How to tell why baby is crying

[JudesSims]

Is there any way to tell why a baby is crying? I can tell when the diaper needs changing of course, but otherwise?

[jesirose]

I don't know that it matters, I would just try any interaction.

[Cheezey]

It just seems to be a guessing game other than the stinky diaper fumes, to me.  If they haven't eaten in several hours, I try the feed interaction first assuming they're probably hungry.

[jillz]

When they are crying, their portrait turns dark blue which is a little hard to distinguish from the dark grey color for when they are sleeping.

I've just taken to aging up my infants right away because it's actually easier to manage children than infants.

[saltpastillen]

I have also heard some people report that the portraits remain green but they are whisked away by social services...

I have experienced similar misfires of color in the needs menu, so I guess it could be true. But my infants have screamed down the house if they ever wanted something. I find it varies a lot infant from infant how much they scream or need things though.

[JudesSims]

 Thanks, everyone! It's pretty much what I figured. I had triplets via Nina Caliente and finally aged them up early. Too much crying!

[Stormi71]

Believe me, they don't always cry when they need something! My nooboo was at daycare for a few hours, I presumed his needs would be static during this time, or at least attended to by daycare. When he came home, his panel was green, he wasn't crying. Went in and did social interactions. Then I get a pop up warning me that my baby is extremely hungry and if I don't feed him very soon, social workers would take him!
I also read somewhere that if you try to feed them too often, they can refuse, and your relationship takes a small hit. But I think I'd rather over feed than have social workers take my kids away.

[wearestarrdust]

I've found that even though I fairly religiously change their nappy and always feed them at the same time when I age them up they're on the verge of passing out from hunger! Not had any other issues though, but figuring out when to feed them is another issues entirely XD

[Playalot]

I guess the babies are supposed to need comfort, food and changing so I just went through each 'need' as a routine every hour or so. I really enjoyed the baby stage so I turned off aging and kept the twins as babies for about three game weeks. (A bit hard to tell exactly how long as I can't find the weekly information, only the days). The babies emitted a green fog and cried when they needed changing. They also never refused being breast fed and only refused the bottle once from the dad with a little negative hit to their relationship.
Sometimes they just needed the shushing (spelling?) action as they were crying and often they went straight back to sleep after using that action. So cute!

[Stormi71]

The babies are pretty cute. I have noticed that whenever I did "coo over baby" or whatever it's called, it would make the baby cry a little bit. Then the mother would be saying "awwwwww!" to him because she upset him.

[Pam]

If a baby is crying and there's no green cloud, he/she is hungry and needs social interaction.  Mine only cry for a short while and then they're fine after they are fed and played with a few times.  It also raises the relationship bar.

[Murky]

I have also heard some people report that the portraits remain green but they are whisked away by social services.

This happened to me the first time I had babies in game. They didn't cry or change their icons and were suddenly taken away. I was devastated.

[Joria]

I guess after having been a mom so many times it's just automatic to me.  I keep an eye on the bassinette, when the baby wakes up I immediately send mom or dad in.  First step is diaper,  then try feeding, get a red mark?, ok, not hungry so we bounce baby, cuddle baby, talk to baby rock baby, (they really like that one), and put baby back in bed.  Still waving hands around?  Maybe another cuddle or talk.  Walk away.  In a few seconds baby sleeps again.  Mine was best friends with mom after two days so I aged her up, and......then my game crashed before I could save.  grrrrrr

[justproud2b]

I don't know why they either didn't just give us a social bar like all other sims have or  just color code everything based off the already color coded emotions. Like...

Yellow (Embarrassed from being Dirty)
Blue (Sad from lack of interaction)
Red (Uncomfortable from needing food)

I get they were trying to make it more real with babies can't communicate but any parent will tell you the Hungry cry, Dirty Cry, and Tired cry are different. Come to think of it I wonder if they have different cries based off of need... *to my experimental family!*

[justproud2b]

Just an update it doesnt seem that there is a different cry and seeing I had twins with my test family I figured I would record the info trying to guess on the one and the other doing change/bounce/feed every 3 hours. I did notice that he seemed to have more of a pattern of need but would still randomly poo himself but typically i never heard him cry other than that. I also never got negative hits when doing the change/bounce/feed in that order. Other actions like shoosh and such tended to sometimes gives a - but bounce seemed to be a good middle man for the trio of options. With the one that that I tried guessing it does appear though that the dirty diapers come about every 6-8 hours. So if you haven't had a visitor down below from your baby and your sims tired you may want to opt for a nap lol.