Help!! Colicky 3 week old

[bubble99]

My DS3 is 3 weeks old and has started having classic colicky symptoms - crying, arching his back and drawing his knees up. This started again tonight after a BF feed at 7pm, no problems during the day. He's B/Feeding well every 3-4 hours but it is impossible to get him to sleep on his back at night. Last night found me on the sofa and him in his carseat where he seems quite happy and will sleep. I'm not happy about him sleeping in a carseat as it can't be good for his spine to be in that position all night and also his airway is not as clear as it would be if he was lying flat. At 3am this morning however I was so knackered that I just needed to get him to sleep.

I don't know what to do, Has anyone else experienced this?

Cranial ostopeopathy makes a world of difference price but worth every penny ! what price can you put on peace

How was your night bubble? Did he settle ok?

Cranial osteopathy works in about the same way as chiropracty... if you have a look to check there isn't a college in your area (I was sooo lucky), you could save a fortune. B was treated by a final year student, and by this time of year they are pretty much fully trained, and it saves a fortune.

xxxx

Have been thinking of you, Bubble - hope that you got a better night's sleep.

bubble - not got time to read all the posts but my DS had awful, horredendous colic from 1 week to 12 weeks and you have my utter sympathy.

Things that helped for us:
Cranial Osteopathy - not a miracule cure but definitely helped
Motion - the number of times we put him in the car and drove around until he slept. I think the noise and motion helped to soothe him.
So glad that GeorginaA has posted her fantastic link - really worth checking out.
Also, infacol etc - load of rubbish IMO.

Let us know how you're getting on, colic really is the most tiring thing to deal with.

oh and I meant to say that I think DS spent the first 12 weeks of his life in the car seat! It was only afterwards that I heard that you're not 'supposed' to leave them in it. After 5 hours of crying there was no way I was going to risk him waking him up by taking him out. He's fine now BTW; doesn't seem to have harmed him!

Thanks for all your replies. What a lovely bunch of gals you are . Apologies to any dadsnetters who may be posting.

I had a fantastic night on the sofa. Elijah slept in his carseat from 1 - 6.15am and I've felt quite okay today. GeorginaA thanks for the fab link. We're going to try cranial osteopathy as I've heard good reports and as DH sees a chiropractor weekly we may give that a go too, if he treats babies.
I'm going to let Elijah "cluster feed" this evening and see if he settles any better. I think "little and often" works better for his little tummy - I was pleased that he was having one big feed 4 hourly but I think it's too much at one time for him. What do you think?

I think experiment and find out what suits him best My only tip is to try (as tempting as it is) to not change too many things at once and give each thing at least a 3 day trial - that way you can say for definite if something has genuinely helped or not.

I know it doesn't feel like it now, but there is another side to it all - feels like forever at the moment, but one day you'll wake up and hardly remember what it was like. It doesn't seem to affect their temperment long term either (the one thing I was really afraid of actually, although I'm not sure I admitted it at the time) - ds2 is the most easy going cheerful little soul I ever saw (okay, I'm a bit biased). He's 10 months now and those first few colicky months are but a distant memory.

My dd had terrible colic and one thing that helped her get a good feed was a warm bath and then being wrapped tightly in a warmed up towel... she was relaxed and didnt gulp so much air and then slept because she was full. I had a hard time for first 12 weeks but it realy did get easier as i relaxed and became more confident .... i didnt breast feed. she is now 3 and sleeps 11 hours a night. Let him sleep wherever he wants... he is too young to get into bad habits - well thats my opinion. when he is old enough to get into bad habits he won't be colicky. My dd would only sleep with top of cot raised. I tried everything and anything - infacol, colief, fennel tea, baby dancing, 3 different varieties of bottles. In the end i just got through it and it gradually stopped.... which was when a serious bedtime routine kicked in at about 4 months. DO whatever you need to to get through the next few months!!!

oh apparently my mum used to wrap a ticking clock up and put it near me to replicate her heartbeat...... another thing to try getting him to sleep.

We used a chiropractor and after 2 sessions she was better.

Oh before that we used infacol and Colief and neither worked for us nor did the massaging. A good bedtime routine did help a little though, bath, soothing music, being read to, milk etc.

Colief really worked for us - also started at three weeks and we kept giving it (at night times only) until it stopped (6/7 weeks?)

Maybe its worth a try before splashing out on the cranial osteopathy...

By the way I love the name Elijah

The first 6 weeks are the most difficult and then it does get better (my GP told me this when my DS was a week old and I looked her, like "right, I don't believe you", but it's true)!

bubble99 - mine is 9 month old (nearly) and still LOVES the blooming car seat for his day time naps ! I can see why really, it's curved, warm and cosy, just like the womb ! I agree, not too good to leave him in there all night, but have done it when he was smaller, not because of colic, but simply beacuse it was the only place he would sleep and the only way we could get some rest.

I don't know if this will work for you, but we have in the past put a baby blanket under him and once he had fallen asleep in the car seat, simply lifted him up with the blanket and put him in his cot and he didn't wake up (wait about 30 minute when he has gone into deeper baby sleep phase).

As for the colic, none of the remedies mentioned here worked for us. Obviously BF is better than bottle-feeding for a baby with colic (less air gets in from the sides of the boob ). DS just "grew out of it" at around 4- 5 weeks. If the meds. don't work for you, just hang on, they do all grow out of it.

hello all

We had a good night last night.Elijah fell asleep in his carseat wrapped in his blanket. As KooKool has suggested, I let him get into a deep sleep and then lifted him, still wrapped and put him into our bed where he slept until 4am. Woke for a BF and then resettled but only, yes you guessed it, in his carseat. Is the damn thing lined with the baby equivalent of catnip do you think?
so, half the night on his back and half the night in his carseat. I call that progress

bubble not sure if you still need this but dd1 has terrible colic every night 7,7.30 - 9,9.30 she cried, tried to latch. i tried infocol and worked a treat also tried colsynth (spelling is shocking) colosynth didn't do much though. when dd2 came along i tried infocol without much sucess and new hv suggested that i take colosynth as well as giving it to dd2, this worked really well. i know that someone shot me down in flames the last time i suggested this but it worked, I'm not a new mum and bf both my daughters and there was a connection with with my food e/g a curry for me always meant a v.v runny nappy for dd. hth

bubble - don't worry about him getting used to the carseat until he is 18 ! Mine (now 9 months) has been sleeping in his cot at night for a long time and now (still breastfeed) sleeps through in his cot, alone in his own bedroom (we sleep in another bedroom with the monitor switched on ) from 7pm to 5am, only wakes once sometimes for a quick breastfeed and then back to sleep !

Along the lines of mumtoelise you could try drinking fennel tea (bleugh!!) as that can soothe the digestion.

So glad he's more settled bubble, and you are both getting more rest .

My sister used to make me laugh - she, like me had to use the car seat a lot with her children in the first few weeks, but put the car seat in the cot. She said, "they can get used to the bars of the cot gradually that way" .

Bubble, I find my ds3 gets worse colic if I drink black coffee, cappuccino seems fine!? I have found colief helpful, it says on the box to express some mild and put the colief into it and feed them this with the spoon but I just put 2 drops on each nipple, ds3 takes both boobs at a feed so its 4 drops altogether. Ditto the car seat and so far as I
remember ds1 was the same and now at 8 his spine is fine! No hunchbacks of Notre dame in our house! Also if you look up Dr Sears website it gives the 5 S's.
Swaddling, swinging, sucking, sound ( turn on your hoover!) and can't remember what no. 5 is but its on the site. Best of luck, honey, and it will get better!

Bubble, I've only quickly read through all this but here's my 2-penny's worth.

The first stop is to ensure that he doesn't have reflux - see your GP. Propping his cot mattress up with a towel at one end may be enough. Even for babies with reflux, The Canadian Paediatricians don't recommend your baby spends more than 2 hours a day in a car seat - there wee heads are waaaay to heavy!

The wind theory - it's pretty much been rubbished over here in Canada. None of the health professionals believe babies scream due to wind. There are numerous studies that show "colicky" babies contain no more gas than settled babies. The crying however causes them to temporarily injest more air. There is also concern as to what harm these colic draughts are doing to babies tummies.

However, SOME babies develop a distinct dislike of the gastro-colic reflexonce they start taking in more milk. When a baby feeds, it stimulates movement of the bowel which can cause discomfort. Parents think their munchkin is 'gassy' because they can here the bowel moving. You can help this by feeding smaller amounts more frequently and lying your baby on its left-hand side, so there is no twisting of the digestive tract (entails a football hold on one side).

At 3 weeks, cluster feeding begins, along with a start of evening fussiness. My DS had all the fussiness your baby is showing. It only lasted a couple of weeks. What helped was a calming evening routine - all lights dimmed by 5pm, bath, cosy feeding for a couple of hours then bed.

What has been shown to work for fussy babies, time and time again is swaddling with the 5 S's (see Hunker's 11:33pm post). Some babies need swaddling for 3 months! My DS was swaddled night and day (especially during feeding) for 8 weeks then was able to do without, as long as I didn't let him get over tired. There is a method of swaddling with 2 blankets to ensure no arm escape (triangles go over the arm then under the back, forming little arm loops IYSWIM). I bought a miracle blanket - boy did it work!! Warning though - if your baby does have reflux, then jiggling is obviously a no-no. Those electronic swing seat things are better.

Some mums over here swear by attachment parenting - baby in a sling all day and co-sleeping etc. I wasn't too keen though as DS is a right old noisy sleeper! I do tend to have him in the Bjorn for most of the day though.

I would be more than happy to send you my miracle blanket but it's probably going to take about 10 days to get there? I have a spare Bjorn as well. CAT me by all means.

ds (23 wks) has reflux. putting a rolled up blanket under his mattress has helped him be more settled and in the day time when he was really tiny i used to lay him to sleep on his side - only where i could see him tho . i do think you need to find out if it is reflux rather than just straightforward wind as ds is under a paediatrician and has to have medication. whether its reflux or not if you could sit in a car seat for a short while after feeding to try and get gravity to work! would recommend an electronic baby swing too (best £70 ever!) - i do think the not laying straight on their back is a symptom of reflux as the acids hurts the oesphogus (sorry about spelling) but if you can i wouldnt let him sleep in car seat for too long. if its colic it will probably over soon (i think they say around 3 mths)

meant to say in the early days when i was desperate we used to lay with me propped on sofa and him laying with his tummy on my chest which settled him as well.

we are kind of just getting over (I HOPE!) the colicky stage with DD (just 3 months). Every sympathy - it was a nightmare! Infacol worked for a bit and then seemed to stop, the one thing that did make a difference was the cranial osteopath, it wasn't a miracle but it did help. I don't know where you are but I went to a lovely man in Chessington, it was £28 for a session (about 30 mins) - she had 2 and it was worth every penny! Also we had to start letting her cry for longer to get her to sleep as I found that in the end trying to comfort her with rocking etc. sometimes just made her crosser. Also she absolutely detested being swaddled, but I know it does work for lots of babies! White noise - especially loud radio static - helped sooth her as well as very loud shh shh noises. Also (although mine didn't like it) my colicky niece liked what some people call the 'colic hold' - tummy down over your arm, perhaps with gentle rocking.
good luck! None of my antenatal group had colicky babies (this is our first baby) and they really didn't understand what I was on about....I was beside myself for weeks and semi hysterical lots of the tinme.