Crying Windy/Clolicky Babies Support

[Metrobaby]

I thought I'd start this thread off for anyone suffering with windy/crying/colicky babies. Maybe someone has some tried and tested methods - or failing that we can sit here and count down the weeks until they grow out of it.

Anyone care to join?

Just reliving last year's nightmare as I'm reading through this thread! We had a crying/colicky baby who slept very little (sometimes 6 hours out of 24!) Life was miserable and I thought I had made a terrible mistake having a baby. We tried all the conventional cures and nothing made any difference. Out of desperation, we tried cranial osteopathy. After 2 treatments, DS began sleeping 10 hours straight at night and stopped crying. My son is now the most delightful toddler you can imagine. He's got loads of life and only grumpy when tired or hungry. He rarely cries and is very affectionate. Hope this gives you some hope. I'm even thinking about having another one!!

GeorginaA

sending hugs your way...

has anyone had any luck with the 'total submission' hold (my trademark)? cradle baby very close to you with cheek resting up high on your breast,then wrap your arms and hands round him so he can't move an inch of his entire body including head at all (make sure still breathing though!) then rock vigorously, ignoring all screeching until baby gives up and goes to sleep - well in theory - worked quite a lot for us

Just to let you know, I'm feeling better now Sent dh out for the ultimate in colic survival kits:

alcohol, icecream and a different kind of dummy...

good on you girl.

I hasten to add the alcohol and icecream were for me, and the dummies for the babe....

just to let you know there is a program on radio 4 about carrying babies on now. i can't stress enough how much this helped me with my ds's - if you think how they were 'held' for 9 months and could hear your heartbeat. thats all they want. that and cranial osteopathy cured my ds1. no more colic = no more tears = happy baby = happy mummy

forgot to say on 'womans hour'

Damn - missed it

What kind of ice cream did you get Georgina?

Haagen Dazs Strawberry Cheescake... but only because they were out of the Toffee Creme

hewlettsdaughter - you can go to radio 4 womans hour website and listen again to program (i think)

hi, sorry i dont seem to have the time to log in regulary. I dont think dd has colic(well yet anyway) i think she just has bad wind nd she seems really sensitive. she jerks at the slightest noise and wakes up. Shes also stopped sleeping through the night and grizzles the whole time.She even cries in her sleep. she has an hour in the morning and between 7and 8 at night where she will cry and cry, nothing will soothe her apart from sucking on a finger. She wont take a dummy. The only thing that comforts her is being held, but you have to do this all day as the minute youve laid her down shes wide awake and screaming again. this is knackering as i cant sleep. im afraid to express so dp can help out encase she then wont go back to the breast. Bought a sling today so ill give that a go and bought some infacol. i might try the cranial thingy even if it just helps chill her out a bit. sorry about typing etc but its all one handed with my dd in the other.

kbaby - it sounds to me like she might really benefit from cranial osteopathy, as it sounds almost exactly what ds2 was like at 2.5 weeks. By 3 weeks I was sure it was colic (as the wind had turned to pain - it was a completely different type of cry).

Apparently, one of the theories is that very jumpy babies can get overstimulated really easily, then don't settle well and by evening/night time are exhausted and frantic. They cry and suck in air which gets stuck in their intestines causing pain which causes more crying and they get stuck in a vicious cycle. The osteopath we saw said that most of the colicky babies he saw had a much more pronounced startle reflex than "normal" and didn't like being laid flat.

I'm so glad I went to the osteopath - it's still hard work, but now the really hard part of the day is limited to 7pm-10/11pm whereas before it'd be pretty much either most of the day or most of the evening & night, and if I was really unlucky... both. Apparently ds2 had tightness in his lower ribs and the base of his skull was compressed - poor little mite was probably in considerable discomfort whenever he was laid flat. No wonder he preferred to sleep in my arms or in a more upright position!

Anyway, if she's windy and unsettled, it's probably worth working through this thread and trying all the different things even if you don't think it's colic. It certainly won't harm her, and it might actually help.

BTW, colic is defined as:

a) starting by 3 weeks
b) crying for at least 3 hours
c) for at least 3 days a week

kbaby - definitely give crianial osteopathy a go

see here for further info

crianial society while not a miracule cure it definitely helped my DS

Hmm, did a search on Windy Pops - info I found said it was only suitable for 6 months+ ?

Georgina I went to the health food shop and asked if they had windy pops and they man asked how old baby was, when I said she was 3 weeks old he told me that although it says on the bottle for 6 months+ they had a leaflet which they gave me and it says to give dd2 1-2 drops of windy-pops 3 or 4 times a day. the leaflet that he gave me had a little chart at the bottom with the ages of the babies like 0-6 months 1-2 drops, 6-12 months 3-5 drops etc.

How very odd, Linnet - you'd have thought they'd have put that on the outer packaging, wouldn't you?!

thanks for the links katierocket

Well we certainly have a much calmer and more settled baby at the moment! Evening takes a while to settle (took me about an hour last night to get him to sleep, but without tears from either of us) and night-time he's feeding constantly from his 10pm bottle of EBM (around 3-4oz) then "topping up" on the breast until 2-3am at which point I give up and send him downstairs to sleep in his rocking chair with dh sleeping on the sofa to keep an eye on him. But again, he's not hugely unsettled just awake and a bit grizzly!

I just hope I haven't jinxed by writing this. Certainly think the cranial osteopathy has made a huge difference to this little babe and his mummy...

Glad to hear things are lookin more promising with you GeorginaA

DS is getting more settled too (fingers crossed). I find that feeding him in a dark room at 6pm helps him settle easier at 7pm. I think before he was getting over stimulated. He is bringing his wind up easier now but I have no idea if this is down to the colief I am using, cranial oestopathy or his age (now 8 wks). I also find walking up and down the stairs a few times with him helps him bring up his wind. However saying all this we have had a couple of bad nights. The night before last ds was up from 10pm - 3am . I have also noticed if he does start crying from 7-10pm he generally tires himself out so much he actually sleeps right through or wakes up only once for a quick feed.

It does sound a very similar pattern to us, metrobaby.

I think part of the no sleeping last night was due to him being cold. We've got so used to putting him to bed in a vest with poppers, that we've not noticed we're using covers again, so ds2 is probably getting a bit cold! Going from warm, snuggly breast to lying in a cold moses basket, probably isn't too appealing! If it's still not too hot tonight we might put him back in a babygro for nighttime and see if that makes a difference. It's really hard trying to work out the right clothing/covers balance, isn't it?!

Oh wow... we've just had a straight 24hrs of him sleeping when he should and feeding when he should, and being calm and lovely in between ... it's so not going to last, is it?

Okay, I've collected up some of the things that I've tried with some success and a list of some things that other people have found useful and put it into a blog post as a record - don't know if anyone else will find it useful as a one-stop list of things to try with their colicky baby.

Interestingly, since posting it one of my friends mentioned on their that she tracked it down to the vitamins she was taking while breastfeeding and it's supposed to be a common problem that's hardly mentioned! Thinking about it, ds2 has been better since I've been forgetting to take them too. Anyone else had a connection with vitamin tablets & colic?