3 odd tips real life parents swear will calm a crying baby

If you are the parent of a young baby, chances are vast that one of the subjects you are interested in obsessed with at the moment is sleep.

More spesifically; how the heck do you get a baby to sleep when you want it to sleep. And look – we know. Been there, bought the t-shirt. There is a reason baby sleep is a million dollar industry, to put it that way. The thing is, when you read all the books the experts wrote, they often leave out the nuggets of advice that actually, to real life parents, have worked. You know, those random, off-the-walls ideas that you heard about in your baby group or that you mother's cousin told you to try – those that some parent one time in complete desparation tried – only to discover that jeez, that did actually do the trick. And these tricks, these nuggets of wisdom from real, in-the-trenches parents, are what author and podcaster Hillary Frank talks about in her new book, Weird Parenting Wins: Bathtub Dining, Family Screams, and Other Hacks from the Parenting Trenches.

After putting out a request for tips, and hearing from more than 800 parents, Frank wrote down her favorite anecdotes in a book. And while the book pretty much covers everything from picky eaters to having sex after kids, it is the tips about soothing screaming babies that just intrigued us the most:

1. Electric toothbrush "During a particularly loud crying spell one night, in a moment of desperation, my husband grabbed his electric toothbrush and turned it on. He started waving the toothbrush around like a half asleep orchestral conductor. And what do you know ... the baby stopped crying! In a state of sleep deprived euphoria, we took the head off the toothbrush and nestled the contraption next to our swaddled newborn. She — and we — drifted off to sleep ... Did it work for our second daughter a few years later? Not a chance." —Sarah, River Forest 2. Oven fan "After hearing that the whir of the dishwasher had soothed a friend's baby, we tried it ourselves. Didn't work for us, but we went through all the kitchen appliances till we found something that worked. Turns out, our daughter was powerless against the white noise of the fan above the oven. She could go from full-on screamfest to completely asleep in less than a minute." —Jordan, Glen Ridge 3. Record them – and play it back "When my sons were babies, I would record them fussing and crying on my phone and let them listen to it. They were fascinated by the sound of acrying baby." - Jillian St. Charles Do YOU have any weird ways of calming crying babies, parents? SPILL! We want to hear them!