Colic

[newmum001]

Hi all, i was wondering if anyone has any advice for easing colic in my 3 week old baby. Apparently Gripe Water is really good but on the box it says don't use unless your baby is 1 month.

She's only just started with symptoms last night/this morning and i wasn't sure at first but all her symptoms seem to point to colic. She is very restless and keeps pulling her legs up to her chest, she had very bad wind this morning and then wouldn't settle for 3 hours. She is normally a very good eater but has projectile vomited twice today after feeding and seems very tired but too uncomfortable to sleep.

We're already feeling the stress as she's normally such a happy baby and seeing her like this is breaking our hearts.

All advice welcome.

x

Posting from phone so this isn't comprehensive but some things to try:

Infacol
Offering the breast (if breastfeeding obviously)
Carrying upright in a wrap sling to encourage sleep and help ease wind
Baby massage
Cranial osteopathy
Some say altering maternal diet helps breastfed babies if something particular seems to cause it but I've not found it to help

One night may just be that - a one off. But if it continues, try some of the above. You have my sympathies, it's dire.

i would definately recommend Cranial Osteopathy, it was fantastic for my little one. I tried all the things mentioned above and only Cranial Osteopathy made a difference. It was like they performed a magic trick on my little one and everyone comments on how calm she is.

I might sound a bit thick but i've never heard of that, what exactly is it? :) x

I'm very dubious about colic. I've heard it described as a doctor's way of saying "I don't know".

She could have reflux, she could be overtired, she could be overfeeding due to reflux or to try and get to sleep (hence the vomiting).

My DS had similar symptoms and it was reflux. Keep an eye on the vomiting. Try and keep her upright after a feed for about 20 mins and wind gently. Also are you formula feeding or BF?

see what your hv says. with ds he was happy sleeping on his tummy on dh's chest (mine was no good because of huge leaking milk bags!)
hv said it was fine and we thought some sleep for everyone was better than none for anyone!
the infacol took a little while to kick in and never fixed it. but the colic did pass by 9 weeks i think.

It could be reflux - yes.... However, ds didn't have reflux - he had colic. Gripe water didn't help. Infacol didn't help. Colief helped a bit - it was a real faff, but better than the colic - which on a bad night would start at 7pm and last until 4 or 5 am - ds would be screaming (very specific colic scream) for almost the entire time, with perhaps the odd 5 or 10mins off if we were really lucky - and nothing helped much apart from rocking (which lessened the screaming a bit) or sometimes having him on his tummy over your arm and jigging.

However, cranial osteopathy cured him - after the first two treatments it improved a bit each time - after the third it just disappeared completely - no tailing off period, just gone.

The cranial osteopath said to me that there's an important nerve in the neck that can, sometimes, get pushed a bit by one of the plates that forms a baby's skull if these have got pushed a bit out of place during the birth - whilst this will probably resolve itself, the cranial osteopathy helps free it up sooner.... but you'd want to ask a good one yourself. The one we went to (Yorkshire) gave the first treatment free to babies.

colief sorted ds out when he was a baby. I wish i'd found out about it sooner. We had 3 months of screaming every night.

I would have a look at the feeding forum too. There's a few helpful posts on there.

Colief drops before feeds worked a little for us.
I carried DD1 in a sling most of the day and DH did after work shift. In retrospect, she may have had reflux or been overfeeding on foremilk (kellymom website is good for info on this) but it finally subsided at about 4 and a half months.

I showed the GP a phone video of the awful night grunting/screaming and he sent us to A&E with a paed referral.
Diagnosis colic, no treatment.

Keep trying a variety of things. I know it's heartbreaking to feel so helpless when your DC are uncomfortable/in pain.