Colic - Bradenton, FL

J.... I was going suggest Gripe Water but someone already did. I used that for my son who is also Colic and he hasn't had a crying episode like that in 2 weeks.

You can now get Gripe Water in GNC!

i have used Gripe water and my new native baby sling. the sling keeps them in a little ball and make them feel comfortable like they are back in the womb. also i would lay my daughter on her stomach and patted her back it released some of the gas and also using a thermometer with alittle vasoline in the rectum moving in a circular motion helps release gas and if baby is constipated will help them make a bowel movement.

Gripe Water! I tried the "american" version which has dill in it and that didn't seem to help as much. My husband brought home gripe water from England (no dill) and it worked wonders! You can find it online on English products websites (try google) and British/Irish import stores. I believe some health food stores carry it as well.

I remenber those sleepless nights of Colic! I feel for you! What i found that worked the best was Garber gas drops. Also Hylands makes a all natural colic tablet that disolves either in there mouth or in there formula. Works good also. Another idea is camomile tea! All natural! These things worked great for us! Brestfeeding is hard with gas, because you never know what it could be! Good luck and hope one of my ideas helps you!

I have found that if you take a peppermint candy, the red striped ones and let it dissolve in about 4-6 oz of water, and then put it in the babies bottle. This has always worked for me. Somehow the peppermint seems to soothe the little tummy. you can always use 8 oz of water if you feel the peppermint water is too strong. The water only needs a slight taste of the peppermint. I hope it helps.
D.

The legs (we called it the bicycle) thing worked for my daughter. Also, holding her in a football hold and patting her back did too. The football hold is where the baby is draped on your forearm, belly down, her head at your elbow and your hand holding her between her legs. Haven't had to use the thermometer trick, but I've heard that works well too.

Are you exclusively breastfeeding? If (and ONLY if, because you don't want to cause nipple confusion) you are feeding by bottle too, one small bottle of prune juice diluted with water or breastmilk would work.

Dr. William Sears' The Baby Book is my go-to for everything... he gives a lot of options to try. Take a look. He's saved my sanity many a time while my daughter was brand new! And he's very pro-breastfeeding, so his advice is geared around not interrupting bf.

Let us know how it works out!

I would try using Dr. Browns bottles if your not already. They work great to help reduce gas.

L.

My son was very colicy and we had him on formula and changed that about three different times. I too used the gripe water which worked wonders. Here is the website you can order it from http://www.babys-bliss.com/. Some of the natural food stores might have it. I remember seeing it at Talors Natural Foods. Hope this helps.

The highlands colic tablets were a God send for me. Both my daughters had colic. Screamed day and night. I would dissolve a couple of tablets in their mouth and that took care of it.

This happened to me, I changed my diet completely, nothing work. We finally discovered it was one of the vitamins I was taking.

Oh, I feel for you and her. It's so hard to watch them go through that! The bicycle thing worked, and the rectal thermometer thing worked for my daughter, and so did simply spreading her cheeks and rubbing her tummy at the same time. Also, since my daughter used a bottle from very early with no nipple confusion, we replaced her mid-morning breastfeeding with a bottle of pedialyte at the suggestion of her pediatrician. That really helped her get rid of gas. Her Pediatrician said as much as she wanted to drink. I always had to feed her the next feeding a bit sooner than normal, since the pedialyte wasn't as thick as the milk, and didn't last on the tummy as long. Good luck, and hang in there, it does get better!

Hi J., my name is Lisa and my daughter is 2 weeks old and suffering from colic already. This is my 4th baby and all had colic so I am accustomed to it. I am also breast feeding solely. Mylicon drops have never helped my babies. Colic starts around 2 weeks, peaks at 6 weeks and continues until about 3 to 4 months. If you are lucky like me, it continues until about 6 months........lol. You do have to be VERY careful with what you eat. No gassy foods at all. I am originally from Trinidad and we use something called gripe water. It is an English product and does contain some (I think not even 1%) of alcohol in it. I have used it for all my kids. I am a nanny and the last baby I had I cared for him from 6 weeks old until 13 months old. He also had colic and I told the mom about it. She found it here in Florida and used it. She nows swears by at and it does help. We babies have bad colic and I would use almost anything to give them some relief and stop the crying and give me some sleep at night since my babies get it during the night also and it interferes with their sleep. If you need to talk you are welcomed to call me. ###-###-####. Good luck, Lisa.

J.,

I am now breastfeeding my third child and one piece of advice I can give you is to watch your dairy intake. If you are having dairy with cow's milk in it, it could possibly be bothering your baby. I have to watch how much cereal, cheese, etc. I intake. Good luck! Keep it up.

T.

my son had gas really bad too, he was allergic to lactose. No broccolli, no cabbage, nothing that would naturally give you gas. ALSO, try laying her on her back when she's gassy and grasp an ankle in each hand and push her knees gently to her chest a couple of times, and alternate them also. Do you have a vibrating bouncer chair? That worked WONDERS for my son.

My son had the worst colic when he was a baby and I used Gripe Juice I think you can find it in the health food stores, and it's natural and safe.

Try Little Tummies Gas Drops. I had no luck with Mylicon either but the Little Tummies worked for me. Also, you don't have to eat a bland diet. That is a common misconception. The only things you ingest that effect your breast milk are things that get into your blood stream. When you eat a bowl of chili, you get gas in your intestines not in your blood. The only things to effect the baby are cows milk (there is an enzyme or protein in cows milk that gets into your blood stream and can upset babies tummies), caffeine, alcohol, etc. This is what I was told by my lactation consultant.

Both of my twins had problems with gas and constipation and someone recommended these 'leg exercises' to me, where you lay them on thier back and slowly and repeatedly push thier legs up so thier knees are pushing into thier stomachs a little bit, hold for a couple seconds, reverse, and do it again. Do these a few times throughout the day, it really, really helped for my babies!

I had the same problem with my daughter. After many sleepless weeks I got a cold and didnt drink milk for 3 days to cut down on mucus. well what do ya know, she stopped crying and started sleeping. just to test it I drank milk again, and we went right back to "normal." So I cut dairy out of my diet (which is hard, but worth it for them) I drink soy milk (SILK is the best) and mix it with ovaltine for vitamins and taste. after a few months I can now eat some cheese with out it tearing her up, but icecream and milk still get her all wound and bound up. I would try one week with no dairy and see if it makes a difference. Good Luck!
J.

ps I dont know how often you give her the mylecon, I had to give it at every feeding and it did help some. (before I figured out the lactose problem)

My son was the same way. My husband and I took shifts to sleep. It was terrible. I think I called my pediatrician every other day. But his solution was Nutramigen. Its a very mild formula for babies. I too was breastfeeding, and still my baby continued to cry and cry and cry. I didnt know what to do. Nutramigen is expense though, and it stinks, but once I started giving it to my son it saved the day. talk to your pediatrician about it.

Hope this helps!

J.~

I also have a daughter who suffered from "colic"......you know the catch all phrase for any baby that seems to have gas or cry for what seems to be non stop. I read through a couple of the of replies that you got, and did agree with a couple. I would have her checked for acid reflex......when Cadence was 7 weeks we had her checked and the meds seemed to help. Also a bouncer chair will do wonders. I didnt belive it when the DR told me that, but it was the best 30.00 I spent. Good Luck!!!

K.

My little girl is just about to turn 6 weeks also! Congrats! At about 4 1/2 wks she started getting fussy and gassy too. I am also breastfeeding and sometimes supplement w/formula. I also tried the Mylecon Drops and they didnt seem to work. My ped told me to switch the formula to Enfamil GentleEase, watch my diet (which is already bland,also I was told to watch out for whole milk b/c that could be a culprit too) and my sister told me about gas drops called Little Tummies (white bottle w/blue letters) its a bigger bottle, cheaper, and it seems to be working well. I also have been burping her for a few min before beeding and 5-10 min after, just in case. Another friend told me about some kind of disolveable tablet that seems to have helped for their fussy baby, they found it at Walgreens. Good luck!

Have you had her checked for acid reflux? My daughter was diagnosed at 7 weeks and was put on prevacid. No more gas...no more colic. She is now 2 and doing great.

Good luck!
L.

Oh how I feel your pain, and hers! First get some advice from your pediatrician! He or she may have some ideas I did not hear of.
My daughter was the same way and she was in so much pain and miserable! It was awful.
I did try two things that were helpful. One, was to put a warm rolled towel next to her belly when she side slept. You can wrap a water bottle inside. This is for daytime only when you can watch over her closely.
What helped the most, however, was expelling the gas. A nurse who came to my home showed this to me.
My daughter, excuse me if I sound gross, was a long distance pooper. From the changing table if I lifted her bottom and she let out gas, the poop would literally fly into the wall. No one had seen anything quite like it. The child was in much pain from this severe gas (I nursed, too, but watched so closely what I ate!).
So what the home nurse had me do was keep a jar of vaseline and a rectal thermometer at the changing table.
I was terrified to do this at first but I got quite used to it, especially after the relief it gave her.
When doing diaper changes, a couple of times a day I would lift her bottom and insert the thermometer (with vaseline on the tip) Into her rectum about as far as the first digit of my index finger. This almost always caused her to let go of gas (and gets quite messy, too, so be sure to be ready for a BM).
The amounnt of gas relieved was amazing! And to keep it up was what got her on the road to recovery, which couldn't have come soon enough.
My poor baby. I wished someone had told me about it sooner. It could have saved her a lot of tears of pain. And mine, too, from watching her suffer and thinking there was nothing I could do to help her.
I hope it works for your little one! There is nothing like having to see such a tiny baby suffer in pain. :-(

You will get through this. My son was colic for 6-10 hrs a day. Some tummy time may help, a warm bath or believe it or not turn on the vacuum. If that does work, may I suggest in purchasing a large box fan the loud ones. FOr some reason my son would stop crying the entire time the vacuum ran. Pls let me know if this works for you. Your a great mom, hang in there. oh yeah, try burping after every 2 ounces

Well, mine was, too.

We tried EVERYTHING, and nothing really worked. Our pediatrician suggested reflux, and we did notice *some* symptoms, but even after her meds, she cried. I mean, the medication did what it was supposed to... and DID help the reflux. So you might look into that... Dr. Sears (askdrsears.com) or his baby book will give some good info on it.

Having said that, NOTHING worked to soothe my baby girl. Long after the typical 3-4 month age range when colic is 'supposed to' disappear, she was still crying and screaming, practically all day, every day. Medically, she was great. Finally, in great distress (and stressed!!!) I almost yelled at my Pedi in tears, "What in the world is WRONG with this child???" She lovingly told me, that, well... some babies are just 'more difficult' and have 'more challenging temperments'.

Not to frighten you. Just to let you know to do what you CAN do... make sure medically shes ok, comfort her as best you can. Youve already made dietary changes, etc. Try not to be discouraged.. I couldnt avoid it, and had the WORST postpartum depression as a result of owning her distress (I must be a horrible Mommy... she must hate me... If I were a better Mommy, I could soothe her and comfort her... etc) You can only do what you can do, and ride it out from there. If youre child is like most, 3-4 mos and it will be over. If shes like mine, youll see improvement gradually, in bursts, but small ones. There was improvement at 8.5 mos, 12 mos, and 13.5mos. and now, at 16 mos, she 'whine' cries (which is toddler behavior) at times, but mostly, is a lovely, loving child, who... what do ya know?? Loves her mommy more than anyone else in the whole wide world... despite the fact that her mommy couldnt stop her cries when she was tiny :)

Do what you can, and love her... and remember to love yourself! Hang in there, sweetie. It WILL get better. I used to hate when people said that to me... but it does, it really does.

Hi, J..
I can make 2 reccommendations for you.

1) I find that Little Tummies Gas relief works better that Mylicon.. I think less expensive too
2) A true god-send for our 2 1/2 month old twins.. Gripe Water. It takes care of ALL of tummy problems (i.e. colic, upset tummy, etc). You can find it at Babies R Us. I swear by it for them. Try it out.

((((J.)))) I remember those days! There is alot of good advice here....I agree with Teri, try cutting out your dairy and see if that helps....My first started with "colic" between 4 and 6 weeks...he cried all the time and had the worst gas. Nothing seemed to help. My mother mentioned that both my brothers were like that and they were lactose intolerant. (she breastfed and so did I) I tried cutting out all the dairy in my diet, and switched to that lactaid milk and within a couple of days, the improvement in my son was amazing. After about a week, I slowly allowed myself a little dairy here and there, and he was fine with it. When my first daughter was born, I made the mistake of waiting until she got the colic-y symptoms before I stopped the dairy, and she spent a week or so crying...with the third, at 2 weeks I switched to the Lactaid and cut out dairy and she was just fine. Good luck! I hope she gets better for you!

Jen R.

J., I have a 7 week old and was told she has colic too by my pedi. I did research and her symptoms seemed to go with the discription. Crying for hours at the same time every day. It's not what you are eating or anything that you are doing. It's just that thier little stomachs haven't fully developed yet. I went to my chiropractor and had her checked to see if she was out of alignment (which can happen on thier way out of the birth cannel). A friend of mine did this and her son stopped crying with in 24 hours. To no avail, she was not out of alignment. My chiropractor did show me how to massage her stomach to help give her some relief. That worked sometimes. However the best thing that I have found is a book that has been recommended to me from several different people. "The Happiest Baby on the Block" works like a charm!!! It basically covers 5 technics to settle your baby. I HIGHLY recommend you read it. It's not a big book. She is still fussy, however we have learned (through the book) how to calm her in a quick fashoin. The more we practiced it the quicker she calms down. A nurse even dropped her jaw when she saw my baby start screaming all of a sudden and I had her calmed down and asleep in less than 2 minutes. (that doesn't always happen :). But she asked me if it was the Happiest Baby on the Block book. She had heard about it but never seen it. It is truly amazing. Please read it..you have nothing to lose. It makes alot of sense. The bad news is everything I have read and been told by the doctors is that fussy babies are high need babies, with sensitive personalities. They will remain so through out their lives. :) As long as you know what your dealing with its not so bad. GOOD LUCK!!!! By the way, the book covers everything that all the other mothers have discussed on this post.

Dear J.,

My daughter had terrible colic and it went on for a long time. We tried everything natural and nothing workd. Then I found an out of print book about babies and it said enzymes. I bought an all purpose enzyme and I gave her a 1/4 of a capsule in her mouth. Waited 12 hours and did another 1/4. No bad reaction. The next day I did 1/2 a capsule, waited 12 hours and another 1/2 capsule. On the 3rd day I did one whole capsule. The colic was GONE after the whole capsule was given and it NEVER came back. Enzymes are crucial for digestion and some babies are born not having enough in their system. The health food store has enzymes for babies but they cost a fortune and I thought a rip off. I used adult full spectrum enzymes. In other words an enzyme that helps digestion of fats and proteins. It is up to you but I thought I would give you this tip.

Deb

Hi J.! We struggled with colic too. It ended right about 12-15 weeks, so hang in there. I tried just about everything, but one thing that did seem to provide some relief was "Gripe Water." You can find it online and in some health food or specialty baby shops. Other than that, the Hylands Colic Tablets seemed to help every once in awhile, but results were inconsistent. One thing I finally did -- for the last 5-6 weeks b/c I was DESPERATE, was to give up dairy myself. I read several articles that blamed colic on the infant's intolerance not to human breastmilk, but to the milk proteins that passed from my foods to my milk. This was tough! I do not like soy milk, so my only "dairy fix" was imported feta cheese (made from sheep's milk) and goat cheese. Other than that, I went "cold turkey" on the dairy and saw a marked difference in Owen after about 3 weeks. (It takes approx 3-6 weeks for all of the milk proteins in our bodies to exit through the milk.) It was a very difficult thing to do, but when Owen settled down and seemed to be in far less pain, it was completely worth it. :) Good luck!