Baby crying? An iPhone application to help!

Even the most attentive parents often fail to find out why their baby is crying but now a newly launched iPhone programme, developed by paediatricians, will make their task easy by interpreting infants' wails and howls.

The Spanish researchers led by Dr Antonio Portugal Ramirez have invented an iPhone application called the Cry Translator, which they claim is 96 per cent accurate in interpreting cries of distress from babies.

Ramirez's team developed the project after finding that babies' wails could be broken down into five separate categories.

They said that infants have five distinct universal yells - regardless of language - indicating whether the tot is hungry, annoyed, tired, stressed or bored, The Sun reported. The programme that costs 17.99 pounds, uses the iPhone's microphone to receive the sound, analyses it, and displays the information about what the baby's cries mean on screen.

However, parenting experts said they feared the technology on the phone could discourage mothers from relying on their instinct and experience. "Learning to interpret cries is part of the bonding process and forms the foundation for good communication," they said.