Calling the police to check on a crying baby

[summermumma2021]

Just had to call the police to check on a new neighbours baby. What would
you have done in this situation?
New neighbours live down our road around 100m away from us and could hear loud very distressed crying for over half an hour.

It sounded like a newborn or young baby crying and so I assumed they’d settle or some attempt to comfort them would be made but the crying stayed at the same level for ther period time. I could also hear raised voices and car doors slamming and I asked my husband if he’d heard it too (he was downstairs) and he said yeah he was worried as well.

Anyway in hoping it was nothing and the little one is fine but it just didn’t sit right and it sounded like no attempt to comfort them was being made at all.

i have no idea who the new neighbours are as it’s quite far from our bit of the road but for it to be that loud from this distance didn’t seem right. I have also had three colicky babies so I do know babies can cry for periods of time but as I said it sounded like no attempt to help them was being made.

Anyway police treating it as a priority case and checking things out. Just wanted to share really as worried.

My son used to cry very loud as a baby. Nothing would settle him sometimes it he would cry for hrs hrs until he ended up falling asleep exhausted. Tbh I was expecting someone to knock on the door or socal services to be called as it was non stop and like I said very loud. No one did which looking back it's actually quite shocking no one thought to call someone .

Is that a standard protocol or just what you would have done. Worrying if that is a standard Police response.

Duty Social Worker wouldn't have responded immediately. In some situations, baby could be dead by the time SS routinely follow up.

Really? Babies cry. Some babies REALLY cry, and it's the hottest night of the year so far.
I may have been in the job too long and got too cynical here, but is a parent not consoling their crying baby really something you think the police should be dealing with when there are crimes in progress that there aren't enough officers to attend?

Also it might've helped the gp/heath visitor take our concerns more seriously as he was eventually found to have silent relux that actually ended up causing him to stop breathing.

OP feels something could be wrong though, safe guarding is everyone’s responsibility but what use is that if the call handler won’t listen because it’s hot tonight? A welfare check isn’t a crazy idea at all.

Thank you and the police have been dispatched so obviously they did feel it warranted a check. Better to be safe than sorry.

Why don’t you get Nuby RapidCool? The flask cools down freshly made bottle in less than 2 mins.

OP you did the right thing! ❤️

My DC had horrendous colic from about 4 weeks and it lasted until they were about 12 weeks. I felt so bad for my neighbours as DC screamed until the early hours when they would eventually settle. We followed all the tips re meds to settle their stomach, baby massage etc etc but it still happened EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. I’m talking 25+ years ago and sometimes I could hear my neighbour’s baby crying over our baby monitor so I’m sure she could hear mine too. I’d have been devastated if anyone reposted my child and I wouldn’t have reported my neighbour either. There’s a difference between a poorly baby crying and eventually settling and a child who is hurt

Police have been dispatched and are checking on things.

We had this by us about 30 years ago. Was woken by awful crying that didn’t stop.. it was about 1am, finally found the source of the cries in a little cottage down the road. The crying didn’t stop at all and the place was in darkness. My DH hammered hell out of the door thinking something awful had happened and another neighbour phoned the Police.
They arrived and as they were trying to sort out access, the “mother” and her new bloke arrived home - from a nightclub!!
They all left in the back of a Police car, and moved out several days later.
Poor baby.
How can people do this?

This isn’t my immediate neighbour. They are around 100m down the street. Hence my concern for it to be that volume and for that amount of time.

Ive also had colicky babies myself who took hours to settle but I was there settling them and there’s a difference between the cries.

Is the baby still crying out of interest ?

I just think better to be safe than sorry. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.

Would you apply this sort of rationale to the situation I’ve just written about…where the baby had been left alone for hours because Mum and the new boyfriend fancied a night out in a club?

Police have been dispatched and have gone to check.

I’ve been on the other side of the coin. It was a boiling hot day about 13 years ago and my newly placed-for-adoption son just couldn’t settle. He screamed for over an hour (it felt like longer). Absolutely nothing I did made any difference, pick him up, walk around, put him down, cool bath…he screamed. Constantly. The entire time! We had all the windows open because it was a really hot day. After about an hour a lady knocks on my door and tells my friend that someone really should be soothing the baby and why are we letting it scream like that. My friend was in the middle of explaining that mum was upstairs trying, when I came down with son in my arms clearly using all my best efforts and possibly looking little frazzled. The lady took one look at me, apologised profusely and left.

I honestly didn’t mind that she have knocked on the door though. I understood how it must have sounded and I would rather they knocked unnecessarily than ignore a situation where a child needed help and they could have made a difference.

However, we may have spent the rest of that summer with all out windows closed to save the poor neighbors ear drums! 🫣

Can you still hear the baby crying ?

Well I hope everything is ok.

You're a social worker and your fellow social worker texted you because she was worried her neighbours could hear her crying baby and might call 'the law'?

If you are genuinely concerned it's never wrong to report in my view. But I had a baby that cried endlessly. I remember being so worried that someone would report me. but I couldn't stop the crying no matter what I did

No, totally different situation. Someone had gone to the address and wasn't getting an answer from an adult at the property. That would be an immediate response.

Yes sadly. I’m praying it’s just a misunderstanding but I am obviously concerned.

I would call police because no adult answered the door then checking in on the family.

Gallows talk and humour is how we function in our world
we are human you know - we worry the same as everyone else outside of our professional world - and yes we refer to ‘the social’ and ‘the law’ (or the rozzas) ironically,/humorously in our personal lives.

Is the baby still crying OP?