Does my baby have colic?

[Katey94]

First time mum here, I have an 8 week old daughter and at around 3 weeks old she started crying an awful lot, it started for like 3-4 hours in the evening she would scream and was very hard to console, she also struggles to poop, I switched her formula to comfort for colic & constipation and had a whole week of a happy baby, but now the crying is back and she cries from 12pm until 9-10pm at night for a few days in a row then will have a few good days again, I love my baby but it’s so exhausting and I can’t even bring her out when she’s crying like that, is it colic or is she sick? There haven’t been any issues at any check ups .. feeling so helpless

Likely it's witching hours and very very normal for newborns.

Both mine cried every night between 7 and 10pm up until 3/4 months old.

A dummy and rocking helped my eldest, breastfeeding was all that helped the youngest.

Colic and constipation milk is just marketing, it doesn't do anything special to help baby.

I found the best approach was to expect it and prepare for it. I'd eat before it started and make sure I was set up with snacks, drinks and a box set. Then settle down on the sofa with them.

This will pass as they get older

We had this too... I spent a lot of time dancing in the dark with her in a sling playing YouTube white noise videos to her until she conked out. It was grim until I just accepted it. I’d take my kindle into the dark room and read one handed. It passed for us at about 10 weeks. Never found any explanation for it but look up PURPLE crying... it can just be a weird developmental thing they do. Or it could be overtiredness if they are not napping enough. Definitely speak to your doctor or health visitor to rule out anything else if you are worried but if not, hang in there. It feels like a never ending hell when you are in it but it does pass, I promise. Take turns with a partner if you have one to take your baby while the other has a bit of peace - noise cancelling headphones and a bath were a good escape xx

My son was like this, it was awful. He ended up on neutramagen prescription milk as was dairy intolerant. He also had a tongue tie that wasn’t diagnosed until 4 months. Got better once he could sit up at 5 months. He is ten years old now and from 18 months onwards has just been amazing. He’s is very bright and I think looking back that overstimulation was an issue as well as digestion. He wasn’t the sort of baby that drifted off to sleep, even in the car. I wasn’t aware that awake times for such young babies were so short, and didn’t work hard enough to get him to take a nap every 90 minutes or so. So he just got more and more tired and overstimulated as the day went on.

When I had DD I did whatever I could to get her to nap (usually in a sling with a Muslim over her head and a dummy and even then she fought it just like DS did!) and she was loads easier. She also had tongue tie.

Colic means unexplained crying, so yes she has colic. A few things to think about and try

• a bath with you
• winding, tiger in a tree position
• allergy
• tongue tie

Or it could just be the witching hour of the classic when babies cluster feed. If it’s this then over the next few weeks it will start to improve a bit.

My first son was like this (although his crying would start at 5pm and go until he conked out from sheer exhaustion at 8:30pm so not quite as many hours!) and also seemed unhappy and generally grouchy most of the day too. We tried all the special milks - it's all marketing BS and none worked especially. Even had a prescription milk for CMPA but that didn't work. Hipp Organic milk was where we ended but really they're all the same.

In hindsight I realise DS1 was overstimulated and overtired mainly because he catnapped (short naps all day). Once he got to 3months I spent more time ensuring he did 3 decent lengthy naps in the day around the same kind of times each day and after a few weeks this made him so much easier and happier. We had always done a bedtime routine since v young but this bedtime routine clicked with DS more once the daytime nap loose routine was in place too.