Talk

Flip

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Behaviour/development

What if it's not colic?

10 replies

Ohlalala · 19/05/2016 10:47

Hi everyone,

My 2-month old baby has been suffering from colic. I've tried the usual drops (gripe water, infacol,...), removed dairy from my diet,etc. Nothing has worked, which I was told could happen so I was 'ok' (ish!) to live with it. The crying recently got worse, (which I attribute to the 2-month peak?) to such an extent that on Monday, my daughter cried for 8 hours non stop. ( It's normally a mere 3-6 hours, every evening/night). However on Tuesday, she had her first set of vaccinations so had to take infant paracetamol (Capol)and it was as if we had a different baby: she barely cried, kept cooing and interacting with us for ages. We are normally lucky if we get two Oohs out of her during daytime since she cries or gets upset so fast and that was at night. For the first time ever, she looked like a happy, content baby. Now she's not on paracetamol anymore, it's getting back to what it was like before. Now we are told babies cry out of distress rather than pain when they have colic so would the fact that taking paracetamol, which is used to remove pain, drastically helped my baby suggest she is suffering from something different from colic? I would find it very distressing if it turned out my baby was in pain for all this time and health professionals dismissed it as colic.... I suggested reflux by the way to my gp and hv but both said they didn't think that is what it was and I simply had to accept it was colic and wait for it to end.

OP posts:

Report

Newtobecomingamum · 19/05/2016 21:26

My daughter had colic and giving her calpol would not have stoppe her. This seems odd. Have you tried giving her another dose (will not do any harm as a one off) and then if she has another good night you can go back to GP and tell them. I would try that first! X

Report

Newtobecomingamum · 19/05/2016 21:27

Actually I think we did try calpol out of desperation and it didn't work. It might have just been a coincidence about the calpol but I would test it again.

Report

GraceGrape · 19/05/2016 21:33

What makes the GP and hv say it isn't reflux? I would at least ask to try out some low-level reflux medication to see if it helps. Could you see a different GP and ask to try some Infant Gaviscon (a hassle to administer, but if there is any improvement it would suggest reflux is the cause). I would tell the GP that she was much happier after a dose of Calpol so is clearly in pain. It is possible for babies to suffer from silent reflux, where the main symptom is pain rather than vomiting.

Report

3luckystars · 19/05/2016 21:42

I would say it's reflux.

Report

daisydalrymple · 19/05/2016 21:47

Hi, am assuming BF if you've removed dairy from your own diet? How long did you go dairy free for? Dc3 is dairy intolerant, but it took till 9 months to get a diagnosis as they kept dismissing it as wind / colic until weaning due to him being BF. It can take two weeks for the dairy to leave the system and improvements to be seen.

It's so distressing when they look at you screaming as if to say make this pain stop isn't it! Have you tried gentle tummy massage and little leg exercises like gentle cycling and legs into tummy etc to relieve the discomfort (whatever might be causing it).

If you haven't already done this, try keeping a symptom diary for a few days and take back to the GP, especially if you feel her symptoms are similar to reflux / Silent reflux. Good luck, I hope you manage to get it sorted for her soon. Dc3 was a lot more settled walking in a baby carrier, as I think the upright position and pressure of his tummy against mine helped him jiggle out some wind downwards. He was fine with winding up, but struggled with the trumps with the dairy issue.

Report

JiltedJohnsJulie · 21/05/2016 09:37

Have you ruled out Cow's Milk Protein Allergy?

Report

Ohlalala · 22/05/2016 11:48

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for all your replies and sorry it took me so long to get back to you. Reading all of your comments, I will definitely go back to my GP and see what they say.
To answer your question, I was told it wasn't reflux because my daughter is not 'writhing in pain' / arching her back,etc during feeds and handles some feeds well afterwards.

OP posts: