how does boiled water work to help wind/colic?

[_Nell]

My LO has colic, she is 6 weeks old. I'm sitting next to her right now and she is farting like a trooper and has been on/off crying in pain with no sleep since 8am this morning so far

She is BF via bottles (i exclusively pump post EMCS) and gets the odd aptamil every day or so if i run short.

We'd tried infacol for over a fortnight, did the weeks trial of colief. We've moved to Dr Browns bottles, do hot baths, massage, leg cycling etc.

The health visitor has today suggested i try cooled booled water when she is 'asking' for food inbetween feeds while clearly still in discomfort from the last feed......can anyone tell me how this would help? how it works?

google suggests it's an old wives tale and for help with constipation....she's not constipated and has loose yellow BM's like any BF baby, just an awful bloated tummy and trapped wind.

 

[Jennbear]

Cooled boiled water (so its still warm) is very very good for the digestive system in both children and adults. It will help her body breakdown the wind which is causing her gripe pain

X

 

[veryfondoftea]

I'm sorry this probably isn't a helpful reply, but I have no idea why it works, but it certainly does work for my little one when she's windy. I just give her an ounce and it helps get the wind out somehow!

 

[kat2504]

If your baby is only receiving breastmilk I don't think water of any sort is necessary.If she was formula fed I might have thought the colic was due to constipation and a little bit of water might help things (and a switch to comfort milk). But if your baby is only on breastmilk no other fluids are required until they start solids. I think your HV is giving you incorrect and outdated advice - the NHS does not recommend it as they say babies should have breastmilk and nothing else for six months. As you say yourself she is not constipated anyway.
Also what do you mean "between feeds"? Are you trying to feed to a schedule? 6 weeks is a growth spurt time and babies may need to feed a lot.

If massage and warm baths and infacol and all that don't help, perhaps see a doctor to discuss the possibility of food intolerance. A few mums have to give up dairy products when breastfeeding as their baby is allergic to cows milk.

Another tip for helping with settling a colicky baby is to keep them upright as much as possible after a feed - carrying them in a sling can work wonders. Helps get the wind up and the motion of you walking around is comforting and can soothe them to sleep.

 

[_Nell]

Thanks ladies - I so needed to hear it works

How warm should it be? LO usually has her BM at room temp - I'm guessing the water should be warmer?
Also, I'm trying some just now and she is guzzling much like she would a feed - do i need to limit this?! how many oz at a time would be too many? is it sips?

 

[Sunshine12]

I was told when BF not to give any cooled boiled water as its not needed. Best remedy we found for colic was colief. Infacol etc waste of time for us. x

p.s you shouldnt give more than an ounce or so of cooled boiled water in any case x

 

[Bex84]

I would recomend keeping food diary. My lo had colic which was worse when i had dairy. Also i found colief alot better than infacol. Bf babies dont really need water till on solids

 

[_Nell]

kat2504 - thanks, i did wonder if it was outdated advice tbh, LO typically gets only 1 formula feed a day. She is upright almost all day as hates to lie flat - too painful i guess. I babywear or she is rested over my shoulder as that helps too.

I don't feed to a schedule. she seems to eat quite a lot it seems to me, 5-7oz every 3 hours roughly during the daytime. Typically she will finish a good feed and then start with her wind stress, then in pain she almost asks for more feed - feeding more at say only an hour since the last feed while she is in pain does give her temporary relief but really just adds to the gas problem IYSWIM. Health visitor thinks feeding gives her temporary comfort and so sometimes it's not hunger but pain relief - I'm a bit lost tbh.

 

[_Nell]

I drink 1 -2 pints a day of milk, I'll cut that out and see if it helps as it sounds like it might be the cause.

 

[kat2504]

That is quite a lot of milk that you are drinking - see if cutting that down helps.

Another thing is to ask the doc if she might be suffering from reflux. Even if she does't spit up a lot she could have silent reflux which would be causing her the pain. There is medication you can add to the feed to help with that.

 

[Bex84]

My lo was alot better when i cut out dairy. Colief helps break down lactose so thats good you can get from chemist. My lo now has a problem with dairy so was obviosly the problem for us. Dont worry to often how much feeding my lo used to feed every 20 minutes to every hour till 4 months.

 

[_Nell]

colief did nothing for us tbh.

I will mention silent reflux - i have a sloping crib mattress as she just won't sleep flat so it has been at the back of my mind.

I wouldn't worry about the frequency of her feeds if she didn't eat so much, but it's hard not to worry about feeding every 20mins / 1 hour when you know she's eaten 7 oz and has a distended stomach with pain....I try to hope she goes at least 90 minutes between feeds during the day, though she naturally clusters more than that in the evening to prep for her night sleep.

 

[Gc85]

I found good old fashioned gripe water worked wonders for my LO when her colic was really bad, we tried infacol and dentinox too but both were rubbish, I'd give her 5ml before her feed and then when she started fussing after feeding I'd pop her in the baby carrier and do stuff around the house, combination of the two stopped the screaming!

 

[gizmo14]

I had the exact same problem with my lo, yes an ounce of cooled boiled water a day works wonders!!, does no harm what so ever, also if it's not reflux try putting lo on their belly for a while after a feed it also helps like magic!!, a 250ml of dentinox colic drops in the Dr brown bottle feed will work with you. When burping always put over your shoulder it presses on their stomach and forces all air trapped to escape note that babies suffering from colic may want to feed all day at they don't feel full with it! Your case will be hard with breast feeding tho so there's more tips to try, but if doesn't get any better I would defiantly seek more serious medical attention as their may be a worse cause for her abdominal pain x
Hope this helps

 

[gizmo14]

2.5 ml sorry

 

[_Nell]

Thanks but this is an old post - my LO has since been diagnosed with a milk allergy and that was the cause.
I'm now going through similar with baby number two!