dominates. 4) 125Hz is the maximum sound envelope frequency. In general terms the sounds can best be described as pink noise in the middle range frequency, fronted by rhythmic sounds.

The spectrum analysis was duly sent to the above experts and their reaction was interesting.

Prof Hutt had found in his work in Europe that the maximum sound envelope frequency of 125 kHz had evoked maximum response in neo-nates when presented in pure form in short bursts. He wondered whether continued stimuli at the pitch would have calmed fussy babies.

Dr Kevin Murphy (Audiologist and Researcher - Royal Berkshire Hospital) found the analysis interesting because it highlights the complexity of the sounds which he believed is the key to their longevity of soothing. Intra-uterine sounds and heartbeats only soothe for a short while, infact a few weeks and must be started when the infant is a few days old to soothe at all. The Jaygee Babysooth sounds, because of their complexities, finds the baby unable to select out and experience habituation of any sound so having 'mastered' one then listens to another.

Mr John Barrett (Child Psychologist,Lecturer and Researcher - Bristol University) found the analysis interesting because the tape contains rhythm and from his work in this field, sine waves and rhythmic sounds have proved themselves to be the most soporific.

Dr Macfarlane (Paediatrician, Writer and Lecturer - Oxford University)was surprised to see the close correlation between the frequency pattern of the Jaygee Babysooth sounds and intra-uterine sounds.

All the experts felt that 'The Baby Soother' cassette was akin in its way to penicillin in that it was stumbled upon by accident. Also it was a fascinating phenomenon which obviously soothed infants, had a sound pattern like a mother's womb and the same sound spectrum range as a human speaking voice and yet did not suffer from habituation.

As a sociologist the above section meant little to me so I contacted my county record library and obtained two copies of actual womb sounds. The first was entitled 'Sleep Gently In the Womb' produced by Toshiba/EMI by Hajime Murooka MD of Japan. He had sounds from the womb by the Aorta, Vein, Placenta and Naval cord and a combination of ALL the womb sounds. The second was by Dr Michele Clements, Audiologist in London, Produced by RCA. This was entitled 'Hush a Bye Baby' and it too contained the same type of sounds from much the same places in the womb. NONE OF THESE RECORDINGS OF INTRA-UTERINES SOUND ANYTHING LIKE THE 'JAYGEE BABYOOTH'®. It may have the same spectrum of sound but to the human ear they are different - very different.

R J WANNELL 1981

FURTHER TESTS 1984

The Baby Soother cassette (containing the Jaygee Babysooth sounds) was tested in 78 hospitals in Great Britain in the summer of 1984 by a company called Treasure Trove Services Ltd. The cassette had been on sale for four years and Jaygee Cassettes approached Treasure Trove Ltd with a view to getting leaflets regarding the product given out to mothers who had recently given birth and were still in hospital. Treasure Trove stated that as prerequisite to this act they wanted to be sure that the product would not besmirch their name.So it had to be 'tested'.

In July 1984, 100 Baby Soother cassettes were distributed by Treasure Trove. by hand via their distribution ladies, to 100 different Maternity hospitals. The staff were given the brief to use the cassette as per the instructions on the inlay card. A few weeks later the staff were asked to fill in a simple questionnaire. 22 hospitals refused to take part either 'too busy', 'no cassette player', 'do not get involved in products', 'do not want our name used in advertising', etc.

Of those HOSPITALS that used it - 68% claimed that the tape soothed and would be "of benefit to parents".

32% claimed that it did not work but within that group were comments like "we did not like the sounds" or "we did not feel it was suitable for use in our hospital". Which indicated to the Directors at Treasure Trove that the tests were not being done. Anomalies occurred to verify this. Eg there are three hospitals in Liverpool, England. Two sent back reports. one was highly positive, one was moderately positive whilst the third berated the tape in strong terms. Another one in Surrey sent in two reports one scathing and negative followed by a second asking Treasure Trove for another copy of "The Baby Soother" cassette because it had been used so much it had broken and staff were (quote) "lost without it".

Also in 1984 Dr David Haslam produced a book entitled "SLEEPLESS CHILDRENí". He wanted a copy of Roger Wannell's research after reading about the Jaygee Babysooth sounds in the media and decided to contact Colchester Hospital who had been using the cassette for three years. They reported to him a success rate of over 90%.!!! And confessed that they had been selling it to new parents as a way to raise funds for Maternity Equipment.

(The above Report on the hospitals was compiled by Helen Dimitrou for Messrs Cooper and Prokop. Directors of Treasure Trove Services Ltd, 760 High Street, Finchley, LONDON N12 9QH England) (1984)*

"SLEEPLESS CHILDREN" pp 93 Dr David Haslem , Futura Books.

HERE IS THE SECOND MAJOR RESEARCH REPORT

REPORT ON THE RESEARCH INTO THE BABY SOOTHER CASSETTE AND IT’S AFFECTS ON CRYING BABIES — VOL II - BABIES WITH COLIC AND LONGEVITY OF SOOTHING

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS— 1988 A Consumer Editor for one of Britain’s leading mother/baby magazines wrote an in-depth feature on ‘The Baby Soother’ cassette. In the course of writing she requested the original research document. Upon inspecting this literature she raised certain questions about the lack of statistical data to reinforce two parts of the advertising copy on the product, which were not included in the original survey. These were included and being substantiated on the basis of considerable anecdotal and personal evidence — most in the form of satisfied customer letters or telephone and personal conversations. However as substantial as it was it was realised that this was too random and insufficient to be totally credible and proof positive thus further research was required. This would dispel any doubts and ‘fill the gaps’. It was decided therefore to investigate the two points raised by the Consumer Editor plus other areas about which questions have been raised over the years.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DO NOT WANT TO READ IT ALL -

CONCLUSIONS

The claims previously made in the advertising of ‘The Baby Soother"™ cassette - based on surmising were entirely justified. The sounds DO calm babies with colic in a large majority of cases and also DO soothe babies for months — again in a large number of cases. In practice the sounds were not used by over half the babies after 5 months because a majority of them have ‘stopped’ crying. The sounds suffer from a form of progressive habituation causes by age but only with a minority of babies. A tiny minority of parents become anxious that their baby might become ‘addicted’ to the sounds so cease using them and another small minority do not like the sounds themselves so do not use them even though they calm baby. A vast majority (almost 90%) of parents are pleased with the effectiveness.

HOW WAS THE TAPE RATED BY PARENTS

A 6 points scale was presented to parents to see how they ‘The Jaygee Babysooth’ sounds. (The even number scale was chosen to help avoid verging on the mean score which tends to be the norm when odd number scales are used).

Respondents were asked to rate the sounds as ’Extremely effective’ down to ‘Totally ineffective’.

Extremely Effective - 29.7% ; Very Effective - 43.2%; Effective - 13.5% ; Moderately Effective - 2.7%;

Not very Effective 3.4% ; Totally Ineffective 4.5%

TOTAL — 100%

FOR THOSE WHO WANT DETAIL - HERE IS THE FULL REPORT OF THE SECOND RESEARCH

METHOD

In April 1988 a decision was taken to question the first 50 mail order customers who bought the Jaygee Babysooth sounds via "The Baby Soother’ cassette in March 1987 by mailing out questionnaires to them. The questionnaires contained 16 fairly detailed questions consisting of single item answers with tick boxes in the main. No emphasis was placed on geographical location or socio-economic status. The research was experimental and impressionistic in nature relying on parents to remember the details — a method which the world’s judiciary use daily as worthy of supplying ‘truth’ in the absence of a more perfect approach. The month of March 1987 was selected purely on the grounds that it was one year before the start of this survey and it has been believed since 1980 that the cassette will calm most babies for that amount of time — if required.

RESPONSE

The first wave of mailings brought a 48% response. In July we repeated the exercise and reached 62%. A third attempt plus telephone calls where possible eventually saw it up to 74%. On the whole most people were very helpful. Of the missing 13 respondents (26%) one sent back a spoilt paper (having ticked every box), two had moved in the year and had left no forwarding address and two had emigrated. 8 others failed to return the questionnaire. The missing respondents are being taken out of the survey on the grounds of insufficient data.

AREAS TESTED

‘'THE JAYGEE BABYSOOTH’® sounds CALM BABIES WITH COLIC

In 1979/80 parents were not asked about colic but in face to face interviews in the research it became apparent that a considerable number of babies had this problem and were responding to the tape. This research statistically reinforces that premise.

NUMBER OF BABIES WITH COLIC

Parents were asked if their baby was ever ‘diagnosed’ as having colic. We had anticipated a large proportion to reply in the affirmative. In fact only 26% reported this condition.

DID ‘THE JAYGEE BABYSOOTH’ SOUNDS SOOTHE?

The findings were that ‘The Jaygee Babysooth’ sounds do calm babies with colic but as was deduced in 1980 there is less of an overall affect than normally experienced with baby(ies) in a non-colicky state.

On the negative side 24% of those claiming their baby suffered from colic (ie 8% of the total surveyed) found the tape did not calm the baby through colic.

On the positive side — the rest — ie 76% claimed that the tape did calm their baby.

Within that positive group the survey showed that 2/3rds (66%) found the tape to be at least 80% effective at soothing colic leaving the other third of the positive group finding the tape over 60% effective.

SUMMARY

These results leave the question of ‘The Jaygee Babysooth" sounds and colic thus;

THREE QUARTERS of babies suffering from colic WILL be calmed.

OVER TWO THIRDS will get relief over 80% of the time the tape is played and

A quarter of babies suffering from colic will NOT be soothed but ALL will get relief at least 60% of the time.

‘'THE JAYGEE BABYSOOTH’® SOUNDS CONTINUES TO SOOTHE FOR MONTHS"

As stated in the Introduction certain claims about ‘The Jaygee Babysooth"® sounds were made from either personal experience and deduction or from feedback from users. The above was one such claim. It evolved and emerged with the passing of time. For example the first baby to use the tape continued to be soothed for 10 months whereupon he stopped crying and not sleeping all night. Other parents reported the same or requested replacement cassettes claiming continuous use for over a year or whatever, which had broken the original cassette.

The question was, however, how frequent was this and was it just a tiny minority. The answer was an overwhelming NO!

Parents were asked to give the age of the baby when s/he first heard the tape and then asked in box tick form and later written form to state how long the baby had been using it. The results were as follows:

MAIN USER AGES — (0 — 6 months)

AGE AT WHICH BABY STOPPED USING ‘THE BABY SOOTHER’ (Percentages)

Less than 2 months - 9; 3 months - 28 ;4 months - 9; 5 months - 3 ; 6 months -6 .

TOTAL = 55%

NB figures less than .5% or more than .5% are rounded down or up.

As can be seen from the above table over half of the tape users are in the six months and under age group.

The interesting figure is the 3 months one. We will look later in detail at why the babies cease using the tape. At this juncture one can say that in the main it is because the baby stops being fractious which suggests that the incidence of crying and possibly ‘colic’ in that period is far higher than given when the question was put direct. It certainly reinforces the idea of the 12 week crying often quoted in baby care books, magazines etc.

USER AGES

From 6 months —There are still 45% of babies still using the tape after 6 months.

By 8 months the number has dropped to 39%.

By 9 months - 30%

By 12 months - 25%.

FROM 12 MONTHS up — 25% of respondents stated that after one year they were still using ‘The Baby Soother’™ cassette.

In one case the baby was actually 22 months and in another 18 months. These two respondents had re-ordered a cassette in the March of 1987 to replace their first tape bought several months earlier. One cannot assess how long the cassette will be used with babies like these because the research stops basically at one year.

SUMMARY

It can clearly be seen from the above evidence that ‘The Jaygee Babysooth’ ® sounds DO indeed soothe babies for many months.

Infact to have as many as a quarter of users still using the tape at 12 months plus came as something as a surprise. It had been anticipated that the figure would be a lot lower and that most would be off it by at least 6 months, instead of which almost a half are still users.

REASONS FOR GOING FROM USING ‘THE JAYGEE BABSOOTH'® SOUNDS TO NON-USING

Having shown above that the cassette calms for a considerable number of months questions were asked about why the babies no longer used it. Were they no longer affected? Did they suddenly stop crying and no longer need soothing or did parents become anxious about baby becoming ‘addicted’ to it. Taking the main reason first we get the following:

1) BABY STOPPED CRYING

In a majority of cases the baby stopped using ‘The Baby Soother’ ™ cassette because they no longer needed it. They basically ‘stopped’ crying. This is what happened to the original first baby.

2) 47% of the babies stopped using the sounds because they no longer cried enough to need them

This type of information will be a great consolation to those people faced with a crying baby.

Unfortunately there was no ‘magic’ age for this to happen however on analysis 24% had ceased by the end of 3 months, a further 12% by 6 months and the remainder later.

HABITUATION

The second cause for cessation of use was habituation, ie the tape no longer worked even though it had been started in the first ten weeks etc. Whether ‘The Baby Soother’ cassette calms or not is dependent on how much it suffers from habituation in the mind of the listening baby. When we are presented with a stimulus eg, a sudden bang we jump. If it happens again after a few seconds, we jump again only this time less so. If the banging becomes regular then after a while we begin to ignore it. This is habituation. One sees this happening in life with factory workers; people who live near motorways etc who seem almost oblivious to the noise and only become aware when a newcomer arrives on the scene and points out the stimulus. In terms of babies and sound, research has shown that most sounds presented to babies as soporific are for only a short space of time.

Heartbeats, womb-sounds, and so forth all cease to soothe within a very short space of time. As short as days with a few babies, up to a few weeks with the majority. With womb-sounds for example research says that although about 95% effective with neo-nates the sounds lose their soothing properties within a few weeks and that if presented to babies for the first time when they are over four weeks old 90% will ignore the sounds and only 10% will react to them. Of these the response rate will drop with maturation until after another 3 months only a tiny minority will respond and be calmed. With heartbeats the research shows that the initial soporific response is only a third as good and that it too fades rapidly.

Do ‘The Jaygee Babysooth’ ® sounds suffer the same way? Are they, too, prone to progressive failure linked to maturation? The overwhelming answer as the above shows is NOT TO ANYTHING LIKE THE SAME EXTENT.

HABITUATION OCCURS WITH 28% OF BABIES USING THE CASSETTE

As shown above there are some 25% of babies still using the cassette after one year and another 47% where the baby no longer needed the tape therefore 72% of successful users in this survey did not suffer from habituation.

THE FINDINGS IN DETAIL

With heartbeats and womb-sounds — if memory implanting causes the soporific reaction, then it seems reasonable to suggest that after a few weeks the ‘new’ world around with all its light, colour, sounds and tactile stimulus will rapidly diminish the memory of the ‘old’. ‘The Jaygee Babysooth’ sounds NOT being of that human body ‘world’ seems to be different.

PROGRESSIVE FAILURE AGES

In the 0-3 month age range habituation started in the second month with 3% of babies. This rose by the end of the 3 months by another 10%.

This means that on a macro level of projection about one baby in eight will stop being soothed in that first 13 week period after being soothed initially. Compare that to the 90% report on womb sounds and one can see a very stark contrast.

After 3 months — the larger body of progressive failure occurred with a further 6% ceasing to be soothed by 6 months. Again on a macro projection we get one baby in five ceasing to be calmed after previously being so, ie 20% - compared to womb-sounds which according to research has ceased more or less 100%.

After 6 months — the failure rate increased steadily until the end of the survey age-by another 9%.

(Research on intra-uterine sounds and heartbeats mentioned in this Paper are those of MUROOKA;TSUTOMA;TSUYOSHI; et al J Nippon Medical School 1975 Vol 42 No 3 pp77-79 also produced in edited form by Silva International ‘Sleep Gently in the Womb’ MUROOKA H 1975.)

NON-USE BUT SUCCESSFUL (1) "ADDICTED TO THE SOUNDS"

Amongst the respondents there was a tiny minority of 3% who decided to take the tape away from baby because it might become ‘addicted’ to the sounds in the future and never settle without them. This occurred after 3 months of successful use. As we have seen above 75% of babies are off the tape by 12 months so this is not seen to be a real problem.

NON-USE BUT SUCCESSFUL (2) PARENTAL DISLIKE OF THE SOUND

There was also a small minority of 6% of parents who did not like the sound of the tape and so although they all reported it worked well were unable to use it more than 3 times through personal dislike.

NON-USE BECAUSE OF TOTAL FAILURE

ONLY 8.1% OF RESPONDENTS REPORTED THAT THE TAPE NEVER SOOTHED BABY.

This means that 91.9% say that it does soothe. This affirms the figure given in the 1980 research of 91%.

OTHER FINDINGS

GENERAL — The research had questions which were incorporated into it to get the above information. At the same time some of the indirect questions are of general interest.

TIME TAKEN TO SOOTHE

In the 1980 report it was found that the average time taken to calm a baby was 3.6 minutes. In this survey with babies many months older that time has risen by 1.3 minutes to 4.9 mins.

This confirms what had been surmised in the earlier work that as the baby grows older so the time taken to calm rises by a minute or few minutes — depending on the individual.

The mean time in this survey however was 3.5 mins which is the earlier babies average.

MUST BE STARTED WITHIN 10 WEEKS

This was also rechecked and found to be re-affirmed as a truth. Most babies were started on the tape within the first 4 weeks with the peak being weeks 2-4 (after coming out of hospital and finding there is a problem).

Nearly 30% waited until the second month before starting. There was no correlation between age and 8% failure rate.

HOW WAS THE TAPE RATED BY PARENTS

Finally a 6 points scale was presented to parents to see how they ‘The Jaygee Babysooth’ sounds. (The even number scale was chosen to help avoid verging on the mean score which tends to be the norm when odd number scales are used).

Respondents were asked to rate the sounds as ’Extremely effective’ down to ‘Totally ineffective’.

Extremely Effective - 29.7% ;

Very Effective - 43.2%;

Effective - 13.5% ;

Moderately Effective - 2.7%;

Not very Effective 5.4% ;

Totally Ineffective 5.5%

TOTAL — 100%

As can be seen — when asking opinion the parents who see the tape as a positive item far outweigh those who do not. In practice NONE of the negative group complained — which raises question marks about producers who use this line as a defence of a poor product!! Over 5% could have reclaimed their money and a further 5% could have also.

What also comes out here is that 8.1% in straight answering stated that their tape failed and yet when asked to ‘complain’ in the above chose to take a ‘softer’ line by going for the lesser statement.

Likewise, one respondent has judged the cassette as negative not because it failed to soothe baby but because it only did so for a few weeks — in other words the terms used in the questionnaire needed tighter definition.

CONCLUSION

One can see from the above that the claims previously made in the advertising of ‘The Baby Soother’ cassette which were based on surmising were entirely justified. The tape does calm babies with colic in a large majority of cases and also it does soothe babies for months — again in a large number of cases. In practice the tape is not used by over half the babies after 5 months because a majority of them have ‘stopped’ crying. The ‘The Jaygee Babysooth’ sounds suffer from a form of progressive habituation causes by age but only with a minority of babies. A tiny minority of parents become anxious that their baby might become ‘addicted’ to the tape so cease using it and another small minority do not like the tape themselves so do not use it even though it calms baby. A vast majority (almost 90%) of parents are pleased with the effectiveness.

Any magazine, journal, manufacturer or persons using any part or parts of this document for reproduction in relation to any other product will be infringing copyright and will be dealt with accordingly.

THIS DOCUMENT AND ITS CONTENTS REFER SOLELY TO‘THE JAYGEE BABYSOOTH’ SOUNDS on ‘THE BABY SOOTHER’ CASSETTE PRODUCED SOLELY BY JAYGEE CASSETTES, BURNHAM-ON-SEA, SOMERSET, ENGLAND; THE BRITISH TECHNOLOGY GROUP, LONDON, ENGLAND. and VMI RECORDS (JVC) JAPAN

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