Advice for Helping Colicky Baby

Hi L., you poor thing it is not easy having a colicky baby. One question, are you breast feeding or formula. If it's breast, it could be what you are eating that is bothering her. If it's formula, you could try one of the specail ones for less gas, look around, I know there are a few different ones for this. Also, sometimes sounds like a stove fan, hairdryer, vacuum cleaner, help soothe the baby, why we don't know. But I know you can buy cds online that are recordings of these sounds. My friends recorded the sounds herself on a tape, but buying them is so much easier. Also, the Sound Machines, like White Noise and waterfalls my work. Good luck, it's not easy.

My daughter was the same way and it was terrible, but there is an end in sight. One day she'll just stop and that will be the end of it. I know it's frustrating but it won't last forever.

Hi-- i'm a working mom w/ 2 girls 3 & 6. My youngest had colic, it'd happen late afternoon between 4-8. We never went anywhere! She did however like the swing, it swung side to side. What i wish i had tried was the chiropractor. I myself go, but have been told the wonders they can do w/ babies that have colic or reflux,etc. They can actually correct these w/ a couple adjustments, its just awesome to see the difference. Good luck!

You know, I really thought colic wasn't that common - at least that's what the baby book says - but after reading all these comments, well, geesh.

My daughter had colic as well. Unfortunately, I was the only one dealing with this as a single mom, so I had to escape. Whistling for some reason, seemed to soothe Winter. I also carried her belly-down on my fore-arm with her neck resting on the inside of my elbow and her legs hanging down around my wrist.

And then there was the pacing.

Seriously, I never had another baby because of the colic. It's awful to say, but the first four months of my daughter's life were the worst of mine.

Good luck!

I have been lucky enough to not have any of my three kids be colicky but other mom's who do have colicky babies swear by the exercise ball! They gently bounce on it w/ the baby and it seems to calm them down sooner than usual.

Good luck!

Hi!! My 4 month old daughter was also very colicky. (And I also have a toddler too!) She would cry literally for hours and hours a day. There is a place in Providence, RI, a "colic clinic" where they can help you. I took my daughter there several times. It was covered by our insurance, I only had to pay copays. Please consider making the drive to see them. They spent probably 3 hours with us at our first appointment and gave us a lot of ideas and suggestions on how to help our baby. They look at things like reflux and allergies, etc. If you are nursing, you might try cutting out dairy; if you're using formula you might try a hypoallergenic type such as Enfamil's Nutramigen or Similac's Allimentum. Have you read "the happiest baby on the block"? That is about how to calm babies. We would swaddle her up tight and lightly jiggle her, that helped sometimes. Sometimes NOTHING helped. But I am happy to tell you she is not colicky anymore. She has even started sleeping through the night. Right around 3 months she just started acting like a much happier baby. It's amazing. I really feel for you because I know how hard it is. You can email me if you want (____@____.com). Good luck!

Here is a link with some more information on the Colic Clinic:
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Children_at_Risk/Colic.htm

i my daughter was also colic and it was not fun i had to switch her formula to nutramigen and she was wonderful after that

I went through the same thing with my daughter. I cried right along with her. When I called my mother for advice one day she came over grabbed the baby and said I didn't have the patience for it. Needless to say, She left crying becaue she couldn't settle the baby. Finally one day I was so exhausted I dragged her swing to the bathroom to take a bath while she was screaming her head off and to my suprise as soon as I turned on the water she stopped. After that I did it all the time I got to do dishes clean the bathroom and she would fall right asleep. Good luck and let me know how this goes.

My oldest boy did this. What I did was sing to him and rub his belly as I rocked him. It worked some nights, and on the nights it didn't, I walked around with him, my husband I would take turns for a little while just holding him and walking with him. It does get better! Good luck to you!!!

I would lay her down take her diaper off , put it underneath her butt and massage her tummy in a clockwise motion. Bicycle her legs and push gently on her tummy till she farts/ passes gas for you.!

My friend's son had the same issue. Her ped told her to give him some chamomile tea mixed in with his milk or formula...it is all natural and helps the baby to relax. I have also seen Colic Tablets by Highlands, I think you can get them at any pharmacy, again they are all natural. Good luck!
K.

Hi L.,
Although I didn't have a colicky baby myself, I have done a great deal of research on babywearing (I make infant slings, www.ellabellaslings.com) and have discovered that it really is a great relief for colicky babies to be carried in a sling. Let me know if you would be interested in one! A couple of moms that I have made them for with colicky babies informed me that their babies immediately would stop crying once they were put into it. It keeps their bodies in the position that is most comfortable, and enables you to have your hands free to do other things! I would love to make you one! Good Luck
A.
ellabellaslings.com

try Gripe water you can buy it at any all natural health food store it works wonders!

Hi L., I feel for you beleive me. My daughter is almost 4yrs old now but she was very colic as a newborn. I think b/c she was our first and it was so hard is one reason we are taking our time having another baby. My daughter was breast fed fo the first 3 wks, then she started with the gas pains and the nonstop crying, it was so hard b/c I could feel that she was in pain, and I couldn't fix it. I watched what I ate and everything, finally my pedo put her on formula, and that was a little better but night time was a huge battle. Finally after taking her into him numerous times he put her on karo syrup. We tried the mylicon drops and they didn't help, my pedo had me give her one tbs of karo syrup mixed with water every other feeding only during the day for 2 wks. It worked, it helped her move her bowels more, and she liked it. I don't know if you know what that is, cause I didn't but it is just a sugar syrup, and it is very sweet and you mix it with warm water. Ask your doc about it. I know every doc has their own approach and i do not rec doing this unless he says its okay. But it helped us. My daughter was never a good sleeper, and to this day bedtime is a battle. But it does get easier. As you have a 2yr old and prob know. Good luck

Hi, I help out at a home for pregnant moms and moms with new babies...so besides having two of my own I have been around a lot of different babies with a range of issues. The most helpful things to do that i have found is in the movie (or book if you have the energy to read right now) called Happiest Baby on the Block...It was written by a doctor who specializes in baby soothing and it is five easy steps to calm a baby and keep him or her happy for the first three months...the steps take very little practice and I usally only have to do two or three before the baby calms down...the hardest part is to be calm yourself. It was recommended to me by a PhD in Human Development and I have used it over and over again.

My daughter had reflux more than colic BUT there are definitely some things that helped us deal with the fussiness. Most important for us was swaddling as it helped to calm her down. I nursed as well, so I was very careful about what I ate - if it made me gassy, it was going to make her gassy...so I cut down on some dairy, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. As soon as she finished nursing, I would make sure she burped several times and would then hold her upright for about 20 mihnutes as that seemed to help with the spitting up. There ARE natural products that can help so you may want to go to a Whole Foods Market and inquire. It is frustrating...but they DO grow out of it.

Babies magic tea is a good natural tea formula to deal with colic, reflux and constipation in newborns. The tea is safe and healthy for even first-day baby because of it's organic and preservative free ingredients.

You poor thing! We lived through 3 months of colic with our daughter last year and it was a nightmare. Definitely try "The Happiest Baby on the Block" by Dr. Harvey Karp. It saved our lives and sanity and I now give it to all my friends with their shower gifts! The vaccuum helped a bit, too.

As for the suggestion about gripe water, I don't want to start any trouble here but you might want to check out the FDA's website before using it. My mother-in-law was going to bring us some and I did a bit of research on it because it was an herbal-type remedy -- not that I'm opposed to those in general but I am neurotic when it comes to my daughter so I had to check it out before giving it to her. Honestly, I don't remember exactly what I found but I do recall that it was not approved by the FDA, and I could be mistaken but I think it was banned from importing into the US. I know a lot of people swear by it, including some pediatricians, but I just wanted to let you know that there are some questions about it.

Best of luck!

What type of formula is the baby eating? ...or is she nursing? Maybe the formula can be changed to something else to see if it makes her less gassy? If she's nursing, is it something that you are eating that could be making her gassy? Just a thought. I hope I gave you some food for thought.

- E.

What are you doing for feedings? Breast Milk? Formula? My son was colicky. He refused my breast milk (that was extremely hard for me) I found Similac Sensitive. He was Lactose intolerant like I am and the regular formulas made him gassy and bound him up. He is doing great now and sleeping through the night! My cousin had a problem with her son as well she found she wasn't able to est tomatoes. So for a year while she breast fed. She didn't eat tomatoes. I'd say with your daughter being so gassy you should probably do a food change, or if your breast feeding eliminate acidy things or lactose stuff (one or the other so you could see what's bothering her). Talk to your doctor about this idea, I know it worked for my and my cousin.

I know that the gas and crying stopped almost completely within a week of me giving up dairy (I was breast feeding. The doctor had told me after 6 months I could start eating dairy again. I did and it's been fine. My daughter is 15 months now. You may want to check and see if she is sensitive to dairy. They make soy formula too if you're not breast feeding.

R.

My son had colic. We started using Dr. Browns Bottles, and we used Little Tummys Gas Drops (it has all natural ingredients). I think that the Dr. Browns Bottles work amazing... you can buy them at Walmart, Toys R Us, Target... I think that the grocery stores even carry them. If you arent using formula and are nursing, then it is something that you are eating...

My daughter who is now 9 was a very colicky baby it seems like nothing I did would calm her down. I used to stand and rock her in the bathroom with the water running or use other white noise strategies, like rocking her near running washing machine however they only were a temporary fix. Now , what I am going to tell you was NOT recommended to me by a physician but I went to the Herbarium, a homepathic, herbal store and was given this herb that had to be refrigerated because it had acidopholus in it. I do not remember the name of the herb but I am sure any herbal store would. I would boil this in water to make a tea like liquid and then use that liquid instead of plain water when making her formula. from day 1 it worked.

The thing that helped us the most is the advice in "Happiest Baby on the Block" - swaddle, swing, shussh, laying baby on her side, and sucking. SERIOUSLY awesome advice. I don't know how we could've survived our dd's first few months otherwise!

My son was very colicy. I breastfed for 10 weeks and than we put him on Similac Soy (When we supplemented with formula before I stopped breastfeeding Enfamil Lipil was upsetting his stomach). He got even more colicy when we switched him and ended up having to put him on Enfamil Nutramigen (it is made for fussy and colicy babies) and it worked very good...watch out though, it was costing us about $25 every 2-3 days. My son was still pretty fussy and was still spitting up huge amounts after every feeding so at his 6 month checkup the doctor finally figured out that he had acid reflux and prescribed some medicine. Almost instantly the spitting up and fussiness stopped. I suggest seeing your doctor. But the Ocean Price Ocean Acquariam swing was also our miracle. It can swing sidewades and when my son was the most colicy, the swing would almost instantly sooth him. Good luck...just hang in there because this time will pass and hopefully you won't have to go through the aggrevations that we had to figure out what was wrong!!!

My daughter is 4 months old now but was exactly the same as your little girl at 6 weeks. I thought colic would never end but it does. Swaddling helped my baby more than anything else. Swaddling and turning on the vacuum while rocking her or putting her in the swing would calm her down in minutes. I used to get frustrated that I needed to rely on swaddling and vaccuums to calm her down but she was so much happier! The mylicon did nothing for my baby. The doctor kept telling me it was what I was eating affecting my breast milk so I changed my diet completely and it did nothing. I truly believe she cried so much because she was tired and just needed extra help falling asleep. She still has to be swaddled to go to sleep but no longer needs the vacuum or the swing. Unless you have a colicky baby it is really hard to explain to others that awful exhausted, helpless feeling-hang in there and trust your insticts!

If your nursing, watch your diet. Some foods cause gas for baby. If your using formula you might need to change to a special formula like Nutramigen is a hypoallergenic formula for infants who are sensitive to intact protein found in milk-based and soy-based formulas.
I'm experienced with this, my son at 7 weeks (I was nursing & supplement w/formula) had lots of gas and big man burps. The formula helped and also a milk & soy free diet for you. Rice milk was the milk I drank. I hope this helps. Good luck!