The 5 S's for calming a 'colicky' baby - it works!

[highlander]

As taken from the book 'The Happiest Baby on the Block', by Harvey Karp (a paediatrician).

My HV highly reccommended this book and its 5 S's technique to calm a howling baby. Based on the 4th Trimester theory, this only works for babies less than 3 months old.

I tried it for the first time yesterday and the results are unbelievable - I can't recommend it highly enough!

The 5 S's:
Swaddling - really tightly for it to work, with baby's arms straight inside the swaddle.

SSSSSSh - as loud as the baby's cry or other white noise (you may have to expt.). You MUST match the volume of the baby's cry for it to work.

Side - babies freak out when you lie them on their back when they're upset as they feel like they're falling. Lie baby on his side or on his stomach.

Swing (or shoogle) - match the vigour of uterine movements by swinging/jiggling really quite fast. If you think it's uncomfortable then it's probably just right for the baby.

FINALLY, when the baby is calm - Sucking. Feeding, thumb or dummy.

Once the baby is calm, he may start up again in 5-10 mins. Just start at the beginning again.......

I wish I'd read that when ds was little ? he was a real howler, but I do remember swaddling definitely used to calm him down in the early days.

can't get the swaddling to work, highlander. how big a blanket do you use - ds just fights arms out as I'm doing it.

I'm amazed to discover I was doing the right things! I only swaddled ds1 though - ds2 hated it. Ds2 only ever slept on his side. And both of them had a dummy. For both of mine movement was the only thing that seemed to help - and they both liked being upright with their head on my shoulder. Ds1 suffered terribly from colic - he would start screaming at about 6pm and carry on 'til gone 11 most nights. I just used to pace up and down the room with him making a sort of "swoosh, swoosh" sound in his ear. Ds2 was less colicky - just bl**dy miserable in the evenings. By then I'd demanded a rocking chair so I would sit on that, swooshing away, watching the West Wing with subtitles 'cos I couldn't hear the dialogue for the screaming.

I remember with ds1 going to my GP and saying "is there something to help with colic - you know, like a secret cure that you don't tell everyone about?" She must have thought I was unhinged (I was!)

Ah, the bliss of early babydom....

With swaddling, dinny, try lying baby on it with head to one corner (so blanket is diamond-wise, not square, iyswim). Fold the bottom up over baby's feet, then one corner over and under baby's body, then the other corner - you can sort of tuck it in then. My Mum showed me how to do it and I was a bit horrified at how tightly she swaddled ds1 - but it did seem to calm him. HTH.

LOL mathamoo about the secret cure - I did the same thing! I went when he was about 4 weeks old saying "there MUST be something that will make it stop"; just got a look of pity.

Have to agree that all of those things help, even if it is not colic. We especially use the SSSHHHHHHHH (!!) whilst rocking DD2, as recommended in Baby Whisperer. Apparently it mimics the ammniotic fluid whooshing around!?

just remember the health v. telling me at 6wks he'd grow out of it by 12wks. seemed an eternity back then.
One HV did suggest massage, massage their stomaches in a clockwise direction and also the balls of their feet.Did seem to help, well it gave me something to concentrate on. Also DS2 seemed to prefer being held with arm under his stomach, so he lay flat on my forearm,face down, therefore putting pressure on his stomach. Apparantly thats why Mums used to lie babies on their stomaches not their backs.

how are you getting on with the swaddling dinny? It didn't work for me until I realised it wasn't nearly tight enough.

can't pin his arms down fast enough, Highlander! he is also showing signs of being able to get thumb in mouth and keep it there (PLEASE GOD!) may try again tonight - mum arrives today.

Gosh isn't it amazing that these are the things that people naturally do witha crying baby!

dinny - oh you lucky thing - THE THUMB!!!!!!!

Can't wait until DS finds his