Colief - any reason I can't give it from my nipple?

[katie789]

Hi, I've searched the archives for an answer to this, but no joy...

I'm exclusively bf, and I've been giving my 10-week old dd Colief for a week and it seems to be quite effective in the evenings (when she tends to cry/gripe/feed hourly between 7pm and 11pm).

But, it is such a faff expressing milk into a syringe or spoon to mix the drops with before feeding her. Especially when she's screaming, as she has no patience to be fed, and when I'm doing it several times a day.

Is there any reason why I can't put four tiny droplets on my nipple, then feed her straight away? Surely then the colief mixes with the first big mouthful of milk in the same way as it would on a spoon?
Could doing this make the colief ineffective, or dangerous?
It would certainly make my life much easier...

Any advice? Thank you!

Best thing would be to call the manufacturers on this one, I would have thought....there'll be a number to call them on the pack.

My understanding is that the drops need time to work on the lactose, though, and there may be something about saliva getting into contact with it too quickly deactivating it, or something.

And maybe the baby shouldn;t have the drops 'neat'.

They should know the answer if you ask - you can't be the first to ask!

I used to feed for about 20 seconds.. then put drop on my niple and put DS back on.. worked just fine and much much much much easier than faffing about expressing.

I used to hand express literally a few drops onto a spoon and add the colief to that - much easier - seemed to work just as well too.

Do you have to use colief - I only ask because some other medicines can be given after or during the feed rather than before.

That won't help if it's the only thing that works though, sorry!

I've tried Infacol and gripe water with limited success. My GP prescribed colief and it does seem to really reduce/stop the evening (four hours long!) crying sessions and hard tummy.
I don't know what other medicines there are?

Not got round to calling manufacturers yet, but will do so on Monday, thanks Tiktok.

MissisBoot, one of the biggest pain about the prescribed method of giving colief (ie on a spoon) is the sterilising - I think a major plus about bf is that I don't have to sterilise anything, but suddenly I'm racing around with the sterilising unit/boiling water in a pain trying to sterilise medicine spoons or syringes, while dd is screaming her head off.
All exacerbated by me being single mum at the mo! (DH working abroad for a few weeks).

Devendra, I've tried your method a couple of times now, and it seems to have exactly the same (good) effect - I just hope I'm not doing my lo any harm by it.

sorry, typing in the dark as dd just gone off. Meant to write 'boiling water in a pan'. Although it is indeed a pain.

katie do you have a dishwasher?
if you do you could just put the spoons in that and then use them
lots of other countries don't sterilise now they just dishwash things

hi katie, I used to express a few drops onto a teaspoon and add the colief to that. I have to admit that I didn't steralise the spoons as I believe that washing in very hot water is good enough but this was for my 2nd dd, with my first I steralised everything. Hang in there, and well done for getting the GP to prescribe colief, it costs a small fortune but does seem to work.

I didn't sterilise the spoons either I didn't realise that I had too (was bf so completely unaware of any sterilisation issues!)

Am amazed that you got your doc to prescribe the colief. Mine wouldn't even entertain the idea!

Just to add - when you start to wean your dd keep an eye out for dairy allergies - don't want to alarm you but dd had the same symptoms and was allergic to dairy and soya - I was completely unaware that she was allergic to the dairy coming through my breastmilk hence her discomfort after feeding.

Does your dd have explosive poos?

I read that the enzymes in the mouth break it down, hence mixing it with milk.

MissisBoot - yes, she does have explosive poos - is that a sign of dairy allergy? I really hope not... My DH can't drink milk, but does eat other dairy. But it;s not hereditary is it?

Back to the colief, I've been giving it her off the nipple for a couple of days now, and but seems to work as well as I can tell.

I do have a dishwasher, but thought everything had to be sterilised because of any lingering soap detergent residue? Or am I being a bit (naive) pfb?

My dd had real tummy probs too and then when did I first wean her, discovered she was allergic to dairy and eggs. Luckily she had grown out of both by just over a year old so it wasn't the huge problem it can be for some babies. We had all the tests and hospital etc and were prescribed some scary special formula but dd was resolute that it was breast only for her anyway! Once I found out, I found that reducing my intake of dairy really helped dd, it wasn't too bad really and I also lost a bit of weight going dairy free which was an added bonus!

Hmm, maybe I should think about reducing dairy...

Although I'm still secretly holding out for the magic 12 weeks landmark when colic magically starts to recede. Don't tell me it's a myth!

would love to tell you otherwise.. but in my case was a myth! hope it all settles for you.