Decoded: The First Year | Episode 59 | The Witching Hour: Why 5pm Breaks Your Baby Every Day | Dr SCL

Decoded: The First Year · Oct 14, 2026 · 19m

It's 5pm. And something shifts.

The baby who was manageable this morning — who even smiled at you after the 11 o'clock feed — is gone. In their place is a baby who cannot be put down, cannot be settled, won't feed properly, won't sleep, and is somehow both absolutely exhausted and completely wired.

And the worst part? It happens every day. At roughly the same time. Like clockwork.

You've started dreading 4:30pm. You've started managing your whole day around trying to avoid it. And somewhere in the back of your mind you're wondering: am I doing something wrong in the mornings that causes the…