To think that Infacol/gripe water/colic etc....

[CoralRose]

....is a load of old tosh?

If I am, please enlighten me.

I agree Hunty. But if it works, either genuinely, or otherwise (although not sure an infant can have a placebo effect since it has no expectation of relief from medicine) it works. I consider myself (and him) lucky.

Now DS2 had terrible reflux, totally different story...

Gripe water was the mutts nuts for dd 13 years ago, I also found lemonade in a syringe good if I was desperate. [hblush]

Infacol was a godsend, got through bottles of the stuff the recommended tiny drop was never enough though

Reflux?

I am on Dc3 Btw and still genuinely perplexed at these terms (maybe I'm lucky?)

DS and DD both had reflux but DS was 'coliky' and got infacol and DD 4 years later had reflux and had infant gaviscon. One screamed for hours and hours and hours and the other didn't.

I just wish I'd known about infant Gaviscon first time around!

Yes you can have mild colic - that was bad enough with Ds! Dentinox was a godsend!

And I do think you seem to be under estimating the effect of "a bit of trapped wind" on such a small body!

My DD loved infacol..well no, I loved Infacol. She always did a massive burp after taking some, so I assume it helped in some way or other.

DC3 and you have never even heard of these things

Dc3 and I've never understood them, I've heard them alright, a little too often probably

We bought Doc Brown bottles with the idea we would never use them for formula - at around 5 days we had to top my ds up with them so we started to use them.

After about 6 weeks he started to cry with real anger and pain after a feed, I was so convinced these bottles completely got rid of colic that it could never be it, my HV said it was and to try a drop of infacol - well, it was like a different baby! I felt awful for not having thought of it sooner, he settled down straight away and passed wind during his bottles or straight after, she also showed me a fabulous position along my arm to hold him to relieve it - so I would say that infacol worked for us, but not the gimmicky and expensive bottles! My HV even got us a few bottles free from the chemist - she was fab!

I not a big medicine giver anyway, I think sometimes people can be too quick to reach for the medicine cabinet. I feel uncomfortable pumping a load of stuff I can't pronounce into my DC for no 'real' reason. But I would like to be able to back up my argument a little better for the next time mil someone mentions it. I managed to master my argument against baby rice at 3 months to get a full nights sleep, but I'm having more difficulty with this.

Is it just ff babies that suffer it?

That might be because there is no argument against it, if a baby is in pain suffering from colic there is treatment available and it's given.

Now if you son hasn't got colic then great, but that doesn't mean that it isn't something very real.

I 'm quite sure hd hadn't. No one else seems to be though, MIL is practically hovering over me with a ladle of gripe water every time there's a slight whimper

"Is it just ff babies that suffer it?"

I thought that until DD3 had it, i was told that any foods eaten by the mother can cause sensitivity in the babys gut, thus causing 'colic'.

I eliminated some foods that werea possible cause and it stopped (don't know if she just grew out of it).

From what i understand it starts to pass at about 3 months because of the babys digestive system getting stronger.

It is linked to the babys digestive and nervous system maturing.

Thank you birds, I will use that. Ds is nearly 6mo

dentinox was fab.

"Ds is nearly 6mo"

Then it isn't colic, it doesn't happen after 4 months, babies can get wind, obviously, but then you should just try to avoid foods that seem to cause it.

Perfect!

I tried some infacol when DS2 was a baby. He had taken to scarfing everything he could.

Seemed to work, I would give it to him, a couple of minutes later he would do a wall shaking burp and he farted more to.

Don't know if it is tosh, it worked so I did it. Placebo effect is fine with me. Used that quite effectively over the years as well with kids.

I think I can kind of see your point, OP. When DD was tiny, whenever I had any questions about her not settling / seeming uncomfortable / crying a lot for a few days, I was often told, "Oh, it's colic". Which I felt translated as, "Go away and put up with it and stop bothering me about it", rather than wanting to think about any specific causes. So I muddled through to my own solutions, and couldn't help wondering if (a) it really was colic, and colic wasn't as bad as it sounded, or (b) it wasn't colic at all.

Then DS came along, really did have colic, and I realised that (b) was the truth. Believe me, you'll try anything. The situation I had with my DD sounds like the situation you're in - so I can understand if you're frustrated if you feel you're being fobbed off, or wrongly informed.

Colic just means unexplained, prolonged crying (I think the actual definition is something like 3 hours a day 3 times a week).

It has many different theories/causes - unexplained crying/colic may have different causes in different babies. Apparently it is also unheard of in some cultures, so it might also be something to do with our expectations of babies in this culture (infrequent feeding? Sleeping alone? Who knows). Of course in some babies it might be wind, reflux, a sensitive nervous system, or just their disposition.

Infacol hasn't been proven to work at all, so probably is a placebo, as is gripe water. Colief does work for a specific condition I believe - something to do with breaking down lactose.

Thank you Rita, interesting that it's unheard of in some countries.

Surely for something to work as a placebo the person taking it has to be aware they are taking something and expect a result?

A baby can't know that the thing they have been given will make them burp/stop them crying etc

Placebos work on the parents rather than the babies (same as homeopathy) - I can't say for sure that Infacol is a placebo, just that there isn't any proof it works.