QUESTION ABOUT COLIEF?

[loopyredangel]

Why do you have to add Colief to the milk, and not give it directly to the baby? I breastfeed but my little one is struggling with very painful wind and colic symptoms. just can'tputhimdown with out him cramping up, much worse during the night time, and won't settle in his bed!
The reason Iask about the Colief, I can't express more than a teaspoon, and the instructions say you need a few tablespoons!!! What could I do, I have to do this every feed too! Any ideas please, we are both getting exhausted!

[LieselVentouse]

Dont know, why not use Infacol, you can give that directly

[fishie]

cosleep instead

[loopyredangel]

infacol doesn't seem to be working, we do end up cosleeping, but he is so restless and seems in pain.

[LadyOfTheFlowers]

Colief breaks down the bits in the milk that the baby can't before the baby drinks it.
I can't remeber exactly what it breaks down as I only needed it for DS1 who is now 2.
HTH

Lactose maybe? NOt sure?

[Wags]

I used colief with both of mine who were exclusively BF. I would express just a teaspoon full and add the drops to that. It worked really well with my DD, but not so well with DS.

[IwansMam]

Colief is enzyme-based and these enzymes need activating. This is done by mixing the Colief with milk - I think putting straight in the babies stomach by giving directly would mean the enzymes weren't activated and stop the Colief from working.Sorry, bad explanation so someone may be able to explain better. More info on the Colief website.

When I gave DS Colief I expressed a very small amount off by hand, added Colief and then syringed it into his mouth. How are you expressing? Could you try expressing a slightly larger amount using a pump and use this throughout the day (remember to warm milk slightly before use if you do this)? May be worth adding a thread about expressing milk.

[pendulum]

Ooh can I ASK ANOTHER QUESTION- HAVE JUST BOUGHT (oops sorry for shouting) some Colief to use with my DD. Am also breastfeeding. I don't quite understand how it works with breast milk since you have to leave it in the formula bottles for a while before giving the feed. The instructions don't say to leave it in the EBM for a while but make it sound as if you can add the drops and give it to the baby immediately. Does anyone have any views on whether this affects its effectiveness for BFed babies? Or has anyone found a work-around system for giving it time in the EBM?

(sorry not very articulate- am wrestling writhing baby while typing!)

[IwansMam]

Hi, express breastmilk just before feed, mix and give immediately. Carry on breastfeeding as normal. i.e. you don't need to wait.

[pendulum]

thanks
did you express the full 4 tablespoons they recommend in the instructions? seems a lot.

have just given her the first dose- fingers crossed! any idead how soon I should expect results if that's the problem?

[IwansMam]

Sorry, can't remember but can't have done as after expressing I then filled just one syringe before giving to DS. (Maybe I didn't read the instructions properly ). We only used Colief for 3 days before switching back to Infacol which worked better for us. If I could have used Colief and Infacol together I would have done as they had different effects on DS.

Others may have an opinion about the amount you need to express.

[IwansMam]

And for results: 1-2 days(?). HV told me someone had overnight results.

[mmelody]

Colief is such a faff that I have to admit that I would let DS have a few mouthfuls of breastmilk and then pull him off and put drops on my nipple before putting him back on.

[pendulum]

mmelody that sounds very sensible! I have seen other brands of lactase with identical ingredients that say you can put it directly in baby's mouth so am tempted to do the same with Colief. Did you get noticeable results?

[loopyredangel- sorry for hi-jacking your thread!]

[loopyredangel]

don't worry pendulum, only ust got chance to get back on computer, sounds like a good idea mmelody, was thinking of trying it but just wanted to check first! I think my little one is suffering from reflux and that's why nothing is working.
I noticed he foams from the mouth and seems to be in quite a bit of pain when he does this, throwing his head and body back and realyl tensing his tummy and body, but them sometimes he is doubling over and in pain, he has also developed a little cough with it too.

[pendulum]

loopy, I had alook at the FAQs on the colief website and it says if you give it directly the active ingredient is destroyed by baby's stomach acid. Ho Hum. Have been managing to give it in maybe half the feeds- I express off a couple of ounces in the morning, store in fridge, pour 1 tbsp or so into an avent cup, warm in microwave for 5 secs to blood heat, add colief and get DD to drink from cup before BF. Phew! Complete hassle and certainly not to be contemplated for night feeds. TBH i will only keep it up for another couple of days unless I see some good results.

How are you getting on? Interested to hear that your DS foams at the mouth, so does DD. ~No idea what that is about.

[choolie]

loopy, have you tried plain old gripe water? we gave this a go, after faffing about mixing colief with EBM, then having infacol spit all over us, and found the gripe water much more effective for DS. You give it straight after the feed and it eased things really quickly. (Obviously won't work for all babies, which is why there are diff products out there of course). - Took me ages to decide to try gripe water as DS is PFB, so I was trying to not give him anything with things in that I hadn't heard of etc.

Also, another thing that helped ease DS wind was holding him in sitting position, as if he was on the loo. (lady in chemist passed on that tip!) and lying him in changing mat, cycling his legs in air. forgive me if you've tried all these things, you did only ask about colief after all!

[loopyredangel]

Have been diagnosed with Reflux, the poor little thing was getting worse, he is now having to take gaviscon, so far it hasn't improved, have to give it until next Monday to see how he goes, fingers crossed, they will want to rule out a couple of things.

[Hanhan123]

My little girl is nearly a month old and for the last two weeks had been really struggling with terrible wind and tummy pains, it was so distressing, I am doing a mix of breast and bottle feeding as I struggled to breast feed at first. I took her to see the HV and they looked at her tongue and it turned out she has a touch of oral thrush, they prescribed me with treatment for that and suggested that her thrush could have caused problems with her feeding making her have wind issues, they recommended trying colief and dentinox. As you are breast feeding colief isn't an option as you need to add it to milk to break down the lactose as its an enzyme, but if you express regularly you will build up a good supply and could try bottling your breast milk and doing it that way, another option is dentinox which has also worked wonders, it comes with a syringe that you can just put into their mouth, before a feed, I am using both at the moment and putting them in her milk, the results were instant and amazing, not a single grip or complaint and she settled straight away after her feeds, such a relief! hope you find a solution!