Colic - Willow Springs, IL

I had a disabled daughter who had really bad colic for 18 months. Try rubbing the heals of his feet, rubbing his tummy in a clockwise motion, infant massage (you can look up online), tummy time. Good luck!

You probably have heard of this by now, but Colic Calm is gripe water and sold on the internet under coliccalm.com. We had a small problem with colic last year and it seemed to help so I thought I'd throw it out there! Good luck!
Jane

N.,

Our first son had colic. It was absolutley terrible. Many days/nights I was in tears out of frustration and exhaustion. I couldn't wait to get back to work and at the same time I was scared to death that daycare would call and tell me they couldn't keep him since he was so bad. His colic wasn't just in the evening, it was all the time. It was terrible.

First of all, talk to your baby's doctor. There are other reasons for an inconsolable infant besides just colic. I actually WAS allergic to my mom's breastmilk as an infant and had to go on a meat-based formula (this was 34 years ago, though).

We swore by the Mylicon drops, but our doctor didn't hold much faith in them. They did seem to help with us. We didn't try gripe water, but have used it a couple of times for our new 8 week old son (thank GOD not colicky!).

Sleep when your son sleeps. I'm not sure if you are a SAHM or not and if your 2.5 y/o is in daycare. If she is, keep her in daycare so you can sleep during the day when the little guy naps.

Swaddle, swaddle, swaddle. Jacob loved it.

Others may object to my next statement, but I would fall asleep with Jacob in my arms while I was sitting up. I put the nursing "Boppy" on my lap and leaned back with him on it. There was no chance of him falling off and he would finally sleep cuddled up with me.

Most importantly, get some help. Call your Mom, sister, mother-in-law (unless she makes you more stressed out), friends. See who can help you so that you can get a break and get some sleep. There's nothing wrong with taking a trip to Jewel for an hour while someone else sits with a crying baby. Most people don't mind because it's only an hour for them and they get to go home! Lol.

Finally, please know that it does end. If it's really colic, you will get relief at about 12 weeks. It was like turning off a switch with Jacob. All of a sudden he was a happy baby boy.

Colic stinks. Now that I'm the mom of an un-colicky baby boy, I feel that my days with my first son were robbed by colic.

Good luck and feel free to email me if you need to vent. It helps. Lol.

T.

My first was "colicy". she did not have a "witching hour", it was all day! She was either eating or crying with just a bit of sleep here and there. I was told to ride it out by the doctor, it was normal, it was colic blah blah blah. I gave up dairy, tried the Mylicon drops, bicycling the legs, etc.

Finally after several weeks the doctor had me give her some Mylanta which seemed to help a bit. I was able to get her to fall asleep easier, but only with a swaddle, LOUD white noise. Finally after 6 months the pediatrician put her on Prevacid (this is the time she projectiled her spit up all over the doctor LOL!) which made a huge difference. We finally were able to wean her from it at about 14 months.

I never gave her formula. I did cut out a lot from my diet (including all dairy, even the hidden dairy in some foods), but I'm not sure it ever made a difference.

To help me cope during the crying hours, I used information I read from 2 books. One was "The Happiest Baby On The Block" by Dr. Harvey Karp and "The Secrets Of The Babywhisperer" by Tracy Hogg. Both I got at my library. They both had some wonderfully helpful tips.

In the meantime, do whatever you can to get some rest. Have your husband get up in the middle of the night and bring the baby to you to nurse so you don't have to get up. I actually started cosleeping which got us all some much needed rest when the sleep deprivation was at its worst.

Good luck! It can't be easy with another child too! Atleast my challenging one was first, my second was a dream and I was able to appreciate it!

My first child had colic and then second two had (have) severe reflux. I'd rule out reflux by talking with your doctor. Either way, I would "use" the book Happiest Baby on the Block. I didn't have it in 2001 for the colicky baby, but it worked miracles on the other two. Become an expert swaddler and do the other 4 things he mentions and your baby will stop crying and will sleep. It worked for me.
Good luck,
K.

I am not sure how you feel about this, but I have recently read about the wonders of chiropractic care on kids - I only thought that adults with backpain went to a chiropractor, but have read that parents have taken their babies to a chiropractor and had their spine scanned, found a sublexation, got them re-aligned and it worked wonders. If you would like a reference please contact me as I found a caring place where actually the majority of their patients are children.

Hi N.,

My daughter was thought to have colic around the same age and it actually turned out to be reflux. She was nursing, so I changed my diet to exclude tomatoes, citric acid, any spicey foods (garlic, onions, etc.) and any gassy foods. This helped tremendously. We wish you all the best. I know what the sleep depravation is like.

I recently read that probiotics will help colic. I don't have any first hand experience with it, but it's worth a try. My daugther was colicy (so was I). She lived on Mylicon, which worked sometimes, but not always. Just remember...as bad as it is right now, this will pass.
Good luck!

All of that is sooo familiar! My daughter had colic with acid reflux til she was 9 months old. (Sorry to tell you that) The Dr did prescribe her Zantac because after every bottle, she spit up half of it. I did use Mylicon, which seemed to help break up the bubbles in her stomach, and my experience with gripe water was it didn't really do anything but stop her hiccups. The most important thing is to have patience and try to stay calm during the crying (very hard to do, I know). My daughter needed motion to help her stop crying. Try a baby sling, which keeps them close to you and snuggled up. Walking and bouncing until she fell asleep helped my daughter also. And bicycling her legs helped relieve the gas she was holding in. Just remember to be patient and it will all end before you know it! Good Luck!

I hear your pain. My son had what you would call "silent reflux" and I had to figure this out on my own (from reading on the internet and I am a nurse). The pediatrician's use a term "colic" which can affect a baby until age 12 weeks typically then they claim a baby should outgrow it. We suffered through the 12 weeks since our pediatrician wanted our son to outgrow the "colic" and they did not want to medicate. In the meantime, no one got any sleep (including my son who typically slept only 8 or 9 hours in a 24 hour period because of pain), we tried gripe water, mylicon, changing formula's to ultimately a very expensive formula. Nothing really did the trick UNTIL he reached 3 months and out of sheer anger and sleep deprivation, I demanded they treat him. They prescribed Zantac which worked very well (it did not make him completely comfortable but it was tolerable for both). If this doesn't work then there are numerous other alternatives (Prevacid is one). The problem is that pediatrician's are uncomfortable using this type of medication as it has not been tested or approved for use in young children. The adverse event profile is very safe. One other thing we had to do is let our son sleep in the car seat all the time and we would rock or swing the car seat pretty fast to soothe him. It's alot of work and you will be exhausted trying to soothe your baby but there is an end in sight. Best Wishes!!!

Like many of the others who have posted, my older daughter had colic and we suffered through 3 months of non-stop crying ALL DAY. They finally figured out she had acid reflux and projectile vomiting at times. Then they treated her with Zantac and a very expensive formula and that did help.

However, if your son is only crying during a period at night, often called the "witching hours," this is very common and is not necessarily colic. My younger daughter went through this. It was pretty much during the same hours at night and lasted for a few hours. This is just their body adjusting. Apparently, newborns need to cry somewhat. So, I wouldn't be quick to medicate with prescriptions just yet. And being so young, your pediatrician will hesitate to do so probably. With my younger daughter I did try Gripe Water (however, I just heard some recall on that). Gas drops did nothing for us. Actually, putting her in the swing and vacuuming the house is what helped. Dr. also recommended "white noise" (i.e. vacuum, clothes dryer, etc.).

Hope this helps....it does get better, but after a several weeks.

Hi N.,

Before you see the pediatrician, journal your son's behaviors. Everything from how long he slept, what it took to get him to sleep, every time he eats, how much, when he poops and it's consistency, every time he spits up even if it's just a little, hiccups, if you see him arch his back or want to curl up in a ball, every time he cries and for how long. Basically a minute by minute account of his day....for at least 3 days if you have the time.

This will help give dr's a more complete picture and make a diagnosis easier.

It is possible to be allergic to breastmilk, especially if you still have dairy/soy in your diet. These things can be in so many foods that you don't realize, either.

Reflux is a possibility, symptoms should be fairly consistent.

Colic is usually when there is about a 4 hr period of them being inconsolable, most often in the evening.

It might take a few tries to get the right diagnosis. We had to fight with our first pediatrician, who kept saying my son was just colicky. When he in fact had reflux, a milk/soy allergy and was losing weight.

It's tough not knowing, I hope this can help you in your search for a remedy

:) J.

if you are nursing, stop eating/drinking dairy. you'll see an improvement within a week!

Let me start off by saying that I am so sorry for what you are going through. Our baby was colicky too and it was a miserable hell in our house. Ours ended right around 16 weeks.

Some people will tell you that there has to be an exact reason for colic, but if you'd lived in my house you'd understand that there was absolutely NOTHING wrong with our child. We checked EVERYTHING out, made adjustments for reasonable periods of time (i.e., not just one night), and were not able to pinpoint a single reason why he screamed his brains out all the time. I was feeding him expressed breastmilk and basically eliminated every 'bad thing' from my diet and gave it a few weeks to work it out of my system and still no change.

Fortunately, we did find a few techniques to help calm him down:

Swaddle - Use a receiving blanket or a SwaddleMe blanket with velcro tabs.
Swing - Try putting your baby in a swing.
Shush Sounds - You can use a white noise machine (we always turned on 'the ocean') to mimic the sounds that were created in the womb.
Go for a drive - If I needed a break, we'd get in the car and he'd fall asleep almost instantly.
Routine - start following nap/sleep routines to familiarize your child with pre-sleep activity

Also, for the first 8 weeks our baby slept strapped in his bouncy seat on the floor of his room. It was the only way he'd fall asleep.

I wish you the best of luck and my heart really goes out to you.

Hi,I won't bore you with my story of colic as you got lots of good advice already on here. My daughter had colic and acid reflux as well. So if your baby doesn't get better soon make the docs give you acid reflux medication. Prevacid worked for my daughter when the others didn't. Also, the mom that mentioned probiotics- I read that too- in Europe they did studies and babies with "colic" that were treated with probiotics were so much better. See if you can give your baby Florastor (its a powder, you could mix it in the formula/breastmilk?). It is at all drugstores, sometimes behind the counter, but just ask for it. But ask the doctor first. I personally do not believe in colic, I think doctors just dont have an answer adn don't know what is wrong. If your baby doesn't get better be so proactive because you know your child better than any doctor does!

N.,

My daughter is 15 weeks old and for the past two weeks it has been like I have a new baby. Nothing worked except walking around and holding her on my shoulder. The vacuum cleaner would calm her down long enough to get her to nurse if she hadn't in awhile or even just to get 10 minutes of quiet. My friend used to sit in the bathroom with the fan on with her colicky baby. It could be allergies to something in your breastmilk, but there is often a change in stool when it is an allergy - check with your peditrician. Our MD didn't think it was an allergy because our daughter's symptoms were consistently worse in the late afternoon and evening hours and I didn't eat the same thing everyday. At around six weeks she started to get worse, but we think this was a growth spurt and she needed more milk than I could provide. So we started giving her a bottle of formula when she was obviously hungry and I didn't feel full. I also used Hyland's Colic Tablets which seem to work sometimes or maybe she was just exhausted. I tried to use Gripe Water but I couldn't get her to take the amount directed. I would also sleep sitting up in my bed with her on top of me. She seemed so much more comfortable upright. It does end. Oops there she is ~ Good luck!

My 5 month old breastfed daughter had "colic" and acid reflux, which I learned are often related. We started at first with the painful crying for hours at night and then she started to pojectile vomit after eating at about 5 weeks. It was like someone turned on a switch at 6pm and she would just start wailing. Everyone kept telling me "every baby has a witching hour" and I thought it couldn;t be normal to have her scream in pain for hours. I took her back to the doctor and he said that some fussiness was normal but 4 hours daily was not and prescribed her Zantac to see if that would help.
Within 2 days, she was a happy baby and the crying and spitting up stopped. We did have to have the dosage adjusted as she got bigger but at 4 months we were able to wean her off the medication and she has been fine.
We used Mylicon drops regularly too as the crying causes more gas, so it becomes a vicious cycle.
My doctor actually discouraged us from use gripe water becuse he said he has seen cases where it made the issues worse, not better.
We also found bouncing her while she was laying across one of our legs face down seemed to help. I think it push pressure on her belly to offset the gas pains and it would allow her to calm down a little and sometimes fall asleep.
That is what worked for us, so I hope you find the right solution for your little guy. I can sympathize with how painful the experience is on everyone. I felt so bad she was in pain and there was nothing I could do!

Good Luck!

My heart goes out to you and your child will out grow it. I know not very comforting now. My son started having symptoms early on of colic too. It ended up being Acid Reflux. The dr said many parents think its colic when it is acid relux. We swiched him to Enfimil AR liquid (its heavier and sits lower in the stomach)and previcid. It seemed to do the trick. So my vote would be to talk to the Dr.

Try a baby sling or carrier. My son, although not colicky, was a very fussy baby, but would always quiet when in the baby bjorn. Still works like a charm at 8 months.
Good Luck.

It could very well be an allergy to milk if you drink milk! Call a lactation consultant and they will explain how you eliminate things from you diet to try and see what is wrong. With my son, the colic ended up being acid reflux and he had to go on zantac. One thing that always worked well for him was taking him outside for a walk around the block.

N.:

"colic" is a catch all term that covers many things... it could be something you are eating/ it could be something in the breastfeeding management - how often/how long you are feeding/ it could be related to latch and positioning/ it could be caused by something physical.

my suggestion is that you contact a lactation consultant to assist you through the maze. you can look on www.ilca.org for lactation consultants.

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

Dear N.,

We had something similar happen with our now 6 month old son. I had exclusively bf my two older daughters, and was nursing the baby. He was miserable! He basically cried every second of the day that he wasn't nursing. He would fall asleep at the breast, only to wake up the second we put him down. He seemed like he was in pain all the time. I kept going to the pediatrician's office, and they kept telling me "its considered normal for some babies to cry up to 8 hours a day." He did sleep some at night, but I always felt like it was out of complete exhaustion and it was never for very long. So, finally, at 8 weeks, our main pediatrician (we go to a big practice group and don't always see the same person) suggested taking a 4 day break from nursing and switching to a special formula called Nutramigen. Its made by Enfamil and is hypoallergenic (and really expensive.) I was skeptical, since my daughters had both thrived on breastmilk, and were huge, healthy and good sleepers, but I was ready to try anything. The change was incredible. Within 36 hours, he was the baby he was supposed to be. My husband joked that they must put Bendadryl in the formula, because all he did was eat and sleep, which was pretty much what our other 2 children were like as babies. I was so happy that the difference was so clear because I would only have given up nursing for a really obvious improvement. I did talk about my diet with the pediatrician, but we decided that I was hardly eating any dairy at all and she wasn't sure what else could be causing the problem. Plus, it might take weeks for me to isolate the offending foods and eliminate them from my diet. So, we just switched to bottle feeding. Now, we do spend a small fortune to feed our little guy, but he is happy and sleeping, and so are we. Now that I've tried to introduce solids, it is clear that he has a super finicky digestive system and we will talk more about that with the doctor tomorrow at his 6 month checkup. Sorry for the long post -- basically, I just wanted to say that if the doctor suggests an approach like this, it might work for you too! I thought it sounded really strange but it worked for us.

My son had almost the same thing, lots of crying especially at night. Glad to hear he's breastfed--good for you. Unfortunately, it can be a milk allergy/sensitivity from you so you may want to watch what you're eating. Both of my boys had trouble with dairy. If I had any milk, cheese anything they were miserable. Once I cut it ALL out, they were better. My suggestion, remove all dairy from your diet. It may take a few days to notice a difference. My younger son needed the mylicon drops in addition to dairy free for me but it made a huge difference.
Good luck, I hope you get some sleep soon

If it happens prior to your bed time I would say sling him and walk around the house etc. When I would put my son in a pouch sling or Bjorn he would be quiet. Infants that are carried with the moms cry about much less that those that aren't. Hope you find some solutions.

Try once babies magic tea and I hope your baby will be all fine just after the first use.