Colic? Please please help!

[dawneg]

hiya - have a 4wk + 2 day old that has had bad wind from word go. No crying just lots of discomfort. Seen a Cranial Osteopath twice which I am not sure is working. However at about 3pm today, she started crying and has been on and off ever since. She never cries except for food and is still crying even after milk. The crying is exactly how the books describe colic, but surely 4 weeks is too late to get it? Plus, I can console her by cuddling and she is sleeping in between bouts.

Please can somebody advise if they have experienced this. I am in a tiz and panicking that this is going to go on for 2 months as I also have a very demanding (but lovely) 3 yr old.

Am giving Infacol also, like the CO, not really sure it's working.

Thanks a million

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Colic doesn't normally start until 3 weeks anyway, so I wouldn't say that 4 weeks is too late for it.

I wouldn't, however, diagnose on the basis of one day of crying.

[MogTheForgetfulCat]

My DS1 got colic at around 6 weeks, lasted for a few weeks - so I don't think they necessarily get it from birth. DS2 pretty much did, though - he screamed inconsolably for between 1 and 2 hours every evening until 11 weeks, when it just suddenly stopped.

One of the tricky things with colic is that it's such a vague diagnosis, and no-one really seems to know what causes it or how to treat it. For what it's worth, I tried Infacol (worked OK for DS1, not DS2), Colief (disaster, made it worse I think), chamomilia (DS2 only - didn't seem to help), cranial osteopathy (DS2 only - didn't seem to help) and gripe water (DS2 only - helped a bit, I think).

The only thing that really worked was lots of calm cuddles in the dark, rocking back and forth and shushing - but even that didn't always get through to them. It was awful seeing them (DS2 in particular, who had it much worse) apparently in pain, so symapthies.

With DS2, the bout was always after his last feed, so once DS1 was in bed. If it had been during the day, I'd have just had to bung him in a sling and get on with it - contact and movement seemed to help most, and a sling provides both if you're moving about.

Hope this post isn't too gloomy - and really hope it is just a blip with your lo. Be quite programmatic with the Infacol, though, just in case - I've heard it can take a while for the benefits to kick in.

[Franniban]

Hi, both dd and ds had it until about 12 weeks, then it just stopped. Keep up with the infacol, and lots of cuddles. I used to walk up and down the road with dd in a sling, seemed to help a bit, but more for dh and my sanity!

Much sympathy, it will stop,

Take care

[MissusH]

My dd had colic and we tried everything (chiropractor, infacol, tummy massage etc)

Then my mum sent me a newspaper article about one of the large London hospitals who had a unit for babies with severe colic (was 6yrs ago, can't remember which one..)

Anyway, they had great results using Yakult! Apparently giving a teaspon before each feed boosted the good bacteria and reduced symptoms.

I was willing to try anything so showed the article to gp & hv who said such a small amount would not do any harm. We gave it a go and it seemed to help...

have since googled this and there is plenty of anecdotal evidence in support

[LuLuBai]

My DD had a few nights of colic an as far as I remember it didn't start until at least 4 weeks and it had totally passed by 12 weeks. She would projectile vomit at the merest whiff of gripe water and other remedies so we had to find other ways to deal with it.

We found the following helped:

DH putting her in the sling and walking around the block to give her a bit of fresh air (not me because she associated me with BF so was not as restful with me)

DH lying on his back in a darkened room with her on his chest and inhaling and exhaling sloooowly as if meditating. This was hard work but tended to pay off eventually. You need to stick at it for a while.

[dawneg]

Thanks for all the advice. So it maybe that it's not going to occur EVERY day? I had this horrible vision that it's going to be all day, every day etc.

I am going to stick with the Infacol, but at £35 a pop, wondering if to stop the Cranial Osteopathy.

:->

[LuLuBai]

It is soooo hard when it is happening but do remember they all grow out of it. (You never meet a 15 year old who howls non-stop for 3 hours every single evening do you.)

And they are usually past the colic phase by 4 months at the latest.

I felt awful about the fact the DH was the only one who could console her. I felt guilty and forlorn that I wasn't able to calm her and I felt upset that he was coming home from work to see her at her worst but if you asked him about it now he doesn't remember a thing. He's desperately broody for another baby and whenever I say "but remember the colic?" he just stares at me blankly.

[wellieboot]

Hi dawneg, another one who's been there. It sucks and you think it will last forever. I remember reading a book that said don't worry it will pass in 3 months, thinking - what - 3 months!?!?! How will I survive!!! But I did. For us it was all day crying when awake, more intense in the evenings. We moved in with my parents for a few weeks to help cope - not ideal but we were desperate! do you have any family/friends nearby who could help on the odd evening? Getting some help to give yourself a break would be my biggest piece of advice to help get through it.

How many CO sessions have you had so far? DD had 2, which did make a slight difference, and after that we were told that they had done all they could. Would they be able to give you advice on how many sessions you might need? Stick with the Infacol as well - it does help alot with bringing up wind.

[Littlefish]

Have you tried Coleif? Not sure how old babies have to be to have it, but it might be worth investigating.

Also, have you tried the "tiger in a tree" hold. I'll see if I can link to it because it's quite hard to explain. It really helped my dd when she had colic (from 10 days old to 4.5 months!!!!!)

Also, it really soothed her to suck a dummy. I would hold her, and hold the dummy as well as she would just push it out with her tongue to start with. A minute of sucking would put her to sleep.

[Littlefish]

Tiger in the tree

[mrschop]

Are you bf or ff? I formula fed and found that if I used ready-mixed cartons, DS would howl that evening, but milk powder was fine.

You have my sympathy, it is awful, but it will pass.

You might also be able to get some baby massage tips to help dislodge wind - just rubbing their lower tummy in a circle (clockwise) then bending their knees up to their tummy, then jiggling their legs and bottom help get the wind moving, I'd get all sorts of noises when I did that! (from DS, shd add,not me...). Do that 2-3 times a day for a few minutes to stop the wind building up.

[VickyPea]

Oh Dawneg, lots of sympathy for you if it is. My ds1 had it from a week old until he is 12 weeks and then it just stopped. We tried all sorts of things, tummy rubbing, colief, infacol, gripe water etc. but one didn't seem much different to the other.

We did get some bottles though called Dr Brown's bottles which have a tube in the top that makes the air that the baby blows back into the bottle go out the top of the bottle instead of into the milk (making it less bubbly). They were quite expensive but we found they did work.

We used to put him down on the floor in the middle of the room and then shut the door for a couple of mins (glass door though) to give us some respite !! It does seem like they are in loads of pain, and it makes you feel guilty for not being able to help but like LuLuBai says, they don't remember it.

[lucylue]

my dd had colic when she was 2 months old.
as far as i know if it happens it usually ends around 3 months.
we had really really hard time.
then my ex bought some medicine in a tube from boots, that helped a lot. im sorry i cant remember the name of the med now, but it was a small greenish tube. it was magic.
good luck
lucy

[sorryihaventaclue]

Hi, all my sympathy, we are going through this right now with 4 week old (today) she's been windy since day one but it's getting worse and more colicy. DS had colic badly, he's now 20 months and before DD was born we were already bracing ourselves for it.

We tried everything and i mean everything with DS, gripe water seemed most effective but they can't have that til a month so we've tried infacol again and really feel it's a waste of money.

Our best solution so far is Dr Browns bottles (we were lulled into trying Tommy Tippee copies but found they're just not as good for some unknown reason) and lots of skin to skin contact and cuddles. Going to try that tiger hold.

DS had bad reflux too, it came after the colic left and we found cranial osteopathy quite good for that but not as brilliant as we'd been led to believe.

wish i knew what that magic green bottle from boots was!

Keep posting. It's the night screaming that's the worst isn't it? Especially when you know it might wake up the other one....

[sorryihaventaclue]

p.s hv suggested a dummy whilst she's finding her thumb, and sucking definitely helps her settle although she pops it out quite a lot.

Swaddling helped ds too but it's too damn hot at the moment and trying to do it with a muslin doesn't work so well. As soon as it cools down though that swaddle is coming back out....

[drjane]

Hi Dawneg - regarding the Cranial Osteopathy, I think you can happily stop doing it. I considered it myself when my DS was having sleep problems, but when I researched it (I'm a biologist) it seems that there is NO evidence that it works. There's a good review here from an experienced osteopath:

www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=16762070

t he punchline of which is "Until outcome studies show that these techniques produce a direct and positive clinical effect, they should be dropped from all academic curricula; insurance companies should stop paying for them; and patients should invest their time, money, and health elsewhere."

After reading that I decided against it ;)

[drjane]

Sorry, didnt't hyperlink that should be:

Cranial Osteopathy Review

[susia]

I think you should try something called 'Colief' it worked really well with my DS

[elmoandella]

my dc used to like being held with their belly along dp forearm. with their chin resting in palm of hand. he used to walk about for ages rubbing their backs

[laura325630]

We thought dd had colic from 2 weeks as she cried non stop for about 2 hours each evening. We gave her infacol which helped her wind. We have been giving her Woodwards gripe water for the past 3 weeks (she is 7 weeks now) and its brilliant. She defo doesnt have colic just trouble winding. She has massive burps now that sometimes take her by surprise! It has made a huge difference to her. Also we give her a dummy to settle her which also helps and feed her slightly upright if you can. We are bottle feeding so I guess it easier to do then if you are breast feeding. Good luck.

[batdog]

My first also suffered badly from colic and the medicines from the chemist never seemed to work. I just had to wait until he grew out of it. Recently though a friend of mine had a baby who suffered from the same thing and her HV suggested giving the baby peppermint tea-one part tea to nine parts water/milk. She said that it was miraculous. I so wish that I knew of it when I had mine.

[nazy]

Iknow exactly what you're going thru. My daughter is now 3yrs old.We learnt she had colic at 4wks,which lasted up to 3mths.We found that white noise really helps to calm baby.Our best was the hairdryer.If really bad then taking a car ride was the other alternative which worked very well. However, these symptoms only caused temporary relief.Taking her to a chiropract helped stop the colic.

Hang in there! It won't last forever!

[ELB1]

DD1 Had colic at the same age, it's very touch and I was very distressed. Infacol was good - and an odd suggestion on mumsnet at the time also worked to settle the crying. I sat on my birth ball and gently bounced!

However, and I know this won't be popular, but I swear that I switched to a feeding routine (Gina Ford)and the colic stopped within 3 days.

[Chelskii]

My baby boy is almost a month old and hes suffered with colic since about 2days old! the first few nights out of the maternity home he screamed from midnight til about 6am but still took his feed i was so upset and worried that the midwife had to come out twice but said he was fine just abit coliccy,i bought some Tommee Tippee Anti-Colic Plus bottles with the air vents and the HV (health visitor) told me to give him the medium flow teats at 2weeks old, i was abit weary of doing this, but did it as the HV knew best! i tried INFACOL which never worked at all so i put him on DENTINOX which was really good brought his wind up etc ... but gave him diarehha n made him abit sicky, i heard about COLIEF on google so i bought some, VERY EXPENSIVE mind you and its only a couple of days but since having it so far hes been so unsettled and screams like the first few days he was out of the maternity home with it! I Got told to put fresh cut orange into cool boiled water by the HV, and a few people have said to give him a teaspoon of lemonade which i was like no way hes not even a month old. If anybody can help or give me any advice id be very very grateful! x

[hotpotmama]

Had colicky babies, cranial osteopathy really helped but they needed about 5 or 6 sessions.

Another thing that helped - the noise of a hairdryer used to stop them crying, with DS1 we had it on a lot thru the night(on cool blow!).

It seems like the worst thing in the world when you are tired and everything is ten times worse in the night too.

Hope you find something that helps.