Sleepless and Desperate for Help/advice with Colicky Baby

Ha there mom! My heart goes out to you, I know exactly how you feel. My son cried so much no matter what I did when he was a newborn and up. And he spit up constantly; and a large amount too! The doctor ended up prescribing liquid pepcid and it really helped. She didn't prescribe it until he was eight months old. After they had me switch formulas like 3 times, and all these other remedies that did not help. She ended up thinking that his esophogas was not fully formed yet therefore he wasn't able to get the food down & keep it down. Similar to acid reflux disease. Anyways the pepcid helped with the pain or discomfort because the crying literally stopped. The spit ups didn't stop till a little after he was a year old. He was always wearing a bib and I kept towels to clean up the spit up every where I was. Hope this helps. Ask about liquid pepcid and the esophagus not being fully formed. Acid reflux for a baby; that must stink! Enjoy her; time flies!

Could be a food allergy if the stools don't look normal. Or it could be both reflux and allergy. Also, with reflux, not every medicine works for every baby. I know. My daughter has silent reflux and we're trying prevacid now. You may need to try a different medication. If you're not satisfied with the pediatrician's diagnosis or treatment, ask for a referral to a GI specialist. They will be able to help you better identify what is going on. With a reflux baby, the sooner you get answers, the sooner they can start feeling better and you can get some relief as well, so it can be best to head straight to the expert.

Also key is to elevate the head of the crib at least six inches. Gravity is a friend to reflux babies. You can find tips on doing this at www.infantrefluxdisease.com as well as other information on reflux and non-med things you can do to help it.

I was in the same boat but since the day started giving Babies magic tea to my colicky baby, he's much better now.

K.,

Congrats and hang in there! Our daughters share the same b'day two years apart. I was just about to type my advice when I saw Karly's advice - EXCACTLY what I was going to say. To this day I still use some of the Happiest Baby techniques with my 2 year old (making a loud shhhhing in her ear calms her immediately all this time later) and the Miracle Blanket saved me from jumping out the window when I thought I couldn't take one more sleepless night. You can get a smaller swaddle blanket at Target or Babies R US while you wait for the actual Miracle Blanket (I overnighted mine from Babycenter.com) and you can get the Happiest Baby Video at Babies R Us as well. Both will make your life so much easier.

Also, it's so hard when your tired and crabby and at your wits end, but babies pick up on our stress - when my daughter was a newborn and screaming like a maniac I would hold her close and take DEEP breaths to regain some sort of serenity - I firmly believe that is key in helping the baby calm down too.

It will pass...hang in there and get those two items.

Many of my friends have tried gripe water and they all say it's great. Even a pediatrician I know has said that for some unknown reason it does allieviate discomfort. Buy it at Whole Foods or Wild Oats.

Good luck! Hopefully as her system matures she will get over this. It was temporary for us...but a long, painful 4 weeks nevertheless. Hang in there!! :)

I have no advice, just reassurance that this will pass. My son had colic and I think I'm permanently psychically scarred by the experience. Good news is that it did end at about 9 or 10 weeks, and my second son was a dream baby. (I was owed!)

In retrospect, my first baby also didn't nap well, and I really believe that while part of his colic was upset tummy, a lot of it was just exhaustion by the end of the day. If I was doing it again I would try harder to get him to nap better. Also, keep trying different things. Try rocking in the dark, swaddling, and other things to minimize too much noise and distraction. It turns out that son #1 also has some sensory integration issues and is very sensitive to smells and noises, so I really think a lot of what was going on was just being overwhelmed by the end of the day. But who knows? I've also known friends who had babies who were lactose-intolerant and couldn't digest milk well, so keep trying and maybe something will work.

Good luck to you! It is every bit as horrible as you think, so don't feel like there's something wrong with you that it feels horrible - believe me, since I had one of each, easy baby and difficult baby, I know from experience that IT WAS NOT ME the first time. It really WAS hard and exhausting. Hang in there - it gets much better, and it really won't be that long.

Buy "the happiest baby on the block" today! it has great/ effective solutions for colicky babies. Gripe water is available at whole foods...it is safe, but i don't know how effective. You can also make gripe water by boiling fennel seeds in water, straining the water and putting the cooled water in a bottle (i used to mix it with breast milk). Remember, this is temporary!!! my baby cried for the first five months, non stop. she is now the happiest one year old in the neighborhood.

No advice other than it will pass but good luck to you and your patience while you go through it!
I see others had suggested your diet as a possible cause - dairy, eggs, spicy food and here's another one:
My friend was bf and was eating nuts during the day and her baby was very unhappy. She cut out the nuts and her baby's disposition improved. Maybe it's a food thing?

Don't despair!!!! My first son had terrible terrible colic. He screamed and screamed and screamed. It was a nightmare. It is a trying trying time but even though it doesn't seem like it, I promise she will grow out of it. She's pretty young yet and if i recall colic peeks out right around 6-8 weeks (that's how old she is, right?) and then slowly slowly gets better. Just keep going. Keep breastfeeding and don't worry about the spitting up. As long as she is gaining weight, she is fine. My son spit up about 3-4 ounces almost every feeding. But he was gaining weight and was healthy so I just cleaned it up and moved on. I also was very very sore. They only thing that calmed him was to put him on my breast. I bled and cracked etc. I used the lanolin to help my nipples and tried and let them air dry whenever possible. I know that you are searching for something to help but really you just have to live through it. Take breaks whenever you can and remember that there's nothing you can do but try to keep calm and sing, hold and nurse her. If you have a lucid moment, I recommend you read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Weissbluth. It has great advice for how to get your little one to sleep and how to make that transition from calming a colicky baby into helping her learn to sleep (around 4-5 months). Good luck and remember it will end.
M.
ps my oldest is now 4 and a pleasant boy and fabulous sleeper. It will happen for you too. You're doing a great job.

I wasn't sure if I could relate to this until I saw what time your daughter starts her crying. My son, from 6 weeks until 13 weeks, was colicky in the evening. It would start at about 4/5 PM and last until 8/9 PM. He also had issues with vomiting (not spit up) related to me producing too much milk. He would drink too much and vomit. If this is similar to your situation then here is my 411 on it. I quite assuming it was gas, food I was eating, pain, etc because it was at the same time every day. He was just colicky (but not full blown colic). He would fuss and cry at the time I mentioned above. The things I tried were: wearing him in a sling, going on walks in the stroller at the fussy time, car rides during the fussy time, running water so he could hear it, and walking laps around the house while holding him. IF this is your situation, and you have ruled out a medical issue, then you really just have to ride it out. MANY, MANY babies go through this in the first 3 months. And when people tell you that after 12 weeks it gets easier and is wonderful THEY ARE RIGHT! It was like a magical date and once the 3 months ended the vomiting ended and so did the colicky nights. If it is medical I don't want to undermined you or the doctor but in our case it was just crying because babies cry and that was all there was to it. I do, however, wish you luck. It is hard and make sure you ask for help. I started making my husband come home earlier from work so he could walk laps around the house :)

I had a colicky crabby reflux baby too (she is 7 months now and it's all over, trust me it does end some day!). In the meantime while you wait, you must run out and get two things that will change your situation immediately. 1) the "Happiest Baby on the Block" DVD by Harvey Karp (get the DVD, who has time for books when you have a screaming baby). 2) A Miracle Blanket. You would never believe what a nice tight swaddle does for a colicky baby, but without that blanket I don't know how we ever would have gotten any sleep. You can only order them online I think, so while you wait you can get a Kiddopotamus swaddle wrap from Target, but the Miracle blanket is worth every penny. We just weaned our 7 month old daughter from it, and I am saving it in case our next baby is a screamer (let's hope not!) Good luck!!!

Sorry to hear your baby is having a hard time. Just a couple more thoughts... 1. Have you had her tested for allergies? My nephew was very fussy and it turned out he has a severe allergy to eggs (which my sister was eating every day while bf) in addition to reflux. 2. Have the lactation consultant check to make sure she is not tongue tied. This is frequently missed by docs and can cause difficulty for bf.

Good luck and hang in there!!!

I tried Gripe Water with my son and it seemed to work ok. I just saw it at Babies R Us, so I know they carry it. As far as BF and soreness, try to pump (if you have access to a pump) jsut to keep that milk production high. And take a look at your diet. I found that my daughter is uncomfortable and full of gas if I eat tomato sauce (spaghetti, pizza).

Good luck.

cut ALL dairy from your diet immediately and see if baby's gas improves. we had this problem, and as soon as I stopped eating/drinking dairy the gas problems went away. our lactation consultant told us to do this... it totally helped.
you can drink soy milk, buy soy butter
you can still eat yogurt but I switched to soy anyway
whole foods has an awesome variety of non-dairy foods to choose from

Hi there K.-

Your baby and I share the same birthday. You're in for a strong willed child!

Hang in there...it does get better. As the mom mentioned below, try cutting out dairy. I had some very similar problems and once I cut out dairy it helped a lot (I too was BF). I only needed to do so for about 4 months and now she's fine with dairy. My little one was very fussy, cried a lot, was very gassy, etc (although she didn't spit up).

Also, I used Gripe Water and although I don't think it's a super cure I think it did help (also helped hiccups which my daughter had about 3x/day). You can get it at Whole Foods and I think the brand is Wellements. I ordered one through Drugstore.com. The only difference is the one I got from Drugstore.com didn't need to be refrigerated like the one from Whole Foods so it was easier to take along in the diaper bag. It's very popular in Ireland/England and they use it all the time for colic.

The Happiest Baby on the Block is also excellent. The only thing I would say is get the DVD. The book is a bit long to read when you need immediate help. I tried to read it several times and never had the patience to get through it so I got the DVD on the advice of a friend. The techniques really work. You should be able to buy it or get it at the library.

Good luck and this to shall pass...

D.

I know how you feel. My baby girl also went through this stage. It started at about the end of the 2nd week after she was born and ended around the 9th week. I found that swaddling helped tremendously to keep her asleep. I read the Karp book too and used those techniques. I still shush my daughter and rock her when she gets upset know and it still works. She'll just stop and look at me and then put her head on my chest and calm down. I also used the gas drops after every feeding. This seemed to bring her the biggest relief. I tried gripe water, but the gas drops seemed to work better. The Field's on State street sells it in their apothecary section. I cut out most dairy and all caffeine, but I'm not sure that it really helped. The other thing we found was that she was over stimulated very easily. If she was passed around between a lot of people or we took her out for errands during the day, the nights were worse. Good luck, and she will turn back into your little angel soon.

K.:

I am sorry you are having such a tough time...it is not easy when baby's are crying.

If you have sore nipples there is something wrong with the latch....

It could be that she is reacting to something in your diet.

Gripe water is like so many things... there are people who swear by it and others who think it is not good... I ordered it for a mom last year who loved it... I still have some if you are interested... ingredients are: ginger extract/fennel extract/sodium/deionized water/glycerin/fructose/methylparaben( a preservative)citric acid and propylparben (a preservative)

I would suggest you call a lactation consultant and get a consult..

P., RLC, IBCLC
Pres. Lactation Support Group, Inc
www.lactationsupportgroup.com

I found Gripe water at Whole foods. MY daughter was really gassy in the beginning and then she just grew out of it. try holding her alot on her belly on your forearm.
Good Luck!!!

I bought a white noise maker at Bed, Bath and Beyond for about 19.99 (less with coupon!). it works wonders at calming my baby. she is a screamer as well. when i got really desperate we swaddled her, bounced on an exercise ball while in a dark bathroom with the shower running. try it, it works. then we moved to the noise machine on "rain" sound.
i completely agree with the DVD and Miracle blanket! if all else fails, call Birthways, and have a post partum doula come over and give you a hand. i was dying a couple weeks ago, and this is the best advice anyone could give me! if nothing else, they will talk with you on the phone and give support.

I used GripeWater with my son - it was very helpful as he had very bad gas. Would cry for hours off and on. Mylacon did not help at all. It's safe up to 6 doses a day (I think).
Also, my pediatrician told me to occasionally use a suppository to make him toot / poop. That helped too. Fortunately, at a few months old, he seemed to grow out of it. There is a site for GripeWater that will list all the retail locations, but Parkway Drugs definitely carries it.

Hope it helps.