Colic? 5 week old baby

[Cha]

Think our ds has it - he screamed non stop for about 2 hours this evening and none of the usual things would stop it ( feeding, rocking, walking around, patting back). He has been like this for maybe a week now, getting steadily worse as the days wear on. He also has a cold which makes him very snotty and unable to breath well from about 3am until mid morning.

Things I am doing
feeding from same breast for 2-3 hours (not continously!) so gets a good lot of hindmilk
drinking fennel tea (so disgusting have only managed a cup a day but will definitely have more tomorrow
Trying to avoid pulses and dairy products but this is difficult as I am a vegetarian...

Anyone have any other suggestions? Feeling desperate, first child was not like this - what are we doing wrong??? How can we help him?

put him down on his belly,this used to calm my ds
also this might sound like an old wifes tale but,get a whole egg and do circles with it on his belly,this also worked with ds
i know what you're going though and is awful
good luck

Cha - my DD2, who is now 8 weeks old, had really bad colic (lots of screaming, very little sleep), and I took her to a cranial osteopath a few weeks ago. After the first treatment, there was a small improvement and she has now had three sessions and is having one more this week. She has got better each time, and last night slept through for me! She's also much more settled and happy in herself, so could be worth a try for your ds.

You are not doing anything wrong - you just haven't found the thing he really likes yet.

I bought some fennel in tablets - no nasty taste (though some interestingly flavoured burps) and you know exactly how much you are getting. Also drinking the tea cold with some cordial in was preferable and I'm sure it does the same thing.

You could try taking probiotics yourself,opinions widely differ on these, but they can't do any harm.

I also carried ds in a sling all morning (ie before the screaming.) It's much nicer carrying around a happy baby and he did seem to be better in the evenings as a result.

Other thing is to hold him facing out with your arm under his legs so he is bent at the hips and his back is along your front, as he arches his back and kicks his legs he should shift any offending wind along.We didn't try this till ds was able to hold his head but I'm sure that it is possible with a 5 week old. It's pictured in the Sears Fussy Baby book if your library has a copy.

HTH

not got much time but just some thoughts
my DS had colic for 12 weeks from 1 weeek old - cried EVERY night for 2-3 hours
we tried everything - infacol etc (you could try it but it did nothing for us)

did you have difficult birth?
cranial osteopathy can really help - we took DS and although not a miracle cure it definitely helped.
lots of sympathy though I know how difficult it is to deal with.

Cha - my dd had terrible colic until about 8 weeks - we took her to a cranial osteopath who also showed us how to massage her stomach in circles - this did seem to help. It is a very stressful time for you - just remember only a few more weeks and this should be over.

You aren't doing anything wrong. Some babies just cry a lot in the evening. Mine did. Then he stopped. It was utterly awful and draining while it happened, but one day it just stopped. He won't do this forever! I truly don't think it is your diet so don't deprive yourself as you will need to eat healthily for energy and wellbeing. Spacing feeds can help and so can a dummy if a baby wants to suck but doesn't need or want more milk. The sucking action on a dummy creates natural painkillers in babies too, so if it is tummy pain it might help. Cranial osteopathy didn't work for me at all, though it was very nice for ds while it was happening. Neither did stomach circling or any other of the usual tricks. But in the end it stopped. The only thing that worked for us (sometimes) was a car ride with some music on. It might help the baby sleep.

Went to the GP in the (vain) hope that she would be able to help. She said that medical studies into infacol show that it doesn't really do anything... She also recommended the craneal osteopathy, just because so many patients had said it worked for their babies. Will check it out tomorrow. He hated having his tummy massaged - are you supposed to go anti clockwise or clockwise? Maybe I was going round the wrong way. He wasn't so bad tonight but I've learned not to get excited by just one night in a baby's behaviour. Will get some fennel tablets tomorrow.