5. It gets really dark when there's no electricity. Battery and solar operated light products are much better than candles. Make sure you have at least one per person.

6. Your cordless phone won't work without electricity. Make sure you can communicate with loved ones. Have a phone with a regular cord. They're very inexpensive and can be your communication lifeline in an emergency.

7. Pets are family too. Make sure you have a pet carrier or transportation device for each pet in your home along with a plan for your pets should a disaster occur.

8. Cash is a must. ATM machines don't work when electricity is out and likelihood of your corner store offering to cash a check is slim. Sock away some bucks in that plastic carrying case (see tip #2) so you'll never be caught short-handed.

9. When preparing your home, don't forget to look up. Check those trees and tree limbs. Trim those that could damage your house.

10. Your garage door is a vulnerable wind entry point during a hurricane. Make sure you have it reinforced to prevent collapse.

6. Boredom. Your infant cries if it is bored. Try to play with it, change its toys, put on some music, start singing or whatever you think will stimulate your child.

7. Stress. Your infant is stressed if you are stressed. An easy solution would be: do not stress but since we live in real world: Try to stimulate child.

8. Fussy environment. The best example of fuzzy environment is family gatherings where everybody wants to talk to infant and everybody is talking at same time. Hey, I want to scream at most family gatherings. Big changes in daily routines might also give same symptoms. Solution: carry your infant ion your arms. I know: theory, theory… It is easy to get frustrated when your arms gets tired and you are unable to perform any other tasks than carry baby.

The eight reasons listed above will very often result in eight different sound of crying. You will make your life much easier if you take time to learn differences. Other ways to calm down your baby are: give your baby a massage, give your baby a bath, rock your baby, play some calming music, let your baby listen to white noise… You can read more about this on our website.

In my next article, I will discuss “unhealthy reason” for infant crying, until then: hang on out there...

Sincerely, F.P. Larson

F.P. Larson is an associate writer for Calm Your Screaming Baby ( http://www.calm-your-screaming-baby.com/ ), a resource site for parents of infants.