Record your baby's cry and CryDecode will analyze its sound patterns, pitch, rhythm and intensity, and suggest what your baby might need.
It is a pattern match, not a diagnosis. You know your baby best.
Hold your phone about an arm's length away. 5 to 15 seconds of crying is plenty. Recording stops automatically at 60 seconds.
Listening to the patterns in the cry…
When in doubt, check the basics
Most cries resolve to a short list. Run through it any time.
How it works, privacy and sources
How it works
CryDecode measures the cry the way researchers do: fundamental pitch and its range, how the pitch moves (rising, falling, wavering), loudness dynamics, the rhythm of cry bursts and pauses, and voice harshness. It compares those measurements against acoustic patterns described in infant cry research and the popular Dunstan five-sound framework, then shows the closest matches with the reasons.
Privacy
Everything happens on your device. The microphone is only active while you record, audio is never uploaded anywhere, and your diary is stored only in this browser. There is no account and no server. Once the page has loaded the first time, it is saved on your device and keeps working offline, handy for night feeds with no signal.
Honesty
No app can translate a cry with certainty, including this one. The Dunstan Baby Language is popular and many parents find it useful, but a 2023 study could not validate it scientifically. Treat every suggestion here as a clue to check against what you see: the clock, the diaper, the room, your baby's body.
Sources
- Review of deep learning approaches for pain assessment in infant cry sounds (MDPI)
- Dunstan Baby Language, Wikipedia
- What to Expect on Dunstan Baby Language
- Healthline on Dunstan Baby Language
CryDecode is a parenting aid, not a medical device. If your baby is inconsolable, has a fever, trouble breathing, poor feeding, or you are worried, contact your pediatrician promptly.
The five pre-cry sounds
Before the full wail, newborns (roughly 0 to 3 months) often make small reflex sounds. The Dunstan Baby Language gives them names. Listen for these in the first seconds, before the crying escalates.
Popular with parents, not scientifically proven. Use as listening practice, not as a translator.
Hungry
The sucking reflex pushes the tongue to the palate
What to listen for: a repeating, rhythmic cry that starts soft and builds, like a call that expects an answer.
Body cues: rooting toward anything near the cheek, sucking hands or lips, clenched fists.
Try: offer a feed, even if the last one was recent.
Tired or sleepy
The mouth makes an oval, like a yawn with sound
What to listen for: lower pitched, wavering, like complaining. The pitch drifts downward as energy fades.
Body cues: yawning, eye rubbing, staring blankly, turning away from stimulation.
Try: dark quiet room, rhythmic rocking. An overtired baby often fights sleep first.
Needs burping
Air pushing up from the chest
What to listen for: short, clipped little bursts rather than long wails. Often during or right after a feed.
Body cues: squirming during a feed, pulling away then wanting it back.
Try: pause and burp, over the shoulder or sitting up. Try another position if the first fails.
Gas or tummy trouble
Lower wind moving through the belly
What to listen for: strained, almost growling, effortful. Comes in intense waves with pauses.
Body cues: legs pulled to the belly, arched back, red scrunched face.
Try: bicycle the legs, gentle knee-to-tummy pressure, warm hand on the belly.
Uncomfortable
A breathy response to physical discomfort
What to listen for: whiny and on-and-off, shifting when you change something. Harsher or breathier than a clean demand cry.
Body cues: squirming without settling, skin hot or cold, wet diaper.
Try: check diaper, clothing, room temperature and position. Check fingers and toes for a wrapped hair.
Your baby's own language
The most reliable decoder is the one you build yourself. Over weeks you will learn your baby's hungry cry versus tired cry. After each decode, save what you tried and whether it worked in the Diary tab. Patterns will emerge, and that diary becomes more accurate than any app.
The 5 S's
Pediatrician Harvey Karp's calming sequence recreates womb sensations. Try them in order, adding each to the last.
- Swaddle. Snug wrap, arms down. Stops flailing from startling the baby awake.
- Side or stomach position. Hold on the side or tummy-down on your forearm. (For holding only. Babies always sleep on their backs.)
- Shush. Loud, continuous white-noise shushing near the ear, as loud as the crying.
- Swing. Small, quick, rhythmic jiggles. Think of a car ride, not a hammock.
- Suck. Breast, bottle, finger or pacifier. Sucking is deeply calming.
Quick remedies by cause
- Hungry: feed on cue. Cluster feeding in the evenings is normal.
- Gassy: bicycle legs, knees to tummy, tummy-down on your forearm, warm hand on the belly.
- Needs burping: over the shoulder, sitting upright leaning forward, or face-down across your lap. Switch positions if nothing comes.
- Tired: dark room, white noise, rhythmic motion. Watch wake windows: newborns tire after 45 to 90 minutes awake.
- Uncomfortable: diaper, clothing layers, room temperature (feel the chest, not the hands), awkward position, a hair around a finger or toe.
- Wants you: skin to skin, your voice, your heartbeat. Holding is a need, not a habit. You cannot spoil a newborn.
Calming yourself
A crying baby is stressful, and that is normal. If you feel overwhelmed, put the baby safely on their back in the crib, walk away, and take a few slow breaths. A calm caregiver soothes faster. Never shake a baby, for any reason.
When to call your pediatrician
- Fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher in a baby under 3 months: go to urgent care or the ER.
- Trouble breathing, blue lips, or unusual limpness.
- Crying inconsolably for 2 hours or more, or a cry that sounds completely unlike their usual cry.
- Refusing feeds, very few wet diapers, vomiting or diarrhea with signs of dehydration.
- Rash with fever, or a bulging fontanelle (soft spot).
- An unusually weak cry, or a sudden lasting change in the cry.
- You are worried. Parental instinct counts as a symptom.
Cry diary
Every decode is logged here automatically. Add notes and mark whether the suggestion helped, and the Patterns tab turns it into weekly and monthly trends.
No entries yet. Decode a cry on the first tab, then save it here with what worked.
Cry patterns
Every decode is logged automatically, so this view shows what is actually happening over time. The most trustworthy pattern is "what actually worked": suggestions you marked as helped, not just what the app guessed.
Your data
Everything here is computed on your device from your diary. Nothing leaves this browser. Download a copy as backup, or to look at it in a spreadsheet.