Please help with COLIC...

[soph28]

Hi, my 12 wk old dd2 is getting me dowm and I suspect she has colic. She is an extremely sicky baby- constantly putting up milk and often soaks her entire outfit (has been like this since birth). She is 100% BF and has 1 bottle EBM daily. Over the past few weeks she has had spells of not being able to feed due to pain/wind and long crying spells. It is getting worse and worse. She is fine in the morning but by lunchtime she starts refusing feeds and crying, squirming, arching her back, red in the face and when I try to feed her she screams and arches her back, kicking violently. She settles well at 7pm and sleeps well all night.

My dd1 was very similar as a baby and I eventually gave up BF at 5 months cos she was struggling to feed. Now at just 2 she is on Movicol for chronic constipation that she has had ever since being weaned. My 3yo boy has had none of these problems. I'm worried that dd3 will have constipation too.

I am trying infacol to see if it helps but so far no difference. Any other suggestions? (before I go mad )

meant dd2 not dd3!

You could try Colief?
it worked well with ds, but he was ff - not sure how successful it is with breastmilk.
If your lo is 12 weeks, hopefully it will stop soon. [fingers crossed emoticon}

I hope it will stop soon but it only seems to be getting worse atm!

The problem with colief is that you have to put it ionto the milk which means expressing for every feed- a real faff for a BF baby esp when I have a 2 and 3 yo at home all day too!

bump

it sounds quite like reflux rather than colic

I;ll try and do a link in aminute

I found colief very effective. As far as I understand it is an enzyme which starts to digest the lactose in the milk which some babies can't. That's why you have to put it in the milk I think 4 hours before it's used.

I know it's controversial but tbh I wish I'd given up breast-feeding with DD2. I was doing one bottle of formula each night with colief which she was fine with but bf made her cry, arch etc. Looking back I think I should have swapped but felt I ought to bf.

Thanks morocco. Have wondered about reflux but she seems fine when lying flat in bed at night- I thought reflux usually affected this?

just got time to link quickly to kellymom so you could check out the bf hints in case it is reflux
www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/reflux.html

FossilSister- I know exactly how you feel because I did stop in the end with dd1 and the change was miraculous- she went from unhappy, crying baby to happy, smiling, content baby almost immediately but I always regret that I couldn't carry on BF her and feel that there must be some alternative other than stopiing BF? I had to stop BF ds at 6mths cos I went back to work and I really wanted to feed at least one child for up to a year (and I'm not having any more!)

my dd had bad colic (and was sicky) but was fine at night. early evenings were the worst. I tried everything I could get my hands on to no avail- she seemed to be better if i put her in a sling where she was upright - lots of burps. motion used to settle her - especially up and down in the cradle hold - we called it the elevator ! I got some homeopathic colic drops from Nelsons (mail order) and I don't know if she was at the end of the colic or that they worked but the colic stopped.

How about trying gripe water? Worked for us when infacol didn't. Slightly different as we bottle fed and added the gripe water to the bottle. But you can just give it before or after a feed. Made that elusive wind come up much quicker, obviously she could have reflux which you could investigate, but it's another remdy to perhaps try?

Infacol, Colief and gripe water were useless for my ds, who suffered terribly from colic - mainly at 4/5 in the morning, weirdly. The only thing I found that helped was feeding him sitting up - so I was sitting up and I bf him with him sitting up too, vertically. It disappeared magically at 12 weeks, only to reappear for a month when I weaned him (under pressure) at 5 months, something I will always regret, so be warned!

I hope dc's colic disappears soon - I remember how disbelieving and desperate I felt, but it did just vanish. Fingers crossed for you and your dd. xx

Califrau would like to hear more about your experience of Cranial Osteopathy.

I am taking DS today for a first app (he is 2 and a half weeks old) due to what i suspect is colic.....

Look forward to hearing about it....

Hi everyone, am at my wit's end today, Can't go out to get other remedies as my car is broken down.

She fed fine last night and first feed this morning. It starts about 10/11am and continues all day. I managed to feed her about 10.30am by putting the dummy in and then quicly swapping her onto my boob, then she slept for about 30 minutes, then woke up about 12pm just as my older two went down for their nap. She was happy and played under her playgym for a bit before she started getting hungry and gurning. I tried to feed her several times in every position- even with her sitting up and facing me- but the more I tried the worse she got- screaming, arching her back, straining etc. By 1.30pm I was so desperate that I made 7oz formula and she drank the lot in one go and fell asleep straight away. I DON'T WANT TO FF, WHAT CAN I DO?

She is nearly 13 weeks and it's getting worse daily.

bump

Give your HV a ring or take her to the doctor. Some babies with acid reflux can be given an infant version of gaviscon to ease the symptoms.

My cousins baby suffered terribly from reflux until she was prescribed an antacid. Now she's much better

It sounds like you might have an issue with BF'ing rather than a child who won't/can't eat. Try giving a counsellor from your local BF network or La Leche league a call. They can advise you.

If she is colicky, you could try carrying her upright in a soft sling with her head supported. She'll be able to hear your heartbeat and breathing as a comfort and the tummy to tummy time may help to release any trapped wind. Lay her tummy down over your knee can also help as can baby massage.

With my son who was still spitting up at 9 months we found dentinox a god send. It can be given after feeds if necessary so is good for BF'ing mums. Gripe water made him projectile vomit and infracol did nothing

Hi ajm200- thanks for the advice- I don't think it is an issue with BF cos she fed brlliantly for the first 6 weeks and feeds very well at night and first feed in the morning. She is also the 3rd child I have BF. If it is a BF issue I have no idea what it could be. I am going to take her to the baby clinic on Friday morning and ask for advice there.

Hi soph28.

The only reason I suggested it might be a BF problem is that my LO suddenly started to have issues with BF at about 5 months for no obvious reason. He'd fuss and scream rather than latching on, bite really hard while latched on and generally be a pain.

I hope you get this sorted out, it must be so worrying and frustrating.

Thanks. It's frustrating more than anything else- she slept for a few hours this afternoon after her bottle of formula- I then spent from 5-7pm trying to feed her. I even got into a bath with her but she wasn't remotely interested in feeding. I eventually managed to feed her in between bouts of screaming and crying and she fell asleep. The biggest problem is that while I was doing all that my 2 and 3yo were running wild and I didn't give them any tea- they ended up having cheese on toast and hot chocolate at 7pm (their normal bed time).

Just wanted to agree that Cranial Osteopathy is really the way to go. We brought DS1 to one for gastic reflux which she fixed, then DS2 went to same lady for colic and projectile vomitting, it was really miraculous! Have since become friends with the osteopath, she is lovely and so gentle, babies often fall asleep during the treatment it is so 'non invasive'. Our osteopath specialises in babies and children, and says she has never met a baby with colic she hasn't been able to help, and I believe her!

have you been to see hv or docs about reflux?