Colic hell

[Willow82]

Is anyone else's baby suffering from colic? My 3 week old DD has got it bad, she's up from about 8pm and doesn't settle again until 3am. She's obviously in pain, pulling her legs up etc. I feel so sorry for her and helpless in trying to comfort her. We're using dr brown bottles and dentinox but neither are helping at the moment. I have a 3 year old who is waking up at 5am as well. I'm so exhausted

 

[Rainbow82]

Are you feeding EBM or formula? If formula try changing it, we have at various stages In the last seven months been through normal stage one milk, anti reflux milk and comfort milk. I've heard coleif is supposed to be good. You could also try some baby massage on her tummy, just a bit of oil in a clockwise direction. If you think she has got a lot of trapped wind also try bicycling her legs and if dentinox isn't working try I fail or gripe after when she's old enough. Unfortunately though some babies just have colic and there's nothing you can do except know that it will pass and get better. If that's the case for you make sure your OH is helping all he can taking baby in the evening till about 10 so you can get a couple hours sleep early on then getting up with your DS at 5 to give you a bit of extra sleep.

 

[miana]

I know how you feel! My DD has very bad colic but luckily for us it seems to hit her during the day rather than at night, I can handle it during the day! Ha ha
She also has silent reflux and takes FOREVER to burp sometimes! Is it possible your LO might have that too? I just googled the symptoms and she had nearly all of them!

She's our first child so I feel for you having another child to tackle at the same time I can imagine how exhausted you are!

We have tried so many things! She is breastfed but I do express and use the Dr Browns bottles too and they work great in my opinion but it can be hard to get time to express sometimes when she is having bad days.

The only thing she likes is to be on my shoulder walking around until she burps! Which is really annoying when you're tired and just want to sit down for a bit.

Do you swaddle her? I know that really calms my bub right down. That and sticking a dummy in her mouth(which I didn't want to use but desperate times call for desperate measures )

I'm in Australia so some of he stuff I've tried might have a different name where you are? We had her on Zantac but that didn't work so we ended up putting her on Losec because so many people recommended it but it can take a week or more to work. We also had her on this special pharmacy mixture called colic relief which worked really well, it's basically like a gaviscon / antacid type stuff.
We ended up taking her off everything because we thought we were overloading her system but have just started up 2 of them again to give them 1 more go.

There's unfortunately not a lot you can do for colic it is usually sorts it's self out around 3 months sometimes 4. I know it seems like forever away, it did to me, but it does go fast. DD is 12 weeks on Wednesday and I can't wait for it to start to tone down!...... I would love it if in Wednesday it just miraculously stopped ha ha but I know that probably won't happen

I don't know if that was helpful but at least you know you're not alone, it's amazing how many people have had colic babies.
Hubby wants another baby(eventually) but if that baby has colic I think I will go insane!!

 

[miana]

Oh I also wanted to say if you LO is on formula(or part formula part breast) you could try a goats milk formula? I'm not sure if they have them where you are as there is a bit of controversy with goats milk for infants and some countries don't have them.
Lots of people recommended it to me for the silent reflux but it's a good option to try over cow milk formula or soy(soy has the same sort of protein as cows milk that is the culprit for upset tummies.... Soy can make them feel even worse than cows milk).

I'm seriously considering putting her on formula because of how she is and that she is a very fussy feeder but I'm holding off just a bit longer to see if she settles by herself a bit. We have a bit of an issue with out formula here at the moment (high demand for Australian formula in China and they are wiping out some of our stock supplies of certain brands). So if I can keep her on the boob it's just less stress for us.

 

[laila 44]

What helped me dd when she was little was enfamil lactose free formula. The pedi recommended it saying it was the lactose in milk that most newborns have trouble digesting therefore leading to gas. The lactose isn't necessary anyway. For us it made the world of a difference xx

 

[Willow82]

Thanks for all the advice. She's combi fed at the moment although I'm not sure she's getting much from me as I have a really low supply. She's on aptamil stage one and we've been using the dr brown bottles but they don't seem to make any difference.

We're trying dentinox as well with little effect. I might try infacol in a week or so. We've tried moving her legs in a bicycle motion, having her over her shoulders but nothing seems to make any difference.

That's interesting about the silent reflux. Is difficulty burping a symptom of it? She is ridiculously hard to burp and bottle feeding is taking well over an hour due to her need to burp and not being able to. She becomes really fussy as if she's in pain sometimes during feeds and afterwards. Other times, she's not as fussy but still takes ages due to wind.

When she does settle, it still takes about 2 and a half hours due to breastfeeding, bottle feeding, winding and then trying to get her to settle. Does this sound like silent reflux?

It's so frustrating!

 

[Willow82]

Thanks for all the advice. She's combi fed at the moment although I'm not sure she's getting much from me as I have a really low supply. She's on aptamil stage one and we've been using the dr brown bottles but they don't seem to make any difference.

We're trying dentinox as well with little effect. I might try infacol in a week or so. We've tried moving her legs in a bicycle motion, having her over her shoulders but nothing seems to make any difference.

That's interesting about the silent reflux. Is difficulty burping a symptom of it? She is ridiculously hard to burp and bottle feeding is taking well over an hour due to her need to burp and not being able to. She becomes really fussy as if she's in pain sometimes during feeds and afterwards. Other times, she's not as fussy but still takes ages due to wind. Does this sound like silent reflux?

When she does settle, it still takes about 2 and a half hours due to breastfeeding, bottle feeding, winding and then trying to get her to settle.

It's so frustrating!

 

[MrsC10]

Hey hun. We had this with our DD. we switched to Dr Brown's, which helped but not enough. We switched to C&G Comfort (she was on the infant first) and we had a different baby on our hands. We also used Colic Relief drops in her bottles, which we weaned her off at three months. The combination of all three really worked wonders for us x

 

[miana]

I'm not sure if wind is a symptom of colic?(I can't remember?) but I know we tried good old gripe water for awhile and that helped with her getting the wind up. She's not on it anymore but I think it helped her sort tif learn quicker how to do it on her own..... She still takes ages to burp but we get there in the end!
I usually sit her on my lap and hold her chin for the first burps but usually I need to put her on my should and walk around. This can drag out feeding up and down all the time but she is better and quicker at it.

The only thing that will calm my LO down is her change table! It's so weird! I do the bicycle legs on there and stick the dummy in. She calms pretty quick and could happily stay there all day ha ha.

I know with losec is can actually give them more wind! Which is why I didn't want to use it at first so I'm not sure if the stuff you are using might be contributing to that? It's hard because it's meant to fix one problem but it creates another.
If it's taking ages to feed and burp her it must be hard on you for sleep? could you express and do the occasional half formula half breastmilk bottle and get hubby to do one of the feeds then you can get some extra sleep.
Or you breastfeed her then he can take over settling once she's finished all her burping.
My LO went through a phase of feeding every 2 hrs for just over a week. Not over night thought thank god! That was 3-5 hrs.
If yours LO does that then you get no sleep! I'd bring in the troops(hubby, mum, MIL, friends) otherwise you'll just stress more.
Have a few bottles ready and others can do a few feeds in a row for you so you can get some rest.

 

[miana]

She could possibly have an allergy to something you're eating? If it's that bad maybe look into it?
Are you avoiding the really "windy" foods? Cabbage, broccoli, couliflower, dairy, nuts are the biggest culprits.
It's so hard to know if it's what you are eating or not. I thought it might be dairy with DD but you just don't know. It can do your head in trying to think if it's something you're eating or just the way she is.

When I give The bottle I make sure she is pretty much sitting up right. It just encourages everything to stay down for the reflux. It's harder to keep her higher with the boob but maybe you could try lying down on a slight incline and have her on your chest and she can find her own way to the breast? That way she's a bit more upright?

A lactation consultant may be able to help you? Bub could not be latching properly?

 

[miana]

Sorry for my epic replys ha ha. I just know how frustrating it can be. I used to get so upset for my LO all the time on the beginning. It's hard for them and you.

She should sort herself out by about 3/4 months. I know now that seems so far away but it goes by fast

 

[Willow82]

I'm not sure if wind is a symptom of colic?(I can't remember?) but I know we tried good old gripe water for awhile and that helped with her getting the wind up. She's not on it anymore but I think it helped her sort tif learn quicker how to do it on her own..... She still takes ages to burp but we get there in the end!
I usually sit her on my lap and hold her chin for the first burps but usually I need to put her on my should and walk around. This can drag out feeding up and down all the time but she is better and quicker at it.

The only thing that will calm my LO down is her change table! It's so weird! I do the bicycle legs on there and stick the dummy in. She calms pretty quick and could happily stay there all day ha ha.

I know with losec is can actually give them more wind! Which is why I didn't want to use it at first so I'm not sure if the stuff you are using might be contributing to that? It's hard because it's meant to fix one problem but it creates another.
If it's taking ages to feed and burp her it must be hard on you for sleep? could you express and do the occasional half formula half breastmilk bottle and get hubby to do one of the feeds then you can get some extra sleep.
Or you breastfeed her then he can take over settling once she's finished all her burping.
My LO went through a phase of feeding every 2 hrs for just over a week. Not over night thought thank god! That was 3-5 hrs.
If yours LO does that then you get no sleep! I'd bring in the troops(hubby, mum, MIL, friends) otherwise you'll just stress more.
Have a few bottles ready and others can do a few feeds in a row for you so you can get some rest.

OH has been pretty amazing and has been staying up with her on alternate nights as he has been on leave. Due to my incredibly low supply, I'm not convinced she's getting anything when she is breastfeeding and so I skip some breastfeeds so I can sleep.

She was better last night. She settled at 9.30 after her 7.30 feed and slept until 11.50. I tried to breastfeed her at that point but she wouldn't go on and then she had her bottle relatively quickly. She started showing all the colic symptoms after her bottle but at 1ish I put her in her car seat and rocked her which eventually sent her to sleep. I took her up at 2am and she slept until 4am. I then tried and failed to breastfeed her again, she had her bottle and went back to sleep about 5.30. She then woke up at 7am.

 

[Willow82]

I'm not sure if wind is a symptom of colic?(I can't remember?) but I know we tried good old gripe water for awhile and that helped with her getting the wind up. She's not on it anymore but I think it helped her sort tif learn quicker how to do it on her own..... She still takes ages to burp but we get there in the end!
I usually sit her on my lap and hold her chin for the first burps but usually I need to put her on my should and walk around. This can drag out feeding up and down all the time but she is better and quicker at it.

The only thing that will calm my LO down is her change table! It's so weird! I do the bicycle legs on there and stick the dummy in. She calms pretty quick and could happily stay there all day ha ha.

I know with losec is can actually give them more wind! Which is why I didn't want to use it at first so I'm not sure if the stuff you are using might be contributing to that? It's hard because it's meant to fix one problem but it creates another.
If it's taking ages to feed and burp her it must be hard on you for sleep? could you express and do the occasional half formula half breastmilk bottle and get hubby to do one of the feeds then you can get some extra sleep.
Or you breastfeed her then he can take over settling once she's finished all her burping.
My LO went through a phase of feeding every 2 hrs for just over a week. Not over night thought thank god! That was 3-5 hrs.
If yours LO does that then you get no sleep! I'd bring in the troops(hubby, mum, MIL, friends) otherwise you'll just stress more.
Have a few bottles ready and others can do a few feeds in a row for you so you can get some rest.

OH has been pretty amazing and has been staying up with her on alternate nights as he has been on leave. Due to my incredibly low supply, I'm not convinced she's getting anything when she is breastfeeding and so I skip some breastfeeds so I can sleep.

She was better last night. She settled at 9.30 after her 7.30 feed and slept until 11.50. I tried to breastfeed her at that point but she wouldn't go on and then she had her bottle relatively quickly. She started showing all the colic symptoms after her bottle but at 1ish I put her in her car seat and rocked her which eventually sent her to sleep. I took her up at 2am and she slept until 4am. I then tried and failed to breastfeed her again, she had her bottle and went back to sleep about 5.30. She then woke up at 7am.

 

[miana]

If it is low supply maybe you could try pumping more regularly? That should help to increase it.
It might work, it might not? I know with my LO for awhile there she would be fine on the boob anytime after 5pm until about 10am the next day, I think I had a better supply. During the middle of the day she was super fussy so we used to give her a bottle then.
If you have times when she is better and worse you could maybe try that?

Or just stick with the bottle? Whatever works I say ....... When you finally find out what works, that's the other thing ha ha.
Babies are a tough one!