16 Moms Share Their Tips for Getting Through the Witching Hour

If you’re not a parent, you might not know about the “witching hour.” Let me give you the rundown. It’s a fussy period that almost all babies go through. It’s usually around the same time every day, typically in the late afternoon and evening. For us, Vienna gets really crazy between 6-7pm before bed.

We’ve tried a lot of different things to calm her down during the witching hour, but nothing seems to work long term. She loves the bath, but she has a complete meltdown as soon as we take her out. The only thing that makes her fussiness go away is nursing and then sleep. Because she’s so fussy at night, we’ve never been able to have a nice nighttime routine because she’s screaming at the top of her lungs. There’s no nice baby massage or story time. The kid does not mess around. She wants her milk and that is it. I don’t always show this side of her on Instagram, but trust me. She’s a handful. 

Since I haven’t found a good solution to our witching hour problem, I reached out to 16 other moms for their help. I asked them simply, “What’s your best tip for getting through the witching hour?” Their answers are below! 

1. Find your mama squad! Support from other new moms doesn’t help in the moment, but it does make the whole experience feel less challenging and frustrating. – Marie

2. I took help where I could! The best thing we did for witching hour was start giving a bottle at night and my husband would take him up into his nursery, make it dark and listen to records! – Nora

3. We used to put on Enya and it would soothe the baby. Any kind of relaxing music and shushing seemed to be the key. Also the Baby Shusher is one of the best items we had to combat crying in general! – Mattie

4. I ran the vacuum and it calmed him down enough to sleep in his swing. Now at 9 months I walk him in the stroller for miles. – Jackie

5. Some things that have worked for me are diffusing calming essential oils, playing music and singing, and just loving on them. – Beckie

6. We nurse and sleep on demand. We never did any sort of sleep training, so when baby was tired she slept. We followed their cues and didn’t try to guide their patterns to fit with ours, rather the opposite. – Julianne

7. A supportive partner is key. Someone you can trade off with when you are at your wit’s end makes all the difference, or even just someone who can hold the baby for 5 minutes while you go outside and collect yourself. Comfy shoes too! Sometimes the only thing that works is bouncing/movement, so comfy shoes help you survive the endless trips up and down stairs/your hallway, etc. – Melissa

8. My husband and I used to “take shifts”. I would stay up for a few hours while he slept, and then he would stay up for a few hours while I slept. – Andrea

9. I like putting classical music in the background to calm. When they’re babies, I liked wearing them. – Noelle

10. Only things that helped me was taking her outside and walking around with her, distracting her or giving her a bath. – Pretsy

11. Switch it up. If the child is losing it and the TV is on, turn it off. If the child is with mom, switch to dad. If you’re in one room, go into another. Change the environment, the mood, the activity, to change the way she may be acting. – Courtney

12. The main things we do is get outside (either rock on the front porch or go for a walk) and bath time. My son just likes to be held, so sometimes I put him in a wrap and walk around the house. – Bridgett

13. If she’s super whiny/fussy I just try my best to keep her busy and keep changing up activities before it’s time for her solids dinner. Which basically means I can get nothing done that I need to on my own (laundry/prep dinner/etc) but I don’t have to listen to as much fussiness. – Megan

14. Ours were always singing, dancing, bouncing, humming. And to create calm around the baby – low lights, soft music. – Allison

15. We drove our son around during the witching hour to get him to fall asleep. I spent more time driving around at that time of day. Starbucks drive through makes life better! – Kristin

16. Walking our son outside was and is still a lifesaver. He calms immediately even if we just step out on the front porch. – Amy

// Do you have your own solution to the witching hour? Leave me a comment below and let me know all about it!