If your baby seems to just cry and cry, a best-selling author on making babies happy says parents need to sssh them.

Dr. Harvey Karp, author of The Happiest Baby on the Block, says his recommended technique mimics the sensory experience a baby has in the womb.

"We think they need peace and quiet. That's the worst thing for them. Inside the uterus, the sound is louder than a vacuum cleaner," Karp said. "The world is too quiet for them."

Dr. Karp contends that babies are born three months too soon.  Parents are ready, but the infants cry. 

He lectured to a packed house at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth on Tuesday, where parents looked for help to stop their child’s chronic crying. It's all the lost sleep and all the stresses a crying baby puts on a family.

"It's a gigantic drain on our culture," Dr. Karp noted. “It turns out no one ever knew babies were born with an off switch, a calming reflex, but you have to do it exactly right and when you do, you can take a screaming or fussy baby and calm them down in minutes.”

Rhonda Simons said she found relief with his method after her daughter, now age 2, was born. "She cried 24-7 for 10 months. We did his technique and boom, she'd stop crying within 5 minutes," Simons noted.

Dr. Karp’s new undertaking is helping parents of toddlers to make yours The Happiest Toddler on the Block.