Colic

We've just discovered in the last week and a half our unsettled daughter is suffering from colic. She's fully breastfed She will get it late evening and during the night. I've started the use of Infacol (wind drops) and Gripe water after her feeds. I've also heard chamomile tea is good however I don't think it's helping all that much most nights my husband and I are up most of the night. Any other ideas for things we can try?

Hi Claudia what a hell of a time you are no doubt having. My son had both colic and reflux so I can relate to you. We found Infants Friend a great help to us. We used this both before and after feeds. It is along the same lines as Infacol but you get it from a chemist. We use to massage our baby which involved warmed olive oil (just in your hand) rubbing it on the babys tummy. If you go in circles be careful to follow the bowel which is clockwise. You can massage their whole body but no doubt on no sleep and at 3 o clock in the morning this is the last thing on your mind!!!. You can help the baby by bending their knees up to their stomach gentle then straigthening them... repeat....... etc. We found our baby loved to have a foot massage. You can also but them in a bath which soothes them. My husband used to get in the shower and let the water run on the babies tummy and back. We also used a heated pack wrapped in a nappy (so as not to burn) on his stomach which also helped. I was unable to directly breastfeed so I expressed my milk and then gave it to my baby but have you contacted the Breast Feeding Association as they may be able to offer different positions to feed your daughter. You could also try putting her in her pram and just pushing it around the house as sometimes just the movement will help. The only other thing is to see a health clinic where a really good midwife or health nurse may be able to offer some other ideas. I was given a hand out from my midwife and it suggests trying any/all of the follow and go back to what works for you-: Sucking at breast- dummy or bottle, rocking or cuddling, carrying in a baby sling, walking with baby, driving in a car, raising the cradle or bassinet at the head end, warm water bottle over the babies tummy, warm bath, quiet feed times, change of scenery- music -vibrations, go outside the house, massaging, gentle exercises. We took our baby to a chiropractor for his reflux, I am not sure it they could help colic but perhaps it is worth a try. We also visited a bowen therapist who worked on him and showed my husband what to do next time. Sometimes it worked, but perhaps we were not doing it properly. But the main advice I can give is to look after yourselfs and try to get plenty of rest when you can. I can not stress enough the old rule of when baby sleeps you sleep and that goes for Dads too. Remember without sleep you can not function and 2 adults and a baby with no sleep is not a happy household. The housework is not going any where and dont be too proud to ask for help. Good Luck.

Claudia I have just read in the New Born forum after yours under "caring for your baby" a few more ideas which may help you. It was the 4th post from the top.

Claudia,
It might seem a bit extreme but the chiropractor worked wonders for our little boy. He is just on 6 months and we only took him a couple of weeks ago and I wish I had taken him months ago. His colic was chronic - from early morning to late at night. Now he is a completely different baby and completely happy, even teething. We did read in books about things to do and we tried some. Turning on the vacuum cleaner near his cot worked every time. As soon as it went on he vagued out and within a short was asleep and then we would turn it off after a little while, and the clothes dryer would do the same. Apparently you can turn a radio off a station and the grey noise is supposed to work but never got to try that one.
Good luck. If these don't work I can look up my books further for other pieces of advice.
Ange.

thanks for that I missed those when I did a serach for them.

Claudia I dont know what happened to my posts but my lengthy reply was sent before the added bit about other posts. I saw the small post was added straight away but my original post took around 2hrs. The message must have come across as being a little abrupt, without you knowing I had offered a few suggestions myself earlier. I do apologise. Not too sure what went wrong but it looks like the problem has now been fixed. Sorry!

Janeen,

Thanks so much for all your advice, I did try those Braur drops also and they made her sick. I think it's getting better now (or perhaps I'm getting more use to it), we carry her around a bit to settle her colic and perhaps she may be getting use to this also. I don't think there is one solution for this I think it only settles with a combination of things as you mentioned the warm bath does work, the rocking, rubbing her belly to bring up wind and she'll also take our finger to suck on when she's upset she refuses the dummy completely! Anyhow thanks so much for your help, I've used a combination of "tricks".

Hi mums,
Just a suggestion that helped me, i originally tried infacol with both my babies but seemed to have no affect. 3 days ago i tried 'infants friend', and what a change it has made.
Every baby is different so its worth a try. You can get it easily at the chemist in the baby section. It works by helping relieve wind from their bowels.
Goodluck and how are things going?

Hi Mums,
When our son was newborn we used Donnalix and it worked really well. Infant's Friend did nothing for him and we still use Infacol every feed now. It does help him with the wind to a certain extent, but the chiropractor was the most successful. He still farts a lot and we do manage to burp him or he burps himself but we still had to settle him until the chiro. fixed EVERYTHING! Every baby is certainly different.
Good luck!
Ange

Thanks Ange, we ended up buying the Donnalix and in the last 3 days she has certainly showed a lot of improvement. I was told by a midwife that using gripe water in the morning after the first feed could also decrease colic during the night as it took 12 hours for it to work effectively. So both of these things have worked really well. Though she still has the colic around the same time every night it is better. The Infacol really had no effect and as mentioned earlier the braur drops (as we gave them another try in the end) made her throw up.
Thanks everyone for your advice.

Hi Claudia,
I'm really glad you found something that works. I know what it is like. We have enough stuff to open our own pharmacy as so much didn't work, but it's funny that the Donnalix does and others don't. It also has a nice taste and we found that he really enjoyed his dose and he knew that his feed was coming straight after too. Have you thought about the vacuum cleaner, or a taping of it or the radio off station?

You're welcome.

Ange.