3 weeks - colic or normal baby behaviour?

[Esmee89]

Hello! So I may just be being a new, stressy and sleep deprived parent but I'm just gonna put this out there!

My daughter is 3 weeks old today (she was 2 weeks overdue) and for the last few days she's been very fussy in the late afternoons and evenings. She does cry occasionally but it's quite easy to calm her (food/ nappy/ holding/ singing/ swaying etc). But each of these things only lasts a short time and then she starts 'grizzling' (best way I can describe it) so we need to try something else. She's started doing this thing where she squirms and looks really uncomfortable and this tends to be followed by her filling her nappy or burping. But this seems to be waking her up if she's relaxed or just drifting off.

I've been reading up on colic after my health visitor suggested it during her first visit and I'm not sure if that describes what's going on. I wouldn't say there's 'crying' for over 3 hours a day but she definitely does grunt/grizzle for that amount of time!!

Any words of wisdom or advice from anyone would be amazing as I am definitely overthinking this but hate seeing her looking so uncomfortable and when my husband is at work in the week I'm finding I'm spending hours trying to settle her before he comes home and it's driving me a bit up the wall!!

Thank you! X

That sounds like my boy. I wasn't sure if it was normal or not. It can be, but in his case he had cmpa (dairy allergy). Worth considering if you are breastfeeding.

He really struggled with moving his bowels and grunted and groaned about it for months. It can be normal for newborns but he was so miserable that I thought something else was going on, especially as he became almost impossible to nap when he was only a week old!! The GP kept telling me it was normal but you have to remember, you are the one with them all the time and the GP only sees a snapshot. Our main tangible sympton was mucus in nappies- look out for that.

If it's any help to you, my son is not 9 months old and the most cheerful baby around and an utter delight (though very hard work!). He was horrendous as a newborn so just know that it won't always be like this :)

Btw reflux or silent reflux is also often a cause for an unsettled newborn. Or it could be as simple as just overstimulation... some babies just struggle with being a baby!

Oh yeh sorry, one more thing- I'm of the opinion that colic is a symptom not a diagnosis. I think it's just a description of a vague collection of things that are hard for a doctor to diagnose.

Surreygirl that's really interesting and I totally know what you mean when everyone tells you it's normal but you're the one that sees it every day and it doesn't seem right!! It's still early days so I'll keep an eye but intolerance and reflux are both things I'll keep in mind! If it carries on I'll pop her to the GP to chat about it! Really glad your little boy is all good now too x