Is there any harm in giving infacol/colief/gripe water a shot?

[hopefully]

DS is nearly 3 weeks old, and for around the past week has been screaming intermittently and bringing his knees up, often passing wind as he does so. He also quite often makes a kind of possetting/vomiting noise, but nothing comes out (don't know if it's not coming up far enough, or if he's swallowing it down or what...). He's obviously suffering with something in the gut department, and it doesn't seem to be solved by bicycling legs etc. We do make sure to wind him between breasts and after every feed.

He is also only really happy if he's held upright, which I think is causing our problem of him not settling in his cot.

Feeling v guilty, as colic didn't even really occur to me and DP, and my mother is visiting and is convinced that's what it is (turns out there are some advantages to having your mother stay - she does the 3am floor walk with him!)

Is there any reason not to give something like infacol a shot? I assume the worst it will do is absolutely nothing? He is exclusively BF, feeding around every 2 hours during the day and 1-4 hourly at night, depending on his mood!

[MrsJamin]

no reason not to try infacol - it's very safe from birth

[tiktok]

hopefully, it may be colic, but maybe he screams when put in his cot...even when fed and warm...because at 3 weeks he still wants to be held and cuddled close to you (or a human being!). If he is happy and relaxed when held close to you, with frequent access to the breast whenever he shows a feeding cue, then it's not colic...what do you think?

[hopefully]

tiktok, I would agree, but he's also not happy on us. he'll do the same thing, scream for 15-20 mins and make vomit noises, and calm down for a few mins, then scream for another 15-20 mins with a few farts and vomit noises, then calm down agaIN. This goes on until he nods off (on us, we have given up on him nodding off in cot for now), or until he starts rooting for another feed after about 90 mins.

[hopefully]

he also seems comforted by sucking a finger (not interested in dummy, so haven't had to worry about the impact of that on BF!), but that doesn't always work.

[tiktok]

Sounds like colic, then

The treatments you suggest are all safe to try - hope they help.

[tiktok]

Sorry - I think gripe water is supposed to be from 4 weeks, but I have no idea why!

[gegs73]

I used infacol with DS2 which I think used to work a little. Its worth a try.

[LadyOfWaffle]

DS2 is very windy sometimes, I tried infacol , then it setttled for a few weeks but the past few days he has been quite bad. I find sitting him on my lap, having one hand on his tummy holding him up , him arched over that hand and me rubbing/patting his back seems to be the best position. Along with jigging your leg sometimes, and lifting up over your shoulder to wind (shoulder 'digging in' babies tummy), then back onto knee. Whether it's the winding or the moving positions but it does 99% of the time bring up the wind, even though sometimes it 'deep wind' and tough to budge. I did use gripe water last night though because it was very trapped. Have you tried co-sleeping? I find when they just suck away for ages it's not do bad, it's when DS tried to get a desperate feed in and gulps etc, co-sleeping he feeds nice and slowly to sleep.

[rzlty]

Hi there, I'm afraid I don't have any colic remedies (I've not met anyone who does) but I just wanted to say you're not alone.
My 6 week old had a dose of antibiotics at 4 weeks and since then has had colic like you describe; lots of scrunching up, exlposive bottom and wind. Nothing will settle her until she wears herself out and falls asleep but we can then manage to get her to lie down which is progress. My mum had her lie down curled on her side and bolstered both sides and this seemed to help in the early stages. It made sense to me as the last thing you want to do with stomach ache is lie on your back. But I know some people will disagree with this because babies are supposed to be on their backs.
I tried gripe water but it doesn't work for her.
Good luck and remember its not your fault!

[AccidentalMum]

Mine both slept propped up on lots of pillows next to my head for the first 3 months at least. Infacol every night feed as well (carried upright in a sling all day so no prob then). I have since found out you can buy 30deg wedges with a harness, which would have been ideal.

[Notquitegrownup]

Colief is magic. It is entirely natural - it is made of the hormone which exists in the gut which helps them to digest the milk, so it starts off the digestion process. With some immature guts, I was told, they will go into muscle spasm when the milk hits the gut, particularly if your latch isn't perfect and they are taking a while to get to the creamy hindmilk, which is much gentler on the gut, and absorbed much more slowly.

Colief is quite expensive - but you can get it on prescription if it works for you. I am not on commission, honest, but it saved my sanity, and probably my marriage too! DS suffered terribly after each feed. If I gave him the colief first, he was fine. If I thought he was over it and left the colief off, he screamed blue murder. Love the stuff.

(Infacol works for some, but it is treating something different - trapped air in the digestive system, I think.) DS2 farted a lot, but infacol didn't help at all.

I'm told that gripe water used to work when it had alcohol in it, but after they banned that, it has been less effective!!!

[barmymamma]

my friends sware by colief. they say it great, fast acting. only thing with infacol is that, i think, it contains milk protiens. so only need to be cautious if your baby has milk allergy, or family member has and so baby more prone to these allergies.
hope ds settles soon and you all get more rest.

[tiktok]

barmy - infacol does not contain milk proteins. Are you thinking of something else? Infacol has not been shown to work very well, but it's prob harmless as it is not absorbed by the body.

Coleif is made up of an enzyme (not a hormone - that would be a bit dodgy!) that digests the milk sugars, which seem to upset some babies.

[SheSellsSeashellsByTheSeashore]

I think gripewater is meant to be used later than 3 weeks. I used infacol and dentinox for my dd's. If one does not work try the other. Different things work for different babies.

[lollipopmother]

I've been trying Coleif for the last week on my soon to be 3 week old DD, I'm not sure it works, it's hard to tell. My DD screams during and/or after every feed and she was also screaming from 7pm to about 11pm, but since being on the Colief the night time session seems to have reduced significantly, but I don't know it's definitely because of the Colief, maybe it's something I'm eating??

[bitofadramaqueen]

Infacol didn't have any effect on my DS but we switched to dentinox and the daily screaming sessions stopped almost instantly.

He was still uncomfortable and grouchy when passing wind etc, but this seemed to pass when I started doing some 'anti-colic' massage on his tummy every day. Whether or not this was a coincidence I'll never know!

[katpink]

my DD had colic at five weeks every day for two weeks nothing worked. then i had some advice that colic could be cuased by over stimulation during the day and that we needed to take her in to a quiet darken room just before the time normally started with the colic. and it really seemed to work.
i also found that if i drank apple juice or ate peas that this seemed to upset her tummy quiet a bit and give her colic like symptons and vomiting.
i never gave her infacol or anything like that, MW advised that the ore i let her suck the quicker it would go, when my nipples had had enough i let her suck the side of her hand witch she had done this herself before.

[Chelskii]

My Little boy is nearlly a month old, i first tried infacol which didnt work at all!! so i put him on dentinox which seemed to help a great lot, then he started being sick and got abit of diarehha so i went onto google and found the colief website, i ordered some to try and i can honestly say it hasnt worked at all so far, he is 5x worse then what he was the first few days out of the maternity home and the midwife had to come out to check him as i was so worried.. im only 18 myself and its my first baby so out of all three i would recommend the dentinox as its worked best so far, less crying, brings up more wind, makes baby seem alot happier, doesnt bring knees up as much..! but colief definatley hasnt worked! I Also use the tommee tippee anti colic + bottles with the air vent tubes which have cost me an extra £40 and does anybody know why hiccups are caused alot for my baby, and sneezing?? Please help ..! x

[pudding25]

Gripe water is from 4 wks.

Is he being sicky lots? Could be reflux. Sounds like the way my friend's baby behaved. No harm in going to get it checked out by dr.

[Anglepoise]

DD (four weeks) is a bit windy but has been much calmer since our visit to the cranial osteopath two days ago

[LadyBee]

Chelskii, hiccups and sneezing are normal for babies - sneezing is the way they clear their noses of dust and mucous, seeing they can't sniff or blow them and the hiccups are just their breathing getting a little out of sync., did you ever feel your DS hiccuping while he was still in your womb? Mine used to get the hiccups every evening, and then when he was born he got them at the same time of the day..very cute. It doesn't seem to bother them and goes away as suddenly as it starts up without you doing anything.

For the OP, I'd recommend trying each of the remedies one by one to see whether they help - each does something slightly different, which is why you get people saying different things worked for their babies . Infacol is one of the cheaper ones, so maybe give that a go first? You need to give it before the feed, I didn't give it before every single feed just the ones after 2pm and it helped my DS. He had very similar symptoms, sudden windiness that came on at about 3 weeks, with the same sounds of possetting but no milk coming out. I raised the end of his basket (he slept next to me but in his moses basket during nights), let him nap upright on my chest, let him nap on his side wedged with towels beside me during the day.
We also used breastflow bottles (although he is breastfed, we gave him one bottle at about 3 weeks and then once a week since then).
DS was also a very 'sucky' baby, I think there's nothing wrong with offering a finger if it helps keep him calm and happy. We did use a soother and definitely helped him, but it did also have a bit of an effect on his latch - he'd clamp down and not want to open his mouth very much - so I had to work a bit to remind him how to latch properly when we fed. For that reason I ended up stopping using it when he was about 8 weeks, but his windiness started to improve around then and was much better by about 10 weeks.

Good luck!

[mybabywakesupsinging]

If you LO is only comfortable being held upright he could also be getting a bit of reflux - this is worse when lying down. ds1 had this, badly, (was still puking occassionally aged 18 months). At 3 weeks, though, he wasn't being sick much but did make the possetting noise you describe.
Things that help reflux are:
holding baby upright for a while after feeds
putting a book or something under the head of his cot
cut caffeine down in your diet if you are drinking a lot...(I was drinking loads of tea

There are medications as well so if LO seems in persistent distress you could try your GP and see what they think.
I mention it only because it took me 2months to work out why ds1 was no miserable and doing the above worked wonders...

Infacol is harmless btw and gives nice orange-flavoured burps. I have no idea if it helped but we gave it anyway...

[hopefully]

Thanks for all the advice (a little belatedly, moved house and had no internet for ages!)

We started on infacol, and it probably made him 50% better, so we now only have colicky evenings, rather than screaming during all awake periods.

We started on gripe water last week as well, and it seems to have improved the evenings for some reason - he goes down between his two evening feeds about every other night now.

I'm sure this is partly the treatments and partly him getting older and his gut maturing, but I'm far too scared to stop either treatment until he's another few weeks older, just in case!

[masonbaby]

watch he isnt getting over tired! I have a 3 week old tomorrow...and he can last about 70 minutes at a time before needing a nap...he starts rooting when he gets tired but its not for milk, its just to suck. I have found if i do give him milk at those times, he gets 'colic' like symptoms soon after and becomes distressed.

[katherine2008]

quick question on this - can you use gripe water and infacol?!