When do babies grow out of colic?

[bubbles11]

I was hoping for a quick straw poll on when colic ends. I have been told alternatively 12 weeks OR 3 months OR 4 months.
My baby is coming up for 12 weeks (this Sunday) and, although greatly improved on how she was when she was newborn she still appears to have some kind of colic problems.
When newborn it was basically all day long feeding and when not feeding crying and them dropping to sleep with exhaustion at around 8pm / 9pm waking midnight to start again. Her problems all revolve around digestion and mainly trying to poo or pass wind when she cries and looks in extreme pain before and for a while afterwards and then looks for more food and the cycle started again.
Now at 12 weeks she appears more settled (some other things may have helped including having her in a sling for 2/3 hours per day and eliminating dairy, citrus onion garlic etc etc from my diet) and some limited success with gripe water / dentinox but basically at 12 weeks she still appears to be in pain when she fills her nappy / passes wind. It is not the typical 6pm - midnight but any time during the day or night connected with digestion. If your baby had colic and / or similar sypmtoms when did they grow out of it (in weeks?)
thanks

[Harra]

Hi Bubbles,
My ds had colic at 10 days and stopped about 3 months. It was hell 6pm to 11pm sometimes 2am. Very hard for you. But hopefully the end is soon for you if my experience is anything to go by. Ds is now 3 and delightful. I tried the lot, infacol, gripe water, cranial osteopathy (that did help a bit).

[Thrifty]

DS stopped the symptoms when we treated him for lactose intollerance (we discovered this around 3 months) and then was fab (started to put on weight at last and seemed to have no pain and became a happy baby . oh how i wish we'd discovered it sooner!). he seemed to grow out of his lactose intollerance around 12-14months we weaned him slowly onto cows milk and dairy products,and is now fine (3.yrs).

[hoarsewhisperer]

Poor you - I can remember the colic stage as being particularly grim. Mine stopped having colic at around 12 weeks, so fingers crossed for you. I had to abandon eating leeks, onions, beans etc while feeding and i gave him very weak fennel tea to drink which really helped. this was advised to me (we live overseas) by our health visitor as a good way to help colic.....

[Vickyflutey]

My Son is nearly 9 months old and still sufferes colic. He started with it at 1 month old and he was also diagnosed with acid reflux. He isnt nowhere near as bad as he was and seems to be worse with colic and reflux when he is teething. He still has trouble passing wind and we still have sleepless nights due to trapped botty burps :(. The doctor gave us gaviscon for his reflux which works very well, but I am still yet to find a remedy to help with his digestion. I have just purchased a product called Colic Calm and I am hoping that is going to help us. Fingers Crossed xxx

[michglas]

DD1 was about 12 weeks when she stopped being colicky. DD2 never had colic as a baby, but aged 10 has now got reflux and colic - bleurgh

[Consort]

Fwiw a pediatrician friend of my mum's said that colic peaks at 6 weeks. That doesn't mean it ends then but hopefully it starts to get better after that. Anyone else found this? My DD will be 6 weeks on Tuesday so here's hoping...

[BertieBotts]

3-4 months I think.

I know that you stop having to wind them when they can crawl, because they wind themselves!

[gamerwidow]

3-4 months is usual for colic but DD still had colic until 6 months so it does vary unfortunately.

[sittinginthesun]

13 weeks exactly, overnight. He just woke up giggling, instead of screaming, smiled all day, and the went to sleep at 8pm. I was gobsmacked.

[DarrowbyEightFive]

DD1 definitely got better at 3 months, but it certainly didn't disappear overnight for us.

"Fwiw a pediatrician friend of my mum's said that colic peaks at 6 weeks.". Yup, that raises a few unpleasant memories. DD1 got so worked up with the pain at that stage that she once went for 30 hours without a proper sleep - she dozed for a few minutes then spent the rest of the time feeding and screaming her head off. We were so wrecked by that point that we were simply incapable of dealing with it properly, so just spent hours on end bouncing on the gym ball or walking through the streets with baby in a sling at 3am. It was a baaaaad time. Now she's 13 and we have a whole different series of problems...

[nomoreminibreaks]

My DS finally grew out of symptoms that sound just the same at about 4 and a half months. I wondered if he'd ever grow out of it! It was at the same time as having cranial osteopathy, which could be a coincidence (but I'd try it earlier if I had another with colic).

I eagerly awaited the 12 week milestone and was gutted when it made no difference!

You have my sympathy

[Tgger]

About 18 months. Ho ho! No, you should find it easing off as you say at 3 months, more again at 6, 12, 18 etc etc. Some babies settle down a lot once solids are established, but don't rush that, it's just I think some stuggle with their immature digestive systems more than others.

Are you BF? Sounds like it. You may find that spacing her feeds now she is a bit older improves things-try tweaking (if you haven't already) how you feed her, eg have bigger gaps between feeds, and see if this helps. I think they can get in patterns of comfort feeding which is fine but maybe doesn't help their tummies sometimes.

[kernowmissvyghen]

We had the symptoms you describe - not classic evening colic but obvious digestive pain at all hours of the day and night. The first 6 weeks were utterly horrific, then there was a temporary improvement before it steadily got worse reaching a peak of awfulness at 4 months. Sorry! From 20 wks we started a dairy exclusion test diet and it did seem to be the cause. I had to cut out all dairy including whey powder etc(milk products are used in lots of packaged food) for a good 3 weeks before things got better, but it worked for us. Good luck!

[KellyKettle]

Both my children had colic & I think I have now worked out why. I suffer from oversupply, it can mean the baby gets a lot of foremilk which is higher in lactose. A couple of days of block feeding made a huge difference and I've noticed now that I don't leak either (DD2 is 4 months).

We also saw a massive improvement about 24 hours after using bio giai drops (so two "servings" in our case). Mixed with a few drops of breastmilk and syringed in. Drops have to be kept refrigerated though.

Wish I'd known all this with DD1. It really is hell.

Link on colic and oversupply (this match my symptoms at least):

www.lowmilksupply.org/oversupply.shtml

[KellyKettle]

Sorry should have said too much lactose can irritate gut and cause colicky symptoms. Apparently there is a link with probiotics (which is what bio gaia drops are) and improved gut health leading to reduced colic but we really stumbled on them by chance.

[kernowmissvyghen]

Realise I didn't answer your question properly: 17 weeks was our lowest point. I remember sitting outside the children's centre sobbing because I just couldn't take much more of the endless copious vomiting, screaming, and no sleep day or night...

[Consort]

Found this old article [http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2005/mar/30/familyandrelationships.healthandwellbeing] on Google. Thought it was interesting, so am passing it on in case of interest to anyone else.

[Consort]

Sorry didn't hyper link that properly :(

[KellyKettle]

I can't get it via the MN app. What's the article about?

[Consort]

It is about possible link between problems with breastfeeding and colic. It is written by a dad who went with his wife to see lactation experts about their second child's colic.

[KellyKettle]

Oh thanks. Yes, I read that one in my search for an explanation and thought it was really good. It's what led me to finding the other article I linked.

Good post consort!

[mewkins]

Pretty much gone by 6months....helped a lot that she learnt to roll over which eased the wind!