To ask for your Colic survival stories to read tonight as I rock and cry

[Mustardnowletsnotbesilly]

DD2 4.5weeks has colic, she isn't massively happy when she is ever awake but Screams for about 4 hours a night. She was a section birth but had sepsis at 2.5weeks so we have been back in hospital for 7 days.

Things I have tried - Infacol, Ranitidine, me giving up dairy, lots of winding.

HELP ME. Its hideous and my DH can't cope and actually at the momment can't help as he has singles on his face.

When did your babies colic end? What ended it?

My first child was a dream compared to this. I need guidance and hope.

TIA

She’s 19 now and I still remember the dread each evening. I never found any cure but it suddenly just stopped and that was it. Hope that happens pretty soon!

Cranial osteopathy was the only thing that helped ds1. If he was awake he was screaming and he'd settle on a walk or car drive eventually then wake up the minute you got home. Tried infacol/gripe water, white noise, tiger holds, dummies the lot. Cranial osteopathy was the only thing that helped and I don't care that it's woo it saved my sanity

The only thing that worked for my ds2 ( born 6 weeks prem) was cranial osteopathy. After the first session he slept for 8 hours solidly which he had never done before.

Peppermint tea.

Make it. Cool it. Give a few drops in a syringe.

In other countries they use this to help digestion in babies but oh no not here where they encourage E numbers and chemicals from birth!

My HV recommended this to me and it saved my sanity!

www.nhs.uk/conditions/colic/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_colic

A very distressing time. Look after yourself. Share the burden. Have very low expectations - nothing known to fix it or cure it - anecdotal as to what "seemed to help".

Both of mine were difficult babies. It’s really hard on the parents. DS1 had colic and needed to be bounced to sleep. Ds2 had reflux and had to be upright all the time, a vibration chair helped too and he needed to sleep propped up on my chest. Both of them were helped by dummies and swaddling. It does help to have a routine where you have dark and quiet or white noise for nap time even in the pram. Cover the cot/ pram in a dark muslin cloth to reduce overstimulated. Things dramatically improved around 12 weeks with both. Hugs xx

Don't use soya milk, it's not good for them (according to NHS feeding expert I spoke to and many articles on the internet I've read, anyway). There are other substitutes if dairy is the problem and you're using formula or decide to move onto formula.

Swaddle, dummy, battery operated swing chair (life saver), co-sleep nursing (if breast feeding)

I slept mine on his front from 5 weeks as it was literally the only way he would sleep, I know you're not supposed to, but he had a strong neck and we were cosleeping just the 2 of us so I could regularly check on him. It was either that or neither of us sleep- ever.

By about 5 months it had improved but you have my sympathy. Everyone told me the newborn bit was so easy and it would all be hell once he was crawling. I spent those early months dreading the thought of him getting older thinking if I was struggling so much during the supposed 'easy' bit how the hell would I cope with the next phase. They were all wrong! 6 months plus has been the time of my life and I now adore motherhood. The small baby bit is just really not for me!! Saying that, I'm hoping to have another at some point... 😱

Hand hold, hug, wine, gin, crisps...whatever you need. It is FUCKING SHIT. Colic drove me to PND.

Dr Browns bottles and Colief eased it for us with both DCs. Also, vigorous bouncing in bouncy chair. I used to bounce DS2 with my foot whilst downing wine with my free hands

It WILL pass. It WILL get better. But that doesn’t mean much to you at the moment as you’re in the thick of it. Sit tight; ride it out. Keep posting and moaning as much as you need to.

There's also an app you can get with various white noise sort of sounds, the hair dryer one worked brilliantly for us

Huge hugs to you. Hang on in there. I had my first very far away from here and we were told to give them a nice warm bath in the sink. It worked sometimes . But it does pass. Maybe put some headphones on and head out for a walk.

Colief. If you are ff, you make up the bottle a in the morning as it needs 4 hours to work. Honestly, it improved dds colic ten fold. White noise and a dummy helps too.

You have all my sympathy. I have no idea how I got through those nights with dd. I didn't think I would at times!

Echoing others, we saw a huge difference around 12 weeks, when she just suddenly stopped doing it.

Dd had both colic and reflux. Ranitidine sorted the reflux, and reaching 12w sorted the colic.

Hang in there!

I sympathise so, so, so much. My little one was the same and it took growing out of it to get better I'm sorry to say. By 10 weeks he was almost bearable and by 14 had outgrown it and now is a happy baby.
It was the worst time of my life and I had no idea how I would ever get through it.
I know this doesn't help as everyone said it to me and it made no difference, but it WILL pass. Sending lots of positive thoughts, you're doing great xx

Thanks guys.

How do I get through bath time with DS as its the same time as colic starting? Could I put some white noise on in a dark room with the baby in the cot? I feel so bad leaving her screaming. A sling might work but would be logistically difficult.

Don't bath him.
For starters it's not like he's getting mucky rolling down a mud hill. Little babies only need a bath about twice a week.
And change bath. Time to the morning. The bath may be the last straw of over stimulation.

I would suggest vibrate bouncer or swing chair (the latter worked much better for us) and white noise during bath time with ds I think

Oh sorry misread. Its your other holds bath. Again, change bath time to the morning. Or get someone else to do it :)

Rather than cot I mean, lying flat on back always seemed to aggravate things

Couldn't read and run. We had this with our last baby boy. Absolute nightmare, every evening from 5pm was spent walking back and forth in the kitchen with my maternity jeans slowly falling down, I couldn't stop to pull them up or the screaming would begin again (grim). We tried changing his formula, bottle type I even took him to a lady who claimed to be a colic healer (no joke) Nothing worked. One thing our ds liked was the bath, so he was bathed nightly. We made sure the bathroom was quite warm and we filled the bath with an inch of water, then laid him into the water on his back and watched him like a hawk. as he kicked and splashed the water going into his ears distracted him and possibly reminded him of the womb?? it was the only time each evening he didn't roar with pain, he kicked and gurgled, and appeared to get some relief. I know it seems trite now, but this will pass, try to enjoy the times she is content and pain free xx

It is awful. We had the same with DD2. She screamed from 6pm to 6am. What saved us was having lots of good telly recorded and watching it in the dark with subtitles on (would not have heard it over the screaming). So we could cuddle her, do our best to soothe her but have something to make time go a tiny bit faster. The more riveting the programme the better.

Bathtime, if I was on my own I had to leave DD2 screaming while I bathed DD1. It was only for a few minutes and she was much safer screaming in her cot than me attempting to manage a toddler in a bath and a screaming baby. We used a sling a lot but but I personally would have felt it too awkward for bathtime.

Older child bath: do it less often. Mine got washed twice a week during the hardest times. Sometimes I had to take a chair in and feed the baby while he was in the bath, other times he just got in the shower with me in the morning. It’s not forever - suspend all normal activities until it’s easier.

My dd got better with time and by 3 months it was her teeth bothering her not her tummy any more. Tummy time and getting to the point where she could arch her back on her own massively helped with any trapped wind pain she had and seemed to solve the colic issue for us. It's exhausting OP- I'm another one who has found a 6 month old a million times easier than a colicky little one- my dd is so happy and laidback now.

Cut down on baths for your older one.

Dd had it until she was 12 weeks. It was hideous but I discovered that putting her in the sling helped and that walking up and down stairs also helped - I think it was the jolting.

My saving grace was that she first slept through the night at 8 weeks. I think she was SOOOOO exhausted she just passed out, and she has been a relatively good nighttime sleeper since then. She’s now 5 and a happy, healthy little thing so the hours of screaming when she was tiny don’t seem to have done her any harm.

Oh OP, I know exactly how you feel and it is absolutely terrible. You feel like you're going mad and all everyone says is "they'll grow out of it" when you're struggling to survive a few more days! Is there anyone who can take the baby for a couple of hours to give you a break?

We were told that my DS had "colic" and dismissed by so many professionals when he was born. It took six weeks of trying everything under the sun and fighting with our GPs to finally get diagnosed with CMPA (cow's milk protein allergy). He has since also been diagnosed with GORD (severe persistant reflux) and delayed gastric emptying. He was very poorly and would scream non-stop for literally 22/23 hours a day - we didn't know how he didn't lose his voice - and only get an hour or two of broken sleep in 5/10 minute chunks when being held. I was surviving on 30 mins sleep on our sofa in every 24 hours.

I would say stay dairy free for at least 6 weeks to see if it helps. In the meantime it's worth trying things to help reflux like:

• feeding as upright as possible
• keeping the baby upright for at least 30 minutes after feeds
• raising the head end of the mattress up so that their head is higher (put towels underneath or put books under the crib feet)
• get the right bottles for your baby if you use them. We tried Dr Brown's but found that Mam were better due to the shape of the teat (smaller/flatter so he got a better seal)
• try to limit the amount of air your baby takes in when feeding. Get them checked for lip and tongue tie, make sure their latch is correct, burp once or twice during feeding not just at the end, use the right size/shape bottle teat for your baby
• use a bouncer or similar to allow them to lie down without being completely flat

Some babies like the car seat so how about putting the baby in the car and going for a drive to see if that helps?

Our DS had a huge moro reflex (startle reflex) and swaddling sometimes helped a little, so that might be worth trying.

Hang in there

Sympathy. I had a baby like this and it lasted 4 months. I was pretty much on the verge of losing the plot because I didn't sleep more than 3-4hours a night in all that time and had to get out and about with a very boisterous toddler as well as the screaming baby. The only thing that saved me was a sling. If you don't already have one, get yourself to a sling library, or try something like a close caboo which is easy to put on and pop baby in and out.
With my DD it turned out that she had an undiagnosed tongue tie which was making her latch wrong, she sucked in a ton of air when feeding, which gave her terrible trapped wind pain, she comfort fed to try and relieve the pain, which mean she sucked in even more air... It only ended when we went private to get her tongue tie snipped at just over three months.