Clinical Tip: Another trick to quiet a crying baby

Dr. Sam Tressler's Clinical Tip for calming a crying baby in the July 2005 Contemporary Pediatrics (see "Crying baby? Try 'Daddy's hand hold,'" also accessible at http://www.contemporarypediatrics.com/) inspired me to pass along a trick I call the "SANDA maneuver," after one of my senior residents who taught me to use it successfully to quiet a baby or get an infant to open his eyes for an examination.

Hold the baby's bottom with your right hand while supporting the head and neck with your left hand so that the child is "sitting up" in your hands, with your right hand serving as the seat and your left hand as the back of the "chair." Then gently move your arms up and down, as if the infant were bobbing like a buoy in the ocean. This maneuver almost always calms the baby, and, if the lights are down, prompts him to open his eyes as well.

Ken Lin, MDRedwood City, Calif.