Calling the police to check on a crying baby

Ex Police who worked in children safeguarding - absolutely did the right thing, OP.

Best case and it’s nothing then no harm done apart from the parents getting upset. Potentially opens the door to them for support as well if needed.

Everytime there is a case like Baby P or Star or the thousands of others, everyone wrings their hands and says why didn’t anyone do something? Why didn’t neighbours phone the police?

Then someone does ring the police and many people are attacking her for it?!

It may be a one off. It may not.

I think you’ve done the right thing.
An ex colleague of mine has PTSD for not reporting a family member and after her cautionary tale I’d always err on the side of caution. Newborns are so vulnerable as are new mothers. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility x

I don’t know what to make of this, do you mean that social workers cannot stress about their kids appearing distressed or do you think SW should just ignore prolonged crying?

Honestly, some of the replies on here are bordering insane. Of course you were right to call the police OP, and so were the others who called. Well done to you all, more people like you are needed. I work in safeguarding, your instinct is there for a reason.

I think based on recent news stories regarding young children not being cared for I can understand why you wanted to check.

The only thing I would hope is that if it is simply a case of a hot and bothered colicky baby the parents now don't feel embarrassed and anxious and this impacts their mental health further if they are already stressed. My son had reflux and a milk allergy as a baby and would often be in distress, my own mental health also suffered as a result of this. If someone called the police on me then this would have made me even more stressed and tearful, thinking I was a rubbish parent.
Hopefully the police can pinpoint support (although I found the HV I had awful and again added to my own negative feelings) so sometimes 'help' can be viewed negatively.

I think also because it's so hot this week more people are leaving windows/doors open so more sounds are heard - we have a family with a baby on our street and I am sure they are often out driving around to get them to sleep as I have heard car door 'slamming' sounds (it's not, it's just what the door sounds like closing) along with a crying baby (and sometimes a toddler too who maybe crying as they have been disturbed by the baby or maybe even just joining in for attention).

This post is absolutely insane. Calling the police about a baby crying for half an hour, and some doors slamming? I can’t see any more happening than that. My kids will scream for at least that amount of time as if they are being tortured because we’ve brushed their teeth or put on pyjamas. Bedtimes sometimes get fraught. Sometimes they wake up in the night and cry and can’t be soothed. And quite obviously you couldn’t possibly hear an adult attempting to soothe a child as by definition soothing noises tend to be a fair bit quieter than screaming. And maybe they were actually sleep training them - that’s also perfectly possible. And that’s not a police incident.

I have thought on numerous occasions people must hear our kids cry and what they must think but fortunately most people understand that kids cry, sometimes loudly and sometimes for ages. I’m not saying people shouldn’t look out for or listen out for kids, obviously if something sounds wrong then reach out to authorities, but that is not at all likely from what has been described. It’s so wildly disproportionate. Unless there’s more that has not been included in this post I cannot fathom what is wrong with people to think this is normal or reasonable.

One of my ds suffers with his tonsils and is inconsolable when he has a bad bout. No amount of comforting can settle him. Neighbours are aware.

I think you have massively overstepped the mark here. This will probably trigger a SS referral for the parents. If you live 100m away, how would you hear the parents consoling the baby? You’ve just assumed they haven’t been consoling them.

If I was the neighbour, I would never forgive you after this.

My baby had awful colic from 4-12 weeks old, she would scream constantly from 5pm for at least 5 hours straight, absolutely nothing we could do would settle her so it would have sounded from the outside that we weren’t trying to comfort her but we would be desperately walking her around, cuddling her, bath time etc. My neighbours would have heard her a bloody mile away I’m sure.

Would it have made me emotional with postnatal hormones if someone called the police- yes. But equally I’d have totally understood and rather me be embarrassed for disturbing people and wasting police time than another child slip through the net that had genuine safeguarding concerns.

I can remember my first crying solidly for literally 4 hours with colic. She did this for the first 12 weeks of her life. I think if my neighbour had called the police on me my PPD would have spiralled.

Sometimes, just a friendly neighbourly knock as a first point of call could have been a bit less extreme than going straight to calling the police... I understand your concern but given the circumstances- new baby, heat wave etc it might have been worth trying something else first.

If there's nothing good on TV, perhaps some people like to create their own drama?

I think I would of walked past first then made a judgement call

I don’t understand why wouldn’t have gone round first to ask if everything was ok or if they neededed help. Your DH was at home so one of you could have gone.

It’s kind of pissed me off that you’re making a huge assumption the baby is being left to cry with no attempt to console it. What exactly are you expecting to hear from the parents?

Complete overreaction - there’s a heatwave, newborn babies cry a lot and you have no idea if the baby isn’t being comforted. Well done for making new parents feel even worse.

Some babies with colic cry for hours and hours on end. That said I think it’s no harm getting it checked out especially with the raised voices and banging . I mean everyone would be complaining that neighbours did nothing if it came to light that a child was being abused and people in the neighbourhood heard this and did nothing .

And were you also shouting and slamming doors?

It was the right thing to do, OP. Ignore those saying it wasn't. It's the fact that you also heard raised voices and doors slamming - clearly something going on. I would have done the same in your position.

Much better to make the call and all be OK than to not call and regret it.

God, im glad my neighbours didnt do this when my newborn had horrific silent reflux. She cried for hours and hours. The police would have been out 3 or 4 times a night!

Yes we all have a duty to safeguard, but newborns cry a lot!

Police do welfare checks though if members of the public report concerns.

I am surprised by this. If this baby is being severely neglected then police protection might be needed. All the children that I know who have been brought to the hospital out of hours have been brought by the police under PPO....

This. I’d have at least gone to look or something.

I always remember when my son was young like this and he was just a baby that cried a lot, nothing was wrong he just didn’t like being put down but I had to have a shower and just get stuff done so yes he was crying for a good 20-30 minutes at times

One particular day I found a letter basically telling me my baby is crying too much and I should do a better job etc.. obviously it was not signed by anyone but it made me feel so shitty and angry, and until this day (18 years on) if I ever found out who sent it, it would not end well for them because they actually made me feel like I was a bad parent.

I didn’t change anything by the way and I just had to let him cry as I couldn’t spend my days literally just holding him 24/7 but that letter was bad enough, if the police or social services knocked at my door I would have hit the roof

Perhaps when this has all calmed down, you could try and get to know new neighbour who may be isolated and struggling newly away from her friends or family.

I’ve reported this post I made and asked for it to be deleted. I misread what I was quoting an it so the absolute opposite of what I thought it had said. I read “wouldn’t” as “would”.

For clarity, as a former police dispatcher we absolutely would have dispatched to this, and with quite a high priority

If only all those who heard children in distress, screaming had intervened instead of "its none of my business"........

You shouldn’t feel bad about reporting something like that- that’s what we should all do in situations like this. I will say that sometimes babies are completely inconsolable, especially when they’re colicky or unwell. My youngest (1) had a horrible virus last winter and cried solidly for hours at a time. I comforted, gave calpol etc, rocked her, read and sang to her and in the end we were both crying. As far as I know our neighbours could only hear her crying/screaming and not everything I was doing to try and help her.

eta: if the police had showed up I would have been upset at the time but in hindsight knowing that people in our neighbourhood care enough about our children is a very good thing. They would have done it out of concern.