NOW CLOSED Let's talk colic. Share your stories and comforting tips with Infacol. You could win £100 Love2Shop voucher

[KatieBMumsnet]

We've been asked by Infacol, the UK's leading infant colic remedy, to find out what Mumsnetters know about infant colic. Here's what they say: "Infant colic is a common condition affecting around 1 in 5 infants in the first month of life. It is often associated with crying fits, which can last up to three hours at a time and be distressing to both child and parents."

Do you or have you ever had a baby who has suffered from infant colic? How did you know what the condition was? What symptoms did your little one have and how old were they?
Please share anything in particular that helped to comfort your baby. What could have helped you during this period? What effect, if any, did colic have on you or your partner?

If your child doesn't or didn't suffer from colic, what do you know about the condition? Do you know what the symptoms are and would you know what to do if you thought your DC did have colic?

Everyone who adds a comment to this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will receive a £100 Love2shop voucher which can be used at over 85 leading retailers!
Your comments may be used (anonymously of course) on Infacol's Facebook page, website or other marketing material.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

[ChoccoPuddo]

Rarelyunreasonable- Kara coconut milk (no coconut taste as such!) is very nice in coffee, not tea for some reason but makes a good coffee. It's in the long life milk section of the supermarket and completely dairy free. I used in in recipes too and cereal. Just not tea,yuck.

[KatieBMumsnet]

Thanks for all your comments, the winner of the prize draw is...

LittleLolly

Congratulations! I'll PM you to get your details

[RarelyUnreasonable]

. Ds is 3 weeks and appears to have colic, screaming and farting all evening and night. Will try Infacol today as well as the other tips on this thread. Will also cut dairy from my diet after this coffee.

[monkeypuzzeltree]

DD had colic, from week 3-15, I walked miles around the kitchen table. We used to find sitting her up and leaning her back and forth helped - as if you're found "row your boat!" Tricky when they're little though.

We used infacol, seemed to work since if we didn't, would def take longer to bring wind up. I kept it everywhere just in case I forgot it!- upstairs, downstairs, in my bag, the car!

My son has been ebf and we've not had it at all, not sure if that's the difference or if we just escaped it this time. With DD i saw my doctor in desperation, saw a locum who told me colic was in my head and there was no such thing ..... Hmm, took a lot if self control to walk out without screaming at him "fancy popping in at 7pm and seeing for yourself!!"

[milkymonkey]

My second appeared to develop colic at about 2/3 weeks old and I just couldn't work out why as he was BF and I'd not had a day of it with DS1.

Turned out he had tongue-tie which had been missed, I thought I noticed it, a friend agreed and the HV confirmed. Had it 'snipped' at 5 weeks and we reastablished BF within a few days (and BF for 14 months) No more 'colic'!

Always get this checked out as it is not automatically diagnosed early on! Hope this bit of advise helps someone!

[ISawSantaKissingThePortlyPinUp]

My 4 dd's didn't suffer with regular colic but would have days when they required either gripe water or infacol. I used to love the little gripe water smelling burps they used to do afterwards

Things that worked for us included, warm baths, baby massage, being held upright in a sling and walked around or being passed to my granddad who never fails in getting a baby's wind up, even if he does ruin numerous matinee jackets in the process.

[JenniferHelen]

Bot my babies suffered from infant colic. DS stopped at 11 weeks and DD is still suffering - she will be 12 weeks next Friday. I knew it was colic because it was the textbook build-up of wind and discomfort throughout the day until both babies were in a lot of pain late afternoon / early evening, resulting in hours of hysterical crying, inability to feed and distress with their tummies hardening. After hours of crying, both flaked out asleep and when they awoke, their systems had calmed down, they were able to feed again, and usually slept very well at night. My DS's symptoms peaked just before they ended, just before 11 weeks, and at 11 weeks it was as if someone had flipped a switch and he didn't have any of the above symptoms anymore.

3 things helped to comfort both babies; sucking on my upturned little finger (no need for dummies - you only have to wean them off them and pretty soon they can't get to sleep or settle without them which is a pain!); carrying baby upright on my shoulder and walking around the house and going outside for bouts of fresh air whilst singing / humming gently (the vibrations in my throat from singing was comforting); and breathing calmly (the babies keep trying to mimic this rhythm which can help to calm them down and get them to flake out asleep). The only thing that could really have helped was something to give my babies that helped release the wind during the day, minimising the discomfort by evening. I haven't tried Infacol, but it sounds as if that is what it aims to do, which must help. Fortunately my partner was really patient when he was around (he works unconventional hours) and he was especially great at pacing the floor and singing. My babies loved this and the fact he didn't smell of milk helped settle them too as they weren't attempting to feed when their tummies wouldn't let them. It's tough, but it's temporary!

[YouSeveredHead]

Dd suffered even though bf and I used infacol, I was nervous as she had not had anything other than breast milk. She seemed to like it and didn't spit it out and it did make a difference. If I forgot or ran out you could tell if she hadn't had it.

[ProtegeMoi]

I think colic is very misdiagnosed.

My DD suffered awfully, she was in pain, she was vomiting and she was screaming.

She was diagnosed with colic and were given advice and medication, it did nothing.

We were told to persevere, told she wouldoutgrow it. She didn't.

It turns out she has severe reflux, not one person looked any further then colic and due to this my DD suffered far longer than she had to.

[rockinhippy]

Should have read - probably down to this reason

[rockinhippy]

My DD suffered badly with colic from the day she was born until I found a solution with my diet - she screamed & screamed & was ridged with pain, her stomach bloated & tight as a drum I still remember pacing the floor with her, trying eveything to sooth her & feeling so helpless. Initially nothing worked, none of the usual remedies helped much at all & our GP wasn't that interested. DH did his best to help us both, but it made sense that he tried to sleep as he was working & there was no point in us both being up all night, as was often the case. We did find some baby massage techniques helped a bit & DH had just the right sized upper leg bonevto lie her face down & rub anti clockwise through over the back of her gut in a squared motion - this calmed her enough for me to cope, but she was still distressed & in pain, but al least not squealing in an obviously agonised high pitched wail - I would continue this massage myself after he went back to bed, it was the only way to get her comfortable again.

Thankfully an old friend worked in alternative medicine & she suggested I looked at my diet. It hadn't occurred to us that food could be to blame as I was exclusively breast feeding. She told me about layered foods, lettuce, onions etc & also spice & any foods with additives & how they passed through into breast milk & so into DD, cutting these out made a HUGE difference - we still had odd minor bouts, but it was 99% better unless I accidentally ate something layered, such as the time I grabbed a sandwich when out & didn't realise it had opinion in it - such a tiny amount, but the effect it had on DD was huge, again she was wailing .& ridged with pain - it proved it was no coincidence & made me far more careful - the very minor bouts that occasionally flared up after that were easily helped with massage & things like infacol.

DD went onto be diagnosed with IBS & more recently Hypermobility Syndrome, which affects the stomach too, looking back I realise her extremely bad colic & reflux problem was probably the reason.

[MsTitanium]

My 2 DSs didn't have colic but then my DD3 did from about 6 to 14 weeks. It was hell! She would be inconsolable all day and would claw at her face and my chest so that we were both covered in scratches. It seemed to come over her in waves. I tried everything systematically, infacol, colief, anti-colic bottles, easy digest milk... My wonderful HV got me an appointment with a paediatrician to check for an underlying cause but found nothing. Weirdly once I accepted that there was nothing else I could do or try and i just had to get on with it, it became easier to deal with. It annoys me that 'colic' is given as a general reason for a baby crying (all babies cry from 6pm-10pm, fact ). I just can't forget how she would scratch at herself in obvious agony.

[nikkihuk]

Colic is awful. My son had it very badly and scrunched his little body up in pan all the time. His tummy always felt tense and his screams were piercing! It was a hugely stressful time for both of us. I found massaging him delicately, placing him on his tummy and using Infacol the best remedies and advise all my friends the same.

[EnjoyResponsibly]

I didn't wait to see if DS actually got colic, having seen how awful it was for DN I gave it to DS from day 1. He didn't get colic.

[Oopla]

Colic's awful, nothing worked but like a desperate fool I tried everything. Best advice for new parent facing it is Grit your teeth and wait it out

[supergreenuk]

Both mine were breast fed and both had it. More so with my second as he had tongue tie.

[supergreenuk]

Both mine had colic but with my first I was totally uneducated and had no idea what it was. To be fair she didn't suffer terribly but she was so unsettled and made lots of noises. With my second we were much more clued up. I gave infacol alongside massage and lots of burping. It felt pretty helpless really although doing something was better than doing nothing.

[MulledTurkey]

Oscar- I was told the same thing about breastfed babies and wind! What rot, they do get it!!! Sometimes I wonder about the information we are given by professionals, not all obviously but some of them

[DMAGANTI]

My 1st child had severe colic till about 40 days. i remember clearly as I did not sleep more that 3 to 4 hours each day and then suddenly she was out of it.
We did give her colic medicine which would help for some time but it was the same after a few hours.
The colic pain would invariably happen during the nights and she would continuously cry. No amount of rubbing the back or carrying her would soothe her.
I had a feeling that it had something to do with the food I was taking, I am not sure what! Also I later found that it could also occur due to incorrect feeding posture, where the children gulp in air along with the milk!

Iam just lucky that I did not face the same with my second born...

[OscarPistoriusBitontheside]

Both of my boys had appalling trapped wind. I was repeatedly told that breastfed babies didn't get wind.

I used infacol with both of them along with generous doses of baby massage. I honestly recommended infacol to all of my friends now if their babies are windy.

Another thing I used to do was put them cross ways over my knees and rub and pat their little backs, seemed
To help move stuck wind.

[ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged]

DS had colic from around 3 weeks old to around 17 weeks old. It was hell. He cried for at least an hour every night for each of those weeks (usually around 3 hours). It felt like we tried everything - osteopath, 'tiger in the tree' hold, over the counter medicine, crying over the GP, begging HV for help, shhhhhhhh, white noise, the five Ss, a light show... I can't even remember most of the things we did!

To be honest, nothing really worked to cure it. He just gradually got better until we realised that he hadn't screamed for a while!

Even now, at 16mo, he doesn't sleep very well (waking at least every three hours overnight) and I wonder if those unsettled first few months have led to this.

I wish more was known about colic and I wish there was a cure.

[gemma4d]

I don't know if DD1 had "proper" colic or just always cried a lot at the same time of the day. With DD2 I discovered Tummy Tubs. All the relaxation of a bath but without the time (and cost!) of filling a big bath. It would definitely be on my "must have" list for DC3!

[Merida]

DS suffered horrendously with colic teamed with reflux. Oh my days, we went through everything. We used (at various times, and occasionally combinations of one or more of...

Infacol, Gripe Water, Colosynth granules - all worked for a couple of days then seemed to stop working so we used them on rotation!
Umpteen burping positions and 'pass the baby' as we each took turns
Jogging up and down on the spot
Dummies
Dancing round the room
Swinging him in our arms, and when most desperate extreme, the carseat (successful but knackering)
The most successful? We went on youtube and searched for baby white noise. We found a short track called 'baby got colic'. It is horrendous, it's like unleashing the hounds of hell upon yourself. However, the instant DS heard it he stopped screaming.
Cue us playing it on repeat over, and over, and over, practically every night for over a month.

What do I wish I'd known? We fed him on demand when we thought he was hungry, which was when he cried. I wish we'd realised that just because he was crying didn't meant he was hungry. He was quite a sucky baby and I'm sure now that we could've settled him with a dummy and let his last feed settle for a while before feeding him again.

They do say that hindsight is 20/20...