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colic

19 replies

kbaby · 08/07/2004 23:29

I know that babies get colic in the evenings and nights. But could a baby also get it during the day.
My 5 week old DD cries all day. She wont be put down and so stays in my lap all day. Since doing this I have noticed that every 5-10 minutes she wakes up and pulls her knees to her chest and starts crying. I then have to rock her to sleep and the cycle starts again. Some days she will cry all day and nothing will soothe her. Come 6pm she is a changed baby she is happy and will lie under her play gym or sit in her rocker watching the world go by. She then has a bath and will go in her moses basket to sleep at 8ish where she stays all night. My mum thinks she has either really bad wind which is causing pain or she is colicky. But if it was colic surely that would be in the evenings not in the day.
Were trying infacol but I keep forgetting so we arent really seeing the benefits yet.

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smellymelly · 08/07/2004 23:36

It sounds like colic, you could try a swing (saved my life when dd was a baby!), or dummies can help.

If you want to persevere with the colic drops then do, but they take a week to work, so you must keep going. My dd was allergic to colic drops though, they made her into a sicky baby.

Other methods are gripe water, or 'colief' colic drops are expensive and are supposed to work a treat, but I was b/feeding and couldn't express, so no good for me. Also try to keep her as upright as possible, ie. in a bouncy chair, in a car seat, in a swing etc, so it gives her a chance to get rid of some wind.

You could check your diet if you are breast feeding and see if there is anything particular you are eating which upsets her.

If all else fails try a cranial osteopath, they can work wonders!

kbaby · 08/07/2004 23:42

smellymelly thanks. Weve bought a swing which seems to work although it has to be on a really hight speed and she has to be in the right kind of mood to even sit in it. She wont sit in a bouncy chair(shell scream and scream) and the car seat only works if were in the car.
Ive also tried the cranial osteopothy, so far weve had 2 sessions and it doesnt seem to have made much of a difference. Im going to have one more session to see if it does anything.

Can you have colic only in the day though??

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wellsie · 09/07/2004 00:26

Kbaby, are you breastfeeding or bottle feeding? DS would get like this if I fed him too much (Iwas obviously demand feeding a bit too often!) then when we changed him onto formula at 3mths he did exactly the same until we changed the type formula and now he is fine.
This might help, but like I said in the sleep thread, all babies are different.

I bet you've had people say "Well they all have a time of the day when they're grumpy." How annoying is that?! It's not an answer to your problems is it!!

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

dibooth · 09/07/2004 01:36

Hiya,

Sorry to hear baby is suffering colic. Our DD did too - nightmare and very upsetting!

We took her to osetopath for massage which helped and also changed to give her COMFORT milk (OMEO - I think, but made by Cow and Gate anyway as that's what's it made for). Anyway, major success, colic compeltely stopped immediately, never to return! I would recommend trying it - worth wasting £8 if it doesn't work....

Good luck

Linnet · 09/07/2004 02:33

dd2 had colic while I was breastfeeding.

Try Windy-pops you get it from the health food shop and it was recommended to me this time around by a friend who swears by it. I can honestly say that it has worked wonders for us.

You don't have to give it every feed just 3 or 4 times a day 1 or 2 drops at a time, so you could give it to your dd in the morning, lunchtime and bedtime etc. If you're breastfeeding you can apply the drops to your nipple before feeding, although I just popped the dropper in her mouth. I found it worked best after a feed when she seemed to be getting a bit grizzly. Even now that dd2 is on bottles if she seems a bit windy I give her a couple of drops and she's fine.
dd2 licks her lips for a while after she's been given the windy-pops as she likes the taste of it so much.

hewlettsdaughter · 09/07/2004 13:42

kbaby - yes your baby can have colic in the day - 'colic' is a catch-all term it seems but my ds definitely suffered in the way you describe in the day (and night!) and my dd (currently 11 weeks) is like this some days. We, too, have tried cranial osteopathy. I'm not sure it's made much difference to us although I know it does to some people. With ds I used to sit marooned on the sofa every afternoon with him lying on my chest - it was the only way to settle him.
Have you seen GeorginaA's blog post on colic? The main thing to remember is it DOES get better.

aloha · 09/07/2004 14:08

Colic just means crying really - there is no medical definition. Have you tried (whisper it...) a dummy? And it will get better, hard though it is to believe right now.

GeorginaA · 09/07/2004 17:14

The best definition I've seen on colic defines it by the law of threes:

  • crying for at least 3 hours a day
  • for at least 3 days a week
  • starting before 3 weeks of age

By that definition, I would say colic. HOWEVER I think it's probably important for you to take her to see the GP just to rule out anything else - if only to reassure yourself there's nothing physically wrong.

hd: thanks for linking me!

kbaby · 10/07/2004 01:20

Were going to see the health visitor on Tuesday just to be checked out. Wellsie what youve said about breastfeeding on demand and overfeeding might be right. In the afternoons I do tend to feed her more, mainly because shes crying it helps to comfort her for a while, Maybe by doing that its actually making it worse. I'm breastfeeding and so cant try the formula milk suggested. I dont really want to stop breastfeeding and try formula encase it has no effect and then I cant go back to breastfeeding and have to formula feed.
Libb I asked at our health food shop about windy popps and they had never heard of them. Ill have to try another shop.

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tiktok · 10/07/2004 11:35

kbaby, we discussd before on another thread about your baby having what the Americans call 'high needs'.

One thing that might help you sort out what is happening is to ask yourself 'what would keep dd happy and not crying?' If the answer is 'to be kept close to me in my arms all the time - 24 hours out of 24! - feeding and snacking, and never be asked to go to sleep in a crib or cot and never be asked to sit in a chair' then it isn't wind or colic or anything physical like that. It's the normal behaviour of a baby who has especially acute needs to be close to mum.

Babies like this are demanding and exhausting, because they do cry, still in your arms....they need to be actively soothed and rocked....but they are not like this forever. Sometimes, like your baby, they will have a time when they do tolerate being sat somewhere else, and they gradually learn that other people's arms are ok, too.

It sounds as if one of the worst aspects of this is the way it takes away your confidence and makes you sad and bewildered. Being with other mothers at a baby group or breastfeeding support group can help.

I think the cranial osteopathy may be worth continuing with - some parents say they have needed several sessions.

Baby massage is also very helpful and soothing. You can do classes in this, but you can do it without classes as well. The classes are good because they let you meet other people.

smellymelly · 10/07/2004 12:16

GeorginaA - my ds started his colic at 5 weeks, so I'm not sure about your 3 week rule. The babies I have known to start colic really early, ie. at 1 or 2 weeks, have in fact had Reflux.

mothak · 10/07/2004 13:23

Its so upsetting when you can't soothe baby. Hope you are ok. My babe has just developed colic (i think) at 5 weeks. Started last sunday eve and every eve babe has screamed from 5 til 10.30pm! I am also breast feeding. During the screaming period I too was feeding to try and soothe babe and as you said this seems to have made problem worse. If you think about it babe is therefore doing lots of sucking when you feed too much which is adding to the wind they already have. So decided not to feed babe after 5.45 and no matter what babe would have to wait till 10pm for next feed. Did this day before yesterday and it was tough. Following day i did the same and last night babe went happily to bed at 7pm no colic in sight. not saying it has gone but really feel like last night was a breakthrough. Can babies have colic for just a week?
Anyway my mum recommended cooled boiled water with teaspoon of sugar - that's what they did in the old days.
Hope babe settles soon.

moosh · 10/07/2004 15:08

Sorry to hear you little one has the DREADED COLIC!My ds now 18 weeks has just stopped having colic (I hope!!!). It started when he was 2 weeks old and happened at night for a few weeks, then it switched to afternoon. He has always been really windy and the colic would always start around 3.30p.m. Up until now I had to rock him to sleep becuse if I put him in the cot, he would get into such a state if he still had wind that that would usually trigger off his colic bout. Ds 1 had it too but he only had it in the evenig. I went to see a cranial osteopath with ds2 had it reduced his colic to once a week rather than daily. I wish I knew about it with ds1! Infacol helped ds1 a bit but was crap for ds2, have you tried colief drops, or Dr Browns colic bottles, they worked better for ds2 than Infacol bloody expensive though. What I did when he had it was to hold him upright and walk around with him and gently bounce him up and down while you are standing and that usually gets great results for wind. When it was really bad (ds2 would hold his breath with the pain) I would just rock him gently in whatever position hw was comfortable( uoright or lying on my lap) till he would fart it out or burp it out.

mousie · 10/07/2004 23:35

my son had terrible colic - all times of day and night. i was desperate and sought medical help pretty early on. luckily found a brilliant specialist who immediately put me on a dairy free diet (I was breastfeeding). this made quite a bit of difference. he said that an awful lot of colic was in fact problems with cows milk coming through mother's milk. also now my son is older he is troubled by soy too - so is on a very broken down formula, neocate. this might sound extreme - the dairy thing - i had to avoid dairy and soy products which is hard when you are tired, breastfeeding and always hungry. but anything really to stop them screaming. good luck - takes a few days to make the transition.

marsup · 11/07/2004 01:48

You poor thing, kbaby. My ds was just like this. I had a lot of help from my mother who moved in for 3 months (from Australia!) and we alternated in the daytime so he was always in someone's arms, and I co-slept with him at night (in between periods of walking him around when that was the only thing that would soothe him). I am b/feeding and tried a non-dairy diet for 3 weeks (v strict one) and it didn't help. I eliminated onions and garlic, dairy, brocoli, cauliflower, cabbage, raw veggies, chocolate, tea, coffee; then tried eliminating wheat products, oat products... nothing helped. Osteopath didn't help. Infacol didn't help (but reassured me that my son hated fake orange flavouring). He eventually grew out of the colic and I recovered my sanity and he is now gorgeous and reasonably happy. Good luck with the coming months!

Carrie (mumsnet) · 11/07/2004 15:57

Hi all

Sorry to interrupt all the advice but the company we're doing the TV show are very keen to film with a baby with colic and have asked if we would come on this thread and ask if anyone would be willing to be filmed. The idea being that me and Justine come to your house and are filmed talking through the problem, and passing on all the wonderful mumsnet advice and then the parents film a bit of video diary and hopefully life improves (though we can't promise the advice will always work - sadly babies aren't built that way!!)

No problem at all if that doesn't appeal - but if it does and you happen to be in London please email us at [email protected]

Thanks and apologies again for hijacking the thread

Carrie, Justine and Rachel

sonnysmum · 11/07/2004 22:02

Kbaby, I know how you feel as DS had colic from a bout 2 weeks. I know it seems like an eternity away, but it stopped almost bang on 12 weeks, so hold out till then! We also did a number of things around the same time the colic stopped:

  1. x3 sessions at v.reputable cranial osteopath
  2. NO TV on at all in the day or evening (this is hard!)
  3. brought bed time right forward to 7:30 ...within 2 days of doing all this, the colic/crying just went, and it was absolute bliss and for the first time I wasn't terrified of him, and could just enjoy him, rather than wishing away the babyhood... He is now 6 months old & a different baby altogether. We stuck with the no TV rule(...in the daytime at least...it creeps on at about 6pm...)on the advice of my very knowledgeable & holistic cousin! Good luck & hang in there x
Sandi102 · 12/07/2004 12:12

i started infacol at 3 weeks before baby developed colic..i have to say it worked, until i stopped using it last friday, becaus ei thought it was causing him to poo a lot. i regret that decision as the poo i've been told is his normal bowel habit and he now screams half way threw a feed, which i definitley think is trapped wind. I'm back on infacol but will take a few days to kick in..i'm hoping the end is nearly in sight..he's now 8 weeks..

kbaby · 12/07/2004 15:59

spoke to the hv today and she said it isnt colic but as tic toc has mentioned below a baby with a wind problem but who is also a unsettled/needy baby. she said to continue with infacol etc as they may help the wind but the crying sounds more like shes just one of those babies who like to cry ... lucky me.. at least with colic i knew it would end.
thanks again though for the messages

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