Many people are attracted to a baby's smiles, coos, and giggles.

You can spend a whole day playing and interacting with a happy baby, and getting fascinated by his reactions to new things and his surroundings. Playing with a baby offers you a chance to see the world through his eyes, and it makes you regain the joy of wonder and sweetness of innocence.

But what most of us dislike about babies is when they cry, crying long and hard and constantly. Such can cause a big headache, not only to his parents but to everyone else who hears the baby's wails and screams.

Photo: Pexels/Anastasiya Gepp

But do babies cry simply out of caprice? Wanting full attention on them until they're tired and sleepy?

According to The Bump, there are 11 reasons why babies cry -- and it's not out of whim. At this early stage of their life, crying is an infant's way of communicating his needs and wants. Below is a list of these reasons, which we need to know so we can effectively deal with a crying baby.

1. A late sign of hunger. Early signs of a hungry baby are hand-sucking, lip-smacking, and turning his head to look for his bottle or mother's breast.
2. Feeling sleepy
3. Dirty diaper. Some babies don't mind wearing soiled diapers for hours; others are very sensitive and react with crying.
4. Need to burp after feeding, sucking a pacifier, or experiencing hiccups.
5. Baby gas. A baby with digestion trouble tends to wriggle, pump his legs, or arch his back. You can help ease a baby's digestion by holding him on the stomach or bicycling his legs and pushing up to his chest to help eliminate gas.
Photo: Pexels/Sarah Chai
6. Teething
7. Overstimulation. This often happens when a baby gets passed around a lot or when there's commotion. Best to let the baby rest in quiet surroundings.
8. Out of loneliness. When a baby cries to get attention, respond with empathy and provide what he needs to help the baby develop a calm spirit.
9. Discomfort
10. Illness
11. Colic. This is the hardest crying situation to deal with. Your baby cries for no apparent reason, wailing and screaming for more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 times a week, and for 3 weeks or more. Babies with colic don't sleep well and are harder to comfort. Up to now, the causes of colic are unknown and it usually afflicts one in every 4 healthy newborn infants. Colic symptoms often begin 6 weeks after birth and decline after 3-4 months of baby's age.

This story concerns a childless couple who has a younger couple for neighbors. The young couple recently took home their newborn baby from the hospital after being confined for three months.

Photo: Pexels/William Fortunato

Original Poster is the childless husband with the username u/Crafty-Ocelot9612, who published his problem with their neighbors' baby on Reddit's popular r/AmItheA--hole forum. He thinks that the young parents are so inconsiderate, and he threatens to call the police because of their inability to control their sick baby's cries and screams.

OP starts his post with the following details: "My neighbours are a young couple in their 30s (Annie and Bill), they've had a baby a couple months ago. The baby came home last month after 3 months in hospital. My wife is friendly with Annie, we can't have children so whenever we have a neighbour with a baby my wife makes friends with them. We have my mum staying with us, as she is no longer able to live independently. My mum has complained several times that she can hear the baby crying, especially at night. My wife says the baby has bad reflux, and they are trying to deal with it. The baby screams several times a day, its awful listening to the poor thing cry for so long. It does feel like they aren't dealing with the baby as quickly as they should be."

Aside from complaining about the baby's constant cries, OP also mentioned the additional problem that their neighbors have brought into their lives. Their area has street parking only, and since there are now many cars coming into their neighborhood -- their neighbors' relatives and their baby's healthcare providers -- OP finds it difficult to take his elderly mom to her medical appointments. His mom's mobility issues make it hard for her to walk to their car, which can no longer be parked near to their home.

Photo: Pexels/Antoni Shkraba

One weekend, OP's patience finally ran out, and he described what he did so those young neighbors of theirs would take full responsibility for all the troubles that their baby has been causing.

He wrote, "Mum had been home alone all day, and she was in tears when I got home from work. Wife was away visiting friends. She said the baby had been screaming all day long. It was still crying when I came home. I went and knocked on Bill and Annie's door to ask if they could quieten the baby. I could see through the frosted glass that Annie was sat on the bottom of the stairs not even trying to calm the baby down. When she came to the door, she apologised and said she had been trying to calm baby down, but the new medication was making him constipated, and he was straining to poo. She said Bill had gone to pick up an emergency prescription to try and help."

But OP refused to accept that explanation because from what he saw of the young mother, she was not doing enough to stop her baby from crying. He told her that their family should be more considerate of other people. That, in case the problem with their baby persists, he would log a noise complaint with the police authorities. Upset by the threat, their neighbor shut the door in OP's face.

Upon his wife's return, OP told her the entire story, but his wife got angry with him instead. She told him that he was making life difficult for their young neighbors and their sick baby. From then on, she refused to speak to him.

Photo: Pexels/Karolina Grabowska

OP said in his post that he could be wrong due to his wife's reaction, but he still thinks that the young couple should treat their neighbors with more consideration by controlling their baby's constant, loud crying.

Well, you no longer have to guess hard how online commenters responded to this post. Redditors slammed him much harder than when his neighbor shut the door in his face -- and so much louder than the baby's screams!

Frank words from cajun_hippie: "I'm going to get hate for this, but thank God you can't have kids. Your lack of empathy and inability to sympathize are outrageous. Real babies aren't like dogs or dolls. I would hate to see how you would've treated your wife or your own child."

Photo: Pexels/Moliv Fotografia

Hanyo_Hetalia likewise shared these words of wisdom, "My husband was on paternity leave. He was in the kitchen doing dishes so I could lay down and rest. I literally started to have a complete emotional meltdown and texted him to come help me. I cried for an HOUR and he just had to hold me and tell me I wasn't doing anything wrong to make our baby cry. It takes a real man to be a father. It's really not for weak men."

Another award-winning comment from nololthx says, "This this this. Plus, OP definitely doesn’t realize that the official recommendation to prevent shaken baby is to step away from the child until you can regain composure. The mother in question is doing the right thing to keep her baby safe. I’m a pediatric nurse, and after a 12-hour shift, I sometimes require a few minutes of silence in my car in the dark before going into my house. I cannot imagine what it must be like to not be able to walk away and then to be shamed by some AH for taking a moment to calm yourself down."

Meanwhile, Allkindsofpieces remarked, "Seriously. And sometimes you can't quiet the baby no matter what you do. Baby is screaming and you hold them, rock them, pat them, bounce them, and they're still screaming. What exactly is it that OP wants her to do? And to say he'd make a noise complaint to the police. For a crying baby. You can't just get a baby to stop crying on command. This post makes me so angry. My daughter has 6-week-old twin boys, and sometimes they cry. They're babies. OP is definitely YTA."