Is this colic?

[lucylookout]

I have an 8 week old ds. From about three weeks he's had the following symptoms:

• straining to pass farts and poo pretty much all the time (straightening and bending legs, stiffening back) but especially in the early hours of the morning (3am to 6am tends to be the worst).
• will be quiet/calm and then suddenly start crying loudly until burp/fart and then go calm again (although between above hours it is more crying than calm).
• throws up a lot after feeding, but this doesn't seem to bother him (I mean when I burp him he'll often do a big posset), but sometimes the crying/leg movements precede one of these chuck ups which can happen up to a couple of hours after feeding.
• grunting and 'clearing throat' from 1am most of the night.
• when he's crying, sucking seems to help, but often not breast, he settles more on dummy - ?

He is EBF. He sleeps mainly in a sling during the day (doesn't stay asleep for more than about 20 mins in pram). He is swaddled at night. He's big (over 9lb when born and 14 lb now).

Any advice would be appreciated. Gearing myself up for another night!

Could this be reflux? I had a premature DS and he was like this. He was incredibly pukey and grunty and that's what it was. It meant he was getting acid in his throat and was swallowing it, giving him a bad tummy too. it's really incomfortable (did you get heartburn while pg? It's a bit like that)

Have you spoken to your HV?

oh - and good luck tonight!

Hi DameEdna, thanks. I did talk to my dr about it. She said that all babies suffer from reflux to a degree because of their immature digestive systems, but they only really worry about it if the baby is failing to put on weight. That's def not a problem for ds as he's on the 95th centile. I've tried infacol (for a few weeks) and it didn't make any difference. Am now trying gripe water which seems to help occasionally. And even though reflux did occur to me, he normally throws up quite happily (?!). The discomfort comes more from the other end iyswim. Oh also, for the last couple of weeks he hasn't pooed much (once every 5 days or so) which he isn't v happy about, but when they come out they're dark orange and runny. I think the fact that it's at its worst at the same time of the night has made me wonder about colic...
BUT, if it is reflux, when do they grow out of it?
Lucy

Has anyone checked for tongue tie? It can produce some of the symptoms that you describe,

have a read of this

Thanks mawbroon. Funnily enough he was tongue tiedsnd got snipped at 3 days. Can't see anything about it on your link though ....

This does sound like colic. I would recommend cutting out dairy and eggs from your diet for 2 weeks and seeing if there is an improvement. If there is improvemt, retry eating eggs, and stay off dairy. You should take a soya milk and soya yogurts with added calcium and to be on the safe side a calcium and vitamin d supplement.

Could be colic, and sounds like reflux too. Have you thought about visiting a cranial osteopath? They can work wonders with colic.

more in depth article here

Could perhaps be that the tongue wasn't released properly or that there is a lip tie causing a problem.

Thanks for your advice ediem, dolly and mawbroon. It was the same last night, with him eventually settling around 6.30. It'll feel good to take some action. Hopefully something will work!

Reflux. Very uncomfortable for baby.
Hold upright 30 mins after feeding (this is a BIG PITA at night but really helps). Probably why happy in sling and not pram. Try upright bouncer- like the expensive baby bjorn but mothercare do spotty similar on (sorry no link)
if you find hard to hold up when sleepy.
Tilt cot by putting catalogues or books under legs at head end.

Doctor should perscribe gaviscon to give with breast feeding (after or before deopending on who you listen to- big faff but helps).

Reflux babies also need really good burping- sometimes 3 burps- can take ages. can sit upright with legs perpendicular to body, facing away from you and rock baby's top half side to side. Sometimes after lying flat a while after a feed just sit up and they burp more- sitting up for 5 mins can help the grunting too; maybe milk goes down to stomach or sth??

ours went away gradually about 4 months but can go on longer. 'They' say usually a year/when on solids- don't know why (maybe liquid) cos formula is worse for reflux/immature gut (they say).

Thanks whenwill, that's really helpful.
The thing I am still confused about though I'd that it's a bearing down discomfort (poos, farts) rather than bringing up. Most of the time he chucks up quite happily. Does that discomfort apply to reflux OR colic?

The bearing down part sounds like my dd. She was cmpi. A pepti milk solves everything x I would try cutting dairy from your diet but will be a couple of weeks til out your system. Maybe a food diary and record of security of symptoms may help pin point the cause

caffeinedrip What's cmpi and what's pepti milk?

Am cutting out dairy as of today to see if it makes a difference.

Cows milk protein intolerance :) if the problem is lactose then breastmilk still contains it dairy or no dairy but If ur dc does have a problem with the proteins them removing dairy will help but will be a couple of weeks or so til it's out your system enough to judge.

Pepti milk is the formula that is available for babies who have cmpi or allergies and depending what one u get they can either contain small amounts of lactose or none at all ( lactose intolerance and cmpi are different things)

Thanks

Caffeinedrip I think you might be spot on. DS has a few other symptoms I didn't think related to the night time discomfort until now:

Congested nose
slight rash over face
loads of hiccups
Poo is orange, but parts of it sometime look greenish and it is very liquid
Can get quite red rimmed, watery eyes

So anyway, thanks again. Let's hope the dairy free helps

Symptoms with my dd consisted of

Dry skin
Permanent sniffles
Gunky eye
Bloating
Green acidic smelling poos
Bad nappy rash due to poo
Constant straining and grunting

So the congestion sounds very similar so could well be

I would also say that trying dairy free won't hurt you or your baby. And if it provides an answer either way then worth a trial for sure. Given that treatment for reflux can involve playing with various milks, antacids, milk thickeners pain killers maybe all of which IMO obviously help those who need it but who wants their baby dosed up on things they might not need :(

That's what I think too, as long as I make sure I'm still getting enough vit d and calcium, it won't do any harm (and it will stop me eating chocolate, biscuits and cakes!). Will also try to avoid gas causing foods such as brassica, beans etc so whatever the cause of his discomfort, changes to my diet should help at least a little.

thank you whenwill for the tip about upright bouncers - didn't know they existed.

I'm 14 weeks in with a baby with bad reflux, I haven't yet found anything that works but I know somebody who had great success with a probiotic for babies called Biogaia, good info on Wiki about the research behind it too.

I am so sorry to hear this. I has a daughter with colic and when she was 2.5 weeks old we found out about Doc Scharenberg he is a local chiropractor who amazingly turns out to live in Wichita, KS (so do we) and has been treating colicky babies for over 30 years.
When our daughter was about 5 weeks old she was completely colic free. I know Wichita is a little far to travel, but he is working on creating educational information for people out of the area so he can train mom's to do the treatment he created. Give him a call and see if he can help you 316-945-0075.
Until you can get in contact with him here is some helpful advice he game my husband and I.

1. NO gas drops. Colic is an underdeveloped valve between the small and large intestine. It allows gas to travel backwards through the digestive system causing tremendous pain for the baby.
2. Use body language to determine if your baby is hungry or in pain. Kicking legs, pulling legs up to chest, pulling hair scratching face are all signs of pain. Flailing arms are hunger. If your baby is throwing up chances are it is over fed.
3. Diet. If you are breastfeeding Doc has a diet that needs to be followed, if contains only non gassy foods. This will help prevent your baby from being in more pain. You can find the diet at docscharenberg.com/coliccure.html
4. No swaddling. I know it is against everything you read, but if you do choose to swaddle do it loose. Imagine if you were in pain, would you want someone to wrap you up and prevent you from moving? Chances are no.
5. Use a bouncy seat in place of a bed. Babies with colic will not sleep laying flat on their backs. Make sure you strap them in. If you have enough money there is a Nap Nanny that would work as well.
6. Bounce. Bouncing your baby will help relieve some of the gas pain in their belly.
7. CALL DOC save your baby from the pain

If you are hesitant at all about the truth behind this Doc has a colic support group on facebook and all the moms can testify to his treatment. www.facebook.com/ColicSupport. I hope that this helps, and please don't let it bring you down too much.

reflux and dairy intolerance share simlar symptoms (not sure about the rash though- not baby acne is it?); liquidier poos are normal for ebf. green isn't good. someone did say their lactose intolerant baby had this and a rash.

dd was congested a lot and threw up happily too- about a foot projectile over moses basket before we realised what it was. A lot of the time farts are burp/air that hasn't come out. dd needed so many burps else had the same and hiccups. used to get hiccups 4 times a day. Thing have settled down a lot for us and I recently stopped burping all the time at night (7 months) and now v. gassy out the other end but doesn't bother her. over fed vomits are less projectile. Only came to breast for food not comfort. didn't give dummy really until i think about 3 months though.

Colic just means your baby cries like 3 hours a day everyday, inconsolably. There are probably multiple causes to what we call colic. Crying causes more gas/wind to enter baby so weird if it is a gas issue- bad evolution there.

i probably shouldn't say it but tummy sleep in day helped us with reflux (and yes we had tongue tie that is linked to reflux)

My youngest had colic from the first feed and by the time we got to 4 months I took him to a McTimony chiropractor which did the world of good - he was a different baby!. If you don't like the sleeping on the tummy, propped of on the side seemed to help and Infacol was great but give it 5 -10 minutes before a feed as it doesn't work as well. Mine was farting like a trooper once it got working!