Anyone tried Colief with an EBF baby?

[midori1999]

My DD is very windy/colicky. I've been giving Infacol before each feed, which seems to have helped a little bit, but she still has periods of screaming anf bringing her legs up in pain and will sometimes 'thrash about' at the breast obviously in pain with her tummy and I can often feel the wind in her tummy.through her back when I am holding her. She very rarely brings any milk back up at all.

Someone has suggested Colief to me, but it seems you have to express a few tbsp. of breastmilk to mix it with, then spoonfeed that to the baby and then BF as normal.

All that seems quite a faff to me when BF is lovely and easy, but if it has a good chance of helping, I'll try it. Has anyone found the Colief any good?

We tried it and it is a right faff - getting enough expressed milk to mix it with and then getting it into a hungry grouchy baby isn't quick or easy. We found that you needed more than a few drops of milk was needed to make sure that it didn't just spill out of his mouth and so we could give it in a bottle or through a syringe. We liked bottle best but you can ask for syringes from pharmacy or hv. I'm not convinced it worked any better than infacol but it did appear to settle ds on a couple of occasions. But then I could also attribute the improvement to the pain wearing off and we saw this improvement despite not using the colief consistently. The best thing I've learnt is that the colic/trapped wind is linked to overtiredness - others I've spoken to agree. We have much less in the way of cramping/trapped wind/screaming and leg pulling up when I've put some effort into making sure ds has had adequate sleep. Bit of an essay and I'm not sure if any of it will help but thought I'd share our experience!

I bought it to try with DS (relatively expensive, too, IIRC) but I never used it in the end. I searched t'internet for tips on how to administer it and all I found were mums discussing how to wean their babies off it. I didn't like the idea of having to wean him off something like that so I decided not to use it. I think his wind improved about 3 months in but I can't remember.

I'm considering all this again now as I have an equally windy DD. She is nearly 7wo now and we had a dreadful night last night - all the usual thrashing about and fussing at the breast. Tiredness may well have played a part - that's interesting.

How old is your DD?

I got the colief on prescription from hv as had heard it was expensive. Tbh the people I've known to use it haven't reported any great success though one friend has successfully used infant gaviscon. She also links the 'colic/trapped wind' with overtiredness.

Can you buy infant gaviscon or is itonly available on prescription?

I did but it was a real faff. So was very inconsistent. TBH, I really do believe that they just grow out of it by 12-14 weeks.

A friend of mine had some success with colief, but really only after eliminating dairy from her own diet.

Not sure if you can buy the gaviscon - my friend had it on prescription. I'm hoping my theory about the overtiredness and also growing out of it at 12 weeks is true as I'm now throwing caution to the wind and eating/drinking things I'd been trying to avoid like dairy, pulses and some veggies. Ds had a couple of really bad episodes I'd linked to baked beans and a dairy increase but equally could have been lack of sleep.

Thankyou. DD will be 5 weeks old on Monday.

I got some Colief this afternoon and tried her with it when I got home. It is a huge faff having to express the milk first (although I got extra, enough for next time I use it too) and I gave that lot in a bottle for ease, but I don't want to have to give a bottle before every feed, so will try a syringe next time, but suspect it'll get messy.

However, we had no crying at all after DD's feed and DS2 was able to hold he rand give her a cuddle without her waking up and she is now in her carrycot asleep where she has been for at least half an hour. Totally unheard of for her to sleep in her carrycot/on her back during the day!

For the first time since she was born I have been able to make myself a sandwich, coffee and sit and eat it without holding/shushing/comforting her while she cries or sleeps. Not sure if I just got lucky and she'd have done this anyway, but heck it feels luxurious!

Wow, midori - that sounds fab! Please will you keep us informed about she gets on? I'll keep my fingers crossed for you! Have you eliminated anything from your diet at all?

Thanks, I really hope it is down to the Colief and not just a co-incidence, the difference is amazing! I haven't eliminated anything from my diet.

It mentions 'weaning' babies off the Colief on the leaflet. I think it's just that if you do it slowly then if the baby still isn't producing enough Lactase themselves then the colic symptoms won't come back too abruptly, as it mentions increasing the dose again if you notice any signs of the colic returning.

Hope this helps, I'll update if there's any news.

Colief. Liquid gold. And costs about as much.

You can get it on prescription though, so if it works for you, you should ask your GP to prescribe it.

My DS had very bad wind, starting around 5/6am and lasting well into each afternoon. I tried Infacol (no change), gripe water (he just spat it out) and eventually settled with Colief.

Firstly get to the docs asap, you can get it prescribed and at £11 a pop it's well worth it!

Secondly, I can't express well enough to do the whole mix it with breast milk method so after a few calls to the Colief helpline (who couldn't really help with my situation, but are very good) and about an hour of trying to figure out how the Colief actually works, I settled on using a small amount (5/10ml) of ready made formula, add the drops and he drank it well from a small cup (tommy tippee milk storage cup). Anyhow the long and short of it is - it worked, he's much happier and I'm getting a lot more sleep!

I did find 4 drops made him sick and 2 drops didn't touch the sides - he's now having 3 drops per feed and it seems the perfect balance.

Good luck :)

Thankyou. I did wonder about mixing it with a smaller amount of breast milk, but wasn't sure whether that would be OK. I've currently given the Colief in a bottle each time and didn't give any during the night as I decided it was too much faffing about, but I am worried about giving a bottle before feeds often due to DD's age and I don't want to cause nipple confusion. There's no way I want to have to syringe 30-45ml of milk into a hungry baby at every feed!

I definitely think DD seems more settled and noticed a difference in the night when I didn't give her any. The effect isn't quite as marked as last night, but we haven't had any crying so far this morning, just a little bit of wriggling and bringing her knees up after her 10am feed, but she's laid awake in her carycot for a short time, which again, is unheard of.

I'll look into getting it on prescription too, thanks for that!