You are a new parent. The baby is cranky. And you're at your wits' end.

What's a mommy or daddy to do? Well, take a cue from parents who have found themselves in the same predicament but resisted the urge to pull out their hair.

No, these loving parents found solutions that worked. Solutions that put the whole family at ease.

"My husband and I sing her favorite song, 'You Are My Sunshine,' " says Tiffany Spivey about her 18-month-old daughter, Allison. "We sing it and rock her until she calms down."

Mom doesn't do this solo. Allison's dad, Alan Spivey, helps, too.

"We tried running the vacuum cleaner and mysteriously, that worked in calming her down when she was younger," says Tiffany Spivey, a first-time mother who also works, with a laugh. "Finding what works is a learning experience, believe me."

The vacuum is among household items that parents can use to hush an irritable baby, according to Blythe Lipman, author and self-publisher of "Help! My Baby Came Without Instructions" ($14.95). The hair dryer and dishwasher will also do the trick in getting infants to stop crying and settle down.

Babies are used to lots of noise in the womb, and this type of noise is very calming, says Lipman, a nationally known childcare expert.

Massaging calms them, too, she says. Try gently stroking your baby's cheeks with your fingertips, like a feather in an up-and-down motion while saying "Shhh." But listening to her parents sing appears to be what Allison prefers when it comes to stopping the tears.

"When we start singing her song, she knows it's nap time," her mother says.

Beth Koffman chuckles when she thinks of all the things she and her husband, Barry, have tried to soothe Eli, their 6-month- old.

"He's more cranky than his sister, Emma, was, and a little bit more high maintenance," she says. "Different things work at different times for Eli, who seems to get bored pretty easily."

She recalls a recent sleepless night when the baby had his first ear infection.

"After hours of rocking and singing, I laid him briefly in my bed and began blabbering to him," Beth Koffman says. "His eyes got bigger, but then I noticed he was starting to get quiet.

"By that time, my husband asked how long I was going to keep this up, and I said, 'As long as I need to.' "

Before she knew it, Beth Koffman says Eli was asleep.

Another thing that helps if Eli is testy while eating is for Emma to rub the back of his head to the crown. It was a solution the 3-year-old discovered herself. When she was a baby and a bit upset, she would suck her thumb and rub her head, her mother says. That seemed to calm her down.

Now she's using it to good advantage on Eli.