Surviving Crying: A Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial of a Service to Support the Mental Health and Coping of Parents with Excessively Crying Infants

The consequences of excessive infant crying can include, termination of breast feeding, assumed physical cause e.g., lactose intolerance; over feeding; parental anxiety and depression, and in the worst cases infant abuse; all of which leads to increased NHS use.  The Surviving Crying Study is the latest in a programme of research seeking to support parents of babies who cry excessively.

This is a cluster randomised control trial led by Professor Jayne Brown from NTU’s Institute of Health and Allied Professions, with co-applicants from the Universities of Leicester, Warwick and Cambridge as well as the Institute of Health Visiting, and Sheffield Children’s Hospital NHS Trust. The study is, funded by the NIHR (£1.8 million) and is taking place in 8 geographical areas in England including Nottinghamshire. We want to know if the use of the Surviving Crying programme + standard care is more clinically and cost effective than standard care alone in reducing parental depression and anxiety.

The research continues until December 2025.