How do I know if my baby is colic?

[ElaineB100]

Help! my son is 7 weeks old and was very content until about two weeks ago he started being really unsettled in the evening this has now increased to during the day as well! He used to sleep from feed to feed now he just sleeps for 20 mins wakes up crying then sleeps for another 20 or so minutes and wakes up crying again and this goes on until his next feed. He constantly has his knees up and is really bad at burping, and he now cries after a feed which he never did before. He's also sick alot after feeds not sure if this is because i'm giving him infacol but that is the only way I can get him to burp, he also passes wind through his bottom alot. he's only like this a few days out of the week?

I don't understand why he's like this during the day/evening but never like this during the night, he doesn't wake up between feeds during the night like he does during the day and he settles fine during the night.

I have tried the following:
*cooled boiled water
*infacol - has helped a bit
*gripe water, he vomited really badly after this
*teat sizes - tried a faster teat on his bottle but it was too fast
*feeding him upright and winding him in different position (over shoulder/knee, upright, rubbed tummy)

my son is bottle fed using sma formula some people have said to try changing milks? I'm using tomme tippee bottles as well?

does this sound like colic?

[diyvspse]

Babies are often sick 'a lot' - but what do you mean by 'a lot'? What proportion of the feed is coming back up & how often does it happen?

I would consider trying Colief. You can use it as well as Infacol. Some babies may have 'colic' because they don't produce much of the enzyme needed to digest lactose. It's something like a temporary lactose intolerance. Check out their web site, which has lots of information. We found this helpful with our DS. You add it to a bottle of formula some time before serving. For some people it really makes a difference. It's quite expensive, at around 10 pounds for a small bottle, but you should know from the first bottle whether it is helping.

May want to try another formula. We switched to SMA from Aptamil.

Gripe water is really strong, isn't it? I was a bit shocked - I ditched my bottle & stuck with the infacol.

Don't think water is going to help at all BTW. Good luck.

[ElaineB100]

He roughly take 5oz every 4 hours, i would say sometimes it's just normal amount of sick but other times I would say it's about a good ounce of his bottle and over the last few days it's became more frequent?

Can you add Colief just before you feed or does it need to be a good half hour because he wouldn't hold off that long during the night ?

[diyvspse]

I remember the half hour problem! Yes, I think we just added it anyway at night time and served straight away, with the assumption that it would work in his tummy.

Most useful piece of advice I read about vomiting is that it's a laundry problem, not a medical one. That said, you should read up on the symptoms of reflux, just so you can spot it if that becomes an issue. In my ignorant opinion reflux is really a problem when it means they won't take the bottle properly, and not when they're being sick a lot (unless they're being seriously vomity and not keeping down enough).

They're confusing creatures too - one minute they're vomiting lots & then a few days pass and it's no longer a problem. Perhaps wait and see how the vomiting goes? And perhaps try the colief?

[theboobmeister]

elaine, how distressing for you

One possibility is that he would prefer smaller, less frequent feeds. A 6 week old baby's stomach only holds about 2 - 3oz, which suggests that he is taking far too much at each feed. This would also explain why he's being sick so much more often. No amount of infacol or colief is going to keep that amount of milk in his tummy!

Perhaps you could try feeding much smaller amounts more often? It is really easy for a baby to drink more from a bottle than he really needs, so good to watch carefully for the signs that he's had enough. For example, turning his head from side to side and splaying fingers.

Hope this helps