Colic help - New mum & advice needed!

[burneidean]

Hi all,

I'm new to Mumsnet and being a mum altogether. I have two stepchildren but the newborn stage is all unknown to me!

My son is 11 days old and I'm convinced he has colic. Every night, like clockwork he becomes very unsettled at around 9pm and will be screaming at the top of his lungs hysterically until around 2/3am.

I have tried infacol but he seems to hate the taste and once he's been given his bottle he projectile vomits all the milk back up which obviously distresses him more.

Does anyone have any tips, remedies, stories or advice which will help me through this time? I've never felt so overwhelmed before. My partner has had two children previously so he is an amazing dad but never dealt with colic so we're both clueless on what to do.

Congratulations! It can be very hard to know what’s going on with newborns. Please read this article. It is written by a paediatrician and explains newborn behavior really well.
https://www.babydoc.com.au/faq/colic-bore-your-baby-to-sleep/

Sounds normal, sorry. Evenings with newborns can be absolute hell.

My DS was the same. It does peak around 5-6 weeks but goes away by 12 weeks.

I used to put him in the carrier and go for a midnight a walk, fresh air always helped tremedously (he would scream the second we would get back in the house). If it was raining, I would walk up and down the stairs while singing. I remember him really liking some country music too. A bath always helped (luckily he liked water).

Really take the advice of sleep when baby sleeps. Sleep until 11am, whatever. The house, stepkids, DH can take care of them. You won't get a good night sleep for a very, very long time so you need to lean into this advice (which I appreciate is frustrating) or you will lose your mind. Even if you can't fall asleep, lay there in the dark and rest.

Thank you! He's massively unsettled at the same time every night and will not let us out him down which I understand is normal. He is constantly scrunching his legs up & refuses to sleep in his moses basket so I spend most nights with him on my chest laying awake.

Unfortunately mine does not like water or any form of being cold so even changing a nappy is hell at nighttime 🤣

My partner is brilliant and we take it in turns, I sleep during the day when he can settle but the nightimes are the hardest with the consistent screaming, unable to settle and my anxiety when 9pm hits... I know it's not forever but any help is appreciated so thank you

Sounds like cluster feeding time. This is normal. Is he bf or ff?

Yeah I used to get chest pains from anxiety around 5pm, in anticipation of the hell that would invariably come around 9pm.

He's ff and we are feeding him whenever he wants it, but he's not wanting to eat or his dummy to settle 😭

That's exactly what I'm like 😫 I know it'll ease but for now it's hardddddd!

We found Colief was really helpful. It's a natural enzyme which helps the baby break down the milk in the gut and absorb it more easily. You mix it with a little milk at the start of the feed, and it made all the difference to our little one.

Cluster feeding is an inbuilt behaviour were babies are very fussy at this time so they try and feed to encourage breast milk production for another day. As your ff I would try a dummy, putting baby in a sling and going for a walk outside with headphones in. If you can stay as calm as possible it will help.

Thank you so much I wondered if there was an alternative to Infacol!!!