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

[TheMysteryCat]

Ds has colic from about 8 weeks old. I tried lots of things; infacol didn't have any impact, gripe water ( when old enough) didn't work, propping the Moses basket up didn't work. The only thing that eased it was baby massage.

He would become so distressed, tight stomach and thrashing. Mostly I just held him.

I think it eased off after 12 16 weeks.

I would try the massage again if I had another child.

[WeeSooty]

My DD is 9 weeks and has mild colic. After a feed she squirms and crys and curls over her tummy. Apparently when I was wee I used to do this as well but much much worse.

I use infacol at every feed and it really seems to help. However the dropper that infacol comes with often doesn't fill up with the full dosage, it looks full but it's not so we have found she sometimes gets worse as we have mistakenly not been giving her the correct amount. Several of my friends with new babies have the same problem. It would be a great help if the bottle could be redesigned!

[ballroomblitz]

Ds got colic at 6 weeks old - but as he was 6 wks premature, adjusted age he would have been a newborn.

How did I know? I just did from the constant crying and it was a night and day affair for him. My health visitor agreed with me it was colic. I found it makes the baby cues very hard to read - you're really not sure when they're hungry or need winded or in pain. Infacol didn't work, along with everything else I bought. Comforting him upright on my chest while tapping his back shhing him helped slightly. Putting on the hairdryer stopped the crying almost instantly, which would resume as soon as it went off.

Honestly it was one of the toughest periods of my life. Several times I had to put him down in his cot and just walk away as I was frightened his crying was going to send me over the edge.

6 weeks later it magically, blissfully seemed to stop almost overnight.

[TheGrandPooBah]

DS, who was exclusively breastfed, had terrible colic for 6 months. He was fine during the day, but would suffer from about 5 pm to roughly 10 pm every night. Standing up and walking around with him helped - if we sat down with him, the only way to stop him crying was to hold him up in the air. He would often wake in the night, and the only thing that would soothe him was to hold him in my arms and bounce on the side of the bed. I'm sure our neighbours thought we were having frequent and and amazing sex, but nothing could be further from the truth. It was absolutely horrendous and completely draining. What did seem to help - although this may just have been coincidental, when he was growing out of it - was the teething powders. Our younger DD thankfully never had colic at all.

[MistyB]

Oh and standing outside in the rain in the evening with DS in the sling using the time to inspect the guttering, wondering if I could watch TV through the window and if the neighbours would think I was weird!

[MrsHoarder]

Ds had colic, he cried solidly for hours. We have him infacol after every feed, not sure it made a difference tbh. His bouncy chair in vibrate sometimes helped, our being carried about. Other than that we just held, fed sang and reassured whilst we rode it out.

[hobnob57]

What is colic - inconsolable crying in a small baby with no apparent cause, often in the evenings

I've had 3 babies with 'colic', as identified by gp's an hv's, all from birth until long after the 'magic' 3 months. For one it was constant. The last baby it was early evening until 1 or 2 a.m., sometimes all night. They all have food sensitivities and silent reflux which made things much worse. Even with medication and adjusted diet, the colic symptoms were there. Fussiness, inability to settle, even on the breast, crying and thrashing around. We have used infacol - not sure if it did anything but it made us feel like we were doing something. Nice marketing strategy.

Things that helped were jigging up and down, walking, constant movement (but not rocking side to side oddly). Using a mei tai sling. On occasion a dummy helped. Sometimes a change of scene.

What effect did it have on us? My partner felt helpless and defeated by it and eventually resigned himself to the fact that only mummy could possibly console the baby (sometimes) and I began to resent the fact that I never got a break. But we know it does stop. It does make you jealous of other babies that are meek and mild and settled and how their parents can stare at them as they sleep peacefully instead of crashing out during every nap.

[MegBusset]

DS1 had colic, or rather he cried A LOT, every evening, til he was about 3mo. In retrospect I'm not even sure if colic is A Proper Thing rather than a description of symptoms; is there a recognised medical definition? Anyway he was a very unhappy baby, had reflux and eczema and (we found out later) a crapload of food allergies. We got through loads of Infacol, I was never sure if it was doing anything but he seemed to cry more if he didn't have it!

It was a pretty horrible time tbh, we tried white noise, carrying in sling, feeding, tiger-in-the-tree hold, baby massage, god knows what else. Nothing really made much difference, we just had to wait it out!

[LittleAbruzzenBear]

DS1 didn't get colic at all, but DS2, who is 4 months old now, had it horrendously until he was 10 weeks old. We did try Infacol, gripe water and cooled boiled water. None of it really helped. He was a smaller baby, when he was born, than his brother (7.11lbs) and I think that when he grew, hence his tummy was bigger then it eased. It was awful at the time as I had to have a second c-sec so found it over-whelming and would try anything to help prevent colic.

[LittleAbruzzenBear]

*would have tried anything to help prevent colic.

[milk]

"It is known that women who smoke during pregnancy double their chances of having a baby who develops colic.
This may be because smoking causes a rise in the levels of a hormone called motilin during pregnancy. Increased levels of motilin may lead to symptoms of indigestion and colic shortly after birth."

With this information known, why do I keep seeing pregnant women smoking?!?

[turnipvontrapp]

Do you or have you ever had a baby who has suffered from infant colic? Yes, had 2.

How did you know what the condition was? Usual symptoms - crying, pulling legs up, lots of wind.

What symptoms did your little one have and how old were they? Crying, pulling legs up, wind.

Please share anything in particular that helped to comfort your baby. The only thing that worked for mine were Cranial Osteopathy, it worked like magic.

What could have helped you during this period? A resident cranial osteopath!

What effect, if any, did colic have on you or your partner? Very stressful at the time

[Mibby]

DD had colic till about 4-5 months, we did use infacol and it seemed to help. It was mostly trapped wind and even now, at two, she still has ' windy' days. Cant seem to link it to anything specific tho :(

[R2PeePoo]

DS had colic that was linked to lactose intolerance. He screamed from 8 weeks until he was six months, was a real struggle to feed and really found it hard to sleep. He could scream for hours and hours. I don't remember a huge amount about that time as it made me really unwell physically and mentally but I remember the arguments with DH about it. Poor DD didn't get much attention at all.

The only thing that helped was me stripping off and putting him in a Moby wrap sling in the froggy hold (with his legs sort of out and up) in just a nappy. The warmth and skin to skin contact gave him enough peace to go to sleep and after a few weeks I could put my clothes back on and it still worked.

[Nervousfirsttimer]

My ds suffered from about three weeks through to ten weeks. You could pretty much set your watch by him, kicking off at 6 and he'd scream through till 9pm. We got good at eating one handed! Infacol helped to ease it a bit, but nothing cured him completely, just time! Now he's 20 weeks and we have teething screaming instead!

[turkeyboots]

DD had colic. It was horrendous and we had no clue what to do. Was told by various HCP that we had to suck it up as crying was what babies did.

In retrospect DD probably had reflux. But no-one seemed to be able to differentiate between them, so we struggled on til she was 8 months and it vanished.

Wail of anguish at the memory!

[SpitSpot]

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?

[SpitSpot]

DS2 had colic from about 3 weeks until 3 months. He screamed every evening in obvious discomfort with an arched back. We tried various different treatments but the only thing that seemed to help was Colief in some expressed milk given in a bottle. Also massaging his stomach and holding him front down along my arm while rubbing his back helped to soothe him.
It was very hard to deal with the screaming and seeing my baby in pain, and it was exhausting! It was a massive relief when he seemed to grow out of it.

[weenwee]

Ah, Infacol. We had about 50 bottles (it seemed!) of that stuff lying around at any one moment. I don't know if it helped, but it sure as heck didn't hurt! :) Sadly, time and the knowledge that your child isn't dying were the only true cures.

[henryscatoscar]

Much like most people our go said we had a colicky baby which is a catch all term with no exact medical definition. We tried rapid pacing which sometimes worked. The best thing we used was a grace sweet peace(I think) which swings the child side to side,this was pricey but gave us some relief. In the end it turned out our son was milk protein intolerant. Hence we had to use a substitute.infacol did help but much persistence on our part and seeing manus docs got the right diagnosis.

[DGMommy]

My first had terrible colic for her first 4 months. My go-to position for her was to hold her with her back to my tummy, my arm under her tummy and sort of half facing down, half facing out. It put a small amount of pressure on her tummy and seemed to relieve her a bit. Plus, she was close to mum, which is still her favorite place to be (she's 7!).

[OanaChi]

My wee one cried a LOT the first few months. We thought she had colic initially and we tried(among many other things) Infacol but unfortunately she turned out to be refluxy and we had to resort to medication in the end.

[CordeliaChase]

Infacol was an absolute godsend for my DS! He had reflux and was colicky, poor thing was so miserable. I tried everything for his colic, new bottles and off the shelf remedies. Nothing worked. Then I was in sainsburys one day and picked up some infacol. I popped some in his next bottle, and it worked! I couldn't believe it! I had spent a small fortune trying everything else, and a little bottle of infacol sorted it. I have since recommended it to a few of my friends who have colicky babies, and they all think its great too.

[BadMissM]

DD had awful colic..., from a few weeks old until about 6-7 months. I was miles away from anyone in my family (they were in another country), and my MIL seemed to think that pain was good for small children. I was despairing about what to do, I didn't know what was available in france as it is quite different to what is available in the UK, until a Dutch neighbour suggested weak camomile tea with a little honey in it.

I tried it, and it worked like magic.... But it would have been nice to have a simple, over-the-counter treatment!

[SuzySheepSmellsNice]

We think DS had colic for a while, it was horrible watching his little face contorted with pain. We gave him Infacol and I do think it helped him. Also, he had a slightly sore toenail and had to have antibiotics, which tasted VILE (properly disgusting, even I would object to taking that medicine) and we found that a squirt of infacol after the medicine helped to take away the taste, and stopped him from getting an upset tummy :)