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Infant feeding

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Original poster

Can someone offer some words of reassurance about colic?

16 replies

Flowerface · 23/12/2009 15:38

My 4 week old DD has colic. The attacks start at about 8 and can go on til 2am. This has only recently become a problem, and already I can feel myself losing the will to live. I find the screaming so upsetting, especially as she is in obvious pain . DP is brilliant, but I find is so hard to deal with, it makes me feel we can't have people round or go to visit anyone, as I don't want them to see her, and me, like this.

How did/do any fellow sufferers get through it? Infacol has done nothing for us, and the HV says we'll just have to suffer through the next 2 months, which right now feels like an eternity...

Also, how in blazes are you meant to get any sleep routine together when things are like this?!

OP posts:
lifeistooshort · 23/12/2009 15:48

DD 1 was screaming all day and a good chunk of the evening with Colics. I tried all the colics remedy know to mankind and nothing worked. The someone suggested a cranial osteopath. At first I was very cynical but soon lost the will to leave so gave it a go. It did DD a world of wonders. She was very relaxed each time she was being treated and rapidly improved. The colics stopped at 8 weeks (the next night she slept through the night).

I wouldn't worry too much about sleep routines for a 4 weeks old.

Good luck, I know how are and soul destroying it can be. Just remember it will pass

LeninExcelsis · 23/12/2009 15:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsSnoops · 23/12/2009 16:09

Cranial Osteopath - worked for us.I feel your pain I was there this time last year. I only saw New Year in as DD was screaming at midnight.
It is awful - but a cranial osteopath is worth a shot.

MarjoryMoores · 23/12/2009 16:14

Go and get some colief drops.

They are pricy but if they work are well worth it.

Some babies find it really hard to digest lactose in the early months.

You have my sympathies - dd had terrible colic til I was recommended the drops.

thrifty · 23/12/2009 16:19

second the colief drops. ds finally stopped crying after we started using them and started putting on weight. they are about a tennerish. if they work for you and you are FF you could look at switching to lactose free milk which, although more expensive than regular formula works out cheaper than adding colief to each feed (and also less hassle).

JetLiHallsWithBoughsOfHolly · 23/12/2009 16:38

Flowerface - I have some unused Colief upstairs - thankfully I never needed it. I bought it as my nephew had terrible colic and I wanted to have remedies. I've checked and it's in date - May 2010 - and will only go to waste if I don't give it to someone who needs it. If you can let me have your address, I'll post it out. My email is [email protected]

I think on the Dr. Sears website there is a colic relief massage routine which might be worth a try.

From my reflexology book: To ease colic, lightly press on the oesophagus reflex area located on the ball of the foot. Repeat on the other foot.

It may be an old wives tale, but if you're breastfeeding, they used to say have a glass of Guinness at lunchtime/early afternoon. It's supposed to be in your milk by early evening and help reduce colic.

HTH

lifeistooshort · 23/12/2009 16:47

Also second Lenin's advice re slings

Openbook · 23/12/2009 16:49

Putting ds in the sling helped - tummy to tummy gave him some relief and he slept out of exhaustion. Slept or cried for 3months + but then came through it. You have all my sympathy.

fanjolinaballerina · 23/12/2009 17:20

Another fan of colief here. You can get it on prescription. It's a bit more tricky to use when you're b/f but I have managed by collecting milk in a breast shell, then adding colief to it and feding it half way through a feed in a tiny bottle. DD2 is now ten weeks and loads better. Second forgetting the routine too. Try again at 12 weeks.

Original poster
Flowerface · 24/12/2009 11:00

Thanks everyone. Had totally pointless encounter with HV and GP (who was leafing through a copy of the Oxford Handbook of General Practice throughout the consultation) yesterday. Both of them said there's nothing to be done but wait it out. But we had a really dreadful night with screaming after every feed, and when she isn't screaming she is still very disturbed by wind...

Is it too soon to give her a dummy?

JetLi - thanks very much for the offer of Colief. The doc said to leave it a couple of weeks before trying a lactase drug, though he didn't explain why... Think he just couldn't find the right page in the manual... But isn't it really hard to administer when breastfeeding?

OP posts:
pollydianasmummy · 24/12/2009 11:05

|Tio administer medicines to very small babies, I would pour out the correct dose into a spoon then use a clean infacol dropper to get it from the spoon in to her mouth.

vodkaandcoke · 24/12/2009 11:12

Definitely recommend the coleif drops as well. Expensive but worth every penny!! We gt=ot it on prescription in the end as they were very dear.

NeatFreak · 24/12/2009 11:20

I would seriously recommend cranial osteopathy. My dd had awful colic, I thought I was going mad from sleep deprivation as she screamed for hours and hours. I was a cynic but a friend recommended a cranial osteopath and after ONE session dd's colic disappeared- nobody was more surprised than me. We had a couple of follow up sessions and dd's general health/ happiness improved greatly. If you had a difficult birth it is more likely that it will help- we also used it for ds even though he didn't have colic and was a c section so not too traumatised by the birth.

Please please do consider it, if I was converted anyone would be!

JetLiHallsWithBoughsOfHolly · 24/12/2009 15:42

Hi flowerface - another thing maybe to try is for you to give up dairy. It was like a magical cure for a lady at my baby group. In fairness she didn't give up entirely in so far as she bought that Lactose-free milk for her tea and coffee and then ditched cheese and yogurt and all other dairy. Her baby boy was transformed within a week.

If you'd like the Colief, email me - it's no trouble.

Hope tonight is better for you all

at the GP & HV - agreed that colic eventually passes but it seems a tad dismissive of them towards you. It must be awful to see your baby in so much discomfort, every evening, for hours and days on end

sazlocks · 24/12/2009 15:58

oh you poor love - its grim isn't it. The only other thing that we did that might be worth thinking about is keeping a close eye on what you are eating if you are BF. I cut our anything citrussy, tomotoey, and anything windy so beans , cabbage , brocoli etc until DS was 12 weeks. That and religious use of Infacol helped us no end.
My friends who used cranial osteopathy swear by that as well

MumtoEliane · 24/12/2009 19:04

Been there! Sometimes awake until 5am and she would only settle when dad drove her around in the car (and thes is when Icould sleep too, for 2 hours at a time (.) We used Colief and it helped, they didn't go but the fits got shorter. Someone told us that when thy get to 12lb in weight things improve a lot, and they did! Of course that might not happen to every baby as they are all different, but if I was you I'd try the colief, take it in turns with your partner to rock or cuddle her and I don't think its too early for a dummy at all! Ous started with the colic at 5 days old and by the 10th we gave her the dummy, it soothes them a lot.

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