BnB Colic Support Group

[aliss]

Welcome to the BnB Colic Support Group


Colic is extremely frustrating for both families and babies. Families affected by colic are often exhausted and feel helpless. While we cannot "cure" colic, a baby will eventually outgrow it. This support group is for those who are going through this difficult period (often between 3 weeks to 4 months of age).

I hope we can share our experiences, information, and tips to help us get through this period and hopefully learn things to help our babies get through their colic period.

Remember - Colic CAN be managed. It cannot be cured, but there are ways to help make life a little bit easier in the meantime. It is sometimes thought that colic is "helpless" and that nothing can be done but to let your baby cry. This is not true. There are feeding techniques, baby wearing practices, sleeping arrangements, etc. that have been shown to help.

(I did not find one during the search, I apologize if one already exists)
*I will be adding more information to this thread on a daily basis as I am trying to gather as much sound medical and parenting advice that is available.

 

[aliss]

Our Experience With Colic

Our son was diagnosed with colic by a pediatrician at the Vancouver Children's Hospital at 5 weeks and 4 days old.

We have been dealing with colic symptoms since his first day here. Now, colic does not seem to present itself until 3 weeks, so we did not originally believe that he would have colic. Alex had shoulder dystocia, which resulted in a fractured clavicle at birth. In addition, he experienced a severe ear infection at 3 weeks. While all signs of colic existed at that time, we believed the fracture and ear infection were the causes. After the ear infection was cleared, the symptoms continued and in fact got even worse. After seeing several doctors (4!), we finally drove over an hour at 1am (painful screaming for several hours) to the Vancouver Children's Hospital in order to see a pediatrician immediately (you can imagine the frustration).

Diagnosis: colic.

Not what we wanted to hear, as we believed colic was a sentence! However, we learned a lot about it that night and the next morning as we did research. We have since propped his bassinet to a 30 degree angle, hold him straight up for feedings, keep him held up for 20-30 minutes after to minimize stomach contents coming up, practice baby wearing, and will soon be attempting bed-sharing. Alex is also on soy formula but that is unrelated to the colic condition.

We are in the peak stage of colic right now (6-8 weeks), so I hope to share anything that seems to work!

 

[mrsthomas623]

Great idea!! Nolan has been "colicky" since he was about 8 days old. It was devastating to us, you go 8 days and think you have an amazingly easy going baby, and then it hits you. Some days are easier than others, but on those bad days I just feel like he HATES me. I know its silly and he doesnt hate me, but when you have a baby, YOUR baby screaming at the top of his lungs, red in the face and nothing you do helps him... it sucks!

LO also struggles with silent reflux, so we are also on soy formula... I am thinking we will try weaning him off soy back to regular formula around 4 or 5 months.. after we have conquered colic!

 

[aliss]

Hi mrsthomas623, welcome (hmm) to the club!

I so know what you mean about him hating you! Before Alex was diagnosed, I use to cry and say "he hates me!". Ridiculous, but in the teary moments, it sure feels like it.

Today I purchased an Ergo baby carrier with infant insert (among my four other slings) because it tucks his legs into froggy position but supports on both my shoulders. He's been quite calm today but we aren't in the witching hour so it could be a coincidence. I'll update in the morning I hope it works... it was $150 but a desperate parent of a colic baby will sacrifice food for themselves in order to pay for a solution! Lol!

 

[Tsia]

My Baby Mylo had very SEVERE COLIC from 2 weeks old til around 4 months old.

It was so bad and used to leave me in tears because I couldnt stop his from falling!

I swiftly went from tommee tippee bottles to Dr Browns and used everything on the market and prescriptio from colief to infant gaviscon.. suffice to say only eased things.. but that was relief in itself!

 

[nicholatmn]

My little Aeri has been dealing with this since 1 1/2 weeks... it's horrible. I'll be here for a while...

 

[mrsthomas623]

Right now we are trying chiropractics we are so desperate. He has only had 2 appointments, and is suppose to have 8 more through out the next month. Not really seeing a difference, considering tonight was a very rough night. I am just afraid I am getting ripped off.. I figure I will give 2 more appointments a try, its just so expensive.

What really upsets me is when he is throwing his fits.. he wants nothing to do with me, no cuddles or touching. We have tried infant carriers and he screams louder (if even possible) in them. Anyone else have this issue?

 

[hayley_willis]

I am at a doctors appointment with Finley at 5pm. He creams in terrible pain and holds his breath and goes bright red. Infacol has stopped working and he spits gripe water back up. I hope I can find a way to ease it soon

 

[embo216]

Oh I wish this was around back when my 2 had this! Lily suffered very badly with colic up until 4/5 months really or until she could sit up by herself, Jack wasn't as bad but still suffered badly and it seemed harder to deal with because I had a toddler he kept waking up!

Here for any support you ladies need.xxx

 

[aliss]

My Baby Mylo had very SEVERE COLIC from 2 weeks old til around 4 months old.

It was so bad and used to leave me in tears because I couldnt stop his from falling!

I swiftly went from tommee tippee bottles to Dr Browns and used everything on the market and prescriptio from colief to infant gaviscon.. suffice to say only eased things.. but that was relief in itself!

Hi Tsia,

Glad to hear that you are out of the colic stage. We also use Dr Browns, it sounds like they are the bottles of choice. Any relief is good!

I will attempt to reply to all here, but he's crying again!

 

[aliss]

My little Aeri has been dealing with this since 1 1/2 weeks... it's horrible. I'll be here for a while...

Hi Nicholatmn, welcome to the club. Have you tried anything yet so far, anything working?

 

[aliss]

Right now we are trying chiropractics we are so desperate. He has only had 2 appointments, and is suppose to have 8 more through out the next month. Not really seeing a difference, considering tonight was a very rough night. I am just afraid I am getting ripped off.. I figure I will give 2 more appointments a try, its just so expensive.

What really upsets me is when he is throwing his fits.. he wants nothing to do with me, no cuddles or touching. We have tried infant carriers and he screams louder (if even possible) in them. Anyone else have this issue?

How long do you wear the infant carrier for? The only thing that works for us is a carrier that coddles him like the womb, and I usually have to wear it for 5 minutes of walking before he sleeps. Fortunately, I have a dog that is more than willing to walk outside with me at 3am. I use an Ergo carrier. My evenflo "Sway" was cheap and also worked great, but he outgrew it (max 15lbs). The ergo also keeps him upright so I can put him in right after a meal and keep him in a good position for acid reflux

As for the fits, I hear you. Kicking, punching, pulling my hair (I now use a ponytail all day to keep it from being ripped out. Apparently they can't hold a rattle at this age but they can beat up a full grown adult!

 

[aliss]

I am at a doctors appointment with Finley at 5pm. He creams in terrible pain and holds his breath and goes bright red. Infacol has stopped working and he spits gripe water back up. I hope I can find a way to ease it soon

It sure sounds like tummy trouble (the general cause of colic). If you aren't happy with what you hear from the doctor, shop around. I had to go to 4 doctors before one would realize it was colic and gave us wonderful suggestions on how to deal with it. Walk-in doctors and the family doctor brushed us off, only the pediatrician at the children's hospital really wanted to help.

 

[aliss]

Oh I wish this was around back when my 2 had this! Lily suffered very badly with colic up until 4/5 months really or until she could sit up by herself, Jack wasn't as bad but still suffered badly and it seemed harder to deal with because I had a toddler he kept waking up!

Here for any support you ladies need.xxx

Do you think that Lily being in an upright position really helped? I can't imagine dealing with this AND a toddler, you are supermom

 

[aliss]

I hate to brag but last night was a very good night.

Here is what we did different:

• Baby was given Little Tummys gas drops after the witching hour feed (7pm, hour is 7-10pm)
• Baby was put in his bassinet at 30 degree angle at bed time (1am, because we had to go to the airport)
• Baby was kept in the carseat from 11pm-12am while we drove to airport

He slept 1am-4:30am (OMG, I kept waking up to check on him b/c I couldn't believe it), fed at 4:30am, *WENT BACK TO SLEEP WITHOUT SCREAMING*, and woke up at 6:30am.

Truly amazing for colic baby. I'm not sure if it was a coincidence, or if the gas drops combined with 30 degree angle was the reason. He still screamed from 7-10pm as usual, but this was a great improvement.

 

[nicholatmn]

My little Aeri has been dealing with this since 1 1/2 weeks... it's horrible. I'll be here for a while...

Hi Nicholatmn, welcome to the club. Have you tried anything yet so far, anything working?

We give her Mylicon gas drops and walk around with her on our shoulder... but that only gives temporary relief. We really do try everything... sleeping at an incline, she sleeps on her belly... burping her every 4 minutes...
Guess we have to endure it for the whole time. When I was a baby, apparently mine was for 6 weeks and nothing helped it.

 

[mrsthomas623]

Aliss- Good luck for tonight! I hope he sleeps well for you!

Nicholatmn- Just start counting down until about 3.5 months and if it ends sooner than that it will seem even better!! I keep telling myself that we are about halfway there and we are still hanging in there! Nothing seems to help my LO either except for going outside.. but that only works for about an hour. Oh and bath time gives us some relief, how about you?

 

[nicholatmn]

Aliss- Good luck for tonight! I hope he sleeps well for you!

Nicholatmn- Just start counting down until about 3.5 months and if it ends sooner than that it will seem even better!! I keep telling myself that we are about halfway there and we are still hanging in there! Nothing seems to help my LO either except for going outside.. but that only works for about an hour. Oh and bath time gives us some relief, how about you?

We go outside sometimes but it never settles her. And baths only make her cry more. It's really upsetting. It's like nothing will help her. So we just hold her and let her cry and try as much as we can to comfort her.

 

[baileybram]

can i join as beth has had colic since 3 weeks and everytime we think we found something that helps it stops. So far we tried infacol,dentinox,gripe water, colief, colic calm (special ordered from america), avent bottle, tomme tippee bottles and dr brown bottles everything seems to help for a day or two and then its back to 3-4 hours of screaming not very good when you have a toddler to look after aswell our worse time is between 6-10pm. shes 2 months old today so hoping she grows out of it soon before we all go mad!!

 

[mrsthomas623]

can i join as beth has had colic since 3 weeks and everytime we think we found something that helps it stops. So far we tried infacol,dentinox,gripe water, colief, colic calm (special ordered from america), avent bottle, tomme tippee bottles and dr brown bottles everything seems to help for a day or two and then its back to 3-4 hours of screaming not very good when you have a toddler to look after aswell our worse time is between 6-10pm. shes 2 months old today so hoping she grows out of it soon before we all go mad!!

Oh hun.. you really have tried everything! Right now we are taking Nolan to the chiropractor twice a week, we seem to have a pretty good day the day of appointments but not any other days Its costing us a lot of $$ because it is not covered by insurance at all.