How long does Colic normally last?

[angelic_one]

I've resigned myself to the fact that there is nothing I can do to resolve baby girl's awful colic, although I'll keep trying everything I've been doing of course, but nothing has worked so far, so I think we're gonna have to grin and bear it. I know that colic lasts 'up to 3 months' but wondered does it normally last that long is it likely to be less?

 

[peanut56]

For me, it lasted about 2 months. We used to have "episodes" a few times a week, but since she turned 2 months old, we've only had one. (And none since about 2 and a half months). I'm very glad, they were terrible.
I think it's rare, but some babies will go for longer than 3 months.

 

[jenniferannex]

Lily had colic for only about 2 weeks, it got eaiser in the last week but she was still abit whingy, i used colief in her bottles though and it was a life saver!! i dont know how long she would of had it for without that, if you havnt tryed it already you should give it a go its brill!! xx

 

[aliss]

For us it unfortunately lasted until around 20 weeks. Then it was just "fussy", now he's just needy at 7.5 months. Good luck to you, it's soo hard.

 

[mrsthomas623]

Big

Colic sucks. Luckily Nolan's eased up around 11 weeks, but he is still a very high maintenance baby

A few things that helped us-
*Tight swaddling and constant motion (swing or bouncing the bouncer chair)
*Rule out silent reflux
*Soy Formula
*Routine for the fussy period- It really seemed to help, he would start to get fussy around 4:00 so I would walk around holding him while he screamed until about 4:30, and then I swaddled him and bounced him to sleep. Like clock work he would be up at 5:00 and I would put him bouncy chair out on the deck table and we would sit out there (I would read) and the warm air would keep him calm for nearly 45 minutes. Then right around 5:45 (when the screaming would pick back up) we went and did about a 30 minute bath (calmed him down) then he would scream for another 30 minutes or so and I would give him a bottle and just bounce him until he fell asleep.

*Also get out of the house for your own sanity. Who cares if your baby crying draws stares from people or bothers them... they only have to listen to it for a short time. I would go to our local zoo and just walk around during the day when he was just 'fussy' not the full blown colic episodes that happened every night.

 

[angelic_one]

Thanks for your advice everyone, just ordered some colief so will give that a try, was £12 in the chemist which was a bit steep when i didnt know it would work, but found it for £7 online!

Have also been making sure to get out of the house. The last couple of days have been an absolute nightmare, she's been worse then ever, but yesterday I took her round town for a few hours and tonight me and OH drove all over for hours. It kept her quiet for a while at least!

She doesn't like swaddling as she likes to kick her legs around. As for silent reflux or soy milk i don't know am at a complete loss. What is silent reflux? Doesn't that involve being sick? As she's never been sick. I'm trying to get into a routine but our lives don't really fit into one very well unfortunately.

All the HV has done is given some baby massage strokes, but she says only to do them if she's calm...a bit difficult since she's never calm! Was going to go to the doctor but that seems like overkill really. IDK, I feel like I'm going crazy... not even so much from her colic, just from the lack of support from HV and doctor. I wanted to switch brands of formula from SMA to Aptamil comfort, and they said not to do that, but they didn't offer any alternative!! I really need to try SOMETHING...anything more than stupid strokes that aren't working ! Even if nothing works at least I'll have tried!

 

[aliss]

^Silent reflux is the same physical symptoms of regular reflux (tummy acid coming up and burning the throat) except the projectile vomiting (the typical symptom of reflux), which is why it is so hard to find a diagnosis. It took me 5 different doctors before a pediatrician was able to diagnose my son's reflux, so please don't think it is overkill.

In addition, how long is she awake before you attempt to put her back to sleep? With any kind of prop (swaddling, feeding to sleep, bouncing, rocking?) - have you tried those in a dark room every 1 hour or so (which is the max awake time for a baby her age). With our son, it was a combination of so many factors (reflux, milk allergy, chronic shoulder pain, and overtiredness) so it can take a long time to figure out.

 

[angelic_one]

^Silent reflux is the same physical symptoms of regular reflux (tummy acid coming up and burning the throat) except the projectile vomiting (the typical symptom of reflux), which is why it is so hard to find a diagnosis. It took me 5 different doctors before a pediatrician was able to diagnose my son's reflux, so please don't think it is overkill.

In addition, how long is she awake before you attempt to put her back to sleep? With any kind of prop (swaddling, feeding to sleep, bouncing, rocking?) - have you tried those in a dark room every 1 hour or so (which is the max awake time for a baby her age). With our son, it was a combination of so many factors (reflux, milk allergy, chronic shoulder pain, and overtiredness) so it can take a long time to figure out.

See every time I talk to a doctor or health visitor they just have the 'grin and bare it' approach. But I know that it's just simply too bad for that. The HV is coming tomorrow I'll try and be more forceful about it. It's just so hard to explain how bad it is and be taken seriously, especially when I'm so tired that it's difficult to explain things clearly! Obviously they don't see her 24/7 and probably just think I'm overreacting. Probably doesn't help that I'm so young as well, they probably think I just can't cope

I do think that over-tiredness is playing a part, she's sleeping terribly in the day at the moment, she wakes up and starts screaming whenever she's put down.

 

[aliss]

Yes because most doctors and HVs are older and those days are long behind them, and they aren't the ones up all night with a screaming baby!!!!! Go see a pediatrician and specifically mention to get checked for silent reflux, you'll want to at least rule that out. Reflux can burn their esophagus so it's important to be checked.

Alex's major colic was the source of my postnatal depression, yet they were more than happy to push pills onto me rather than find any medical cause for his constant screaming!! Ridiculous

 

[mrsthomas623]

Aliss is so right. You have to fight for your LO because so many people just brush it off and tell you to 'suck it up'.

Nolan's major signs of silent reflux were- hot, sour breath; frequent hiccups; fighting and arching back when taking bottles, wanting to feed frequently and always looking like he had a bad taste in his mouth. He would hardly ever spit up.

A lot of time reflux issues are linked to a milk protein intolerance, I made the choice myself to try soy formula because the Zantac was not doing much and it helped quite a bit. Also trying keeping him upright after a feed (bouncer was the perfect angle for us!) it may help.

As for LO not liking swaddled feet. With Nolan (he threw a fit, still does, if his feet are covered... so we modified the swaddle to keep his feet free. Just use a regular blanket and not one the swaddle sacks so you can leave the feet free. Hope things improve for you soon!

 

[joyalan]

I have heard 6 weeks old is the magic number, according to my sister, and my cousin (who has had 13 children...) Relief may be just around the bend for you!

 

[angelic_one]

Thanks very much, i will definitely push it harder. The health visitor is coming shortly but if she's as useless as she has been previously i'll take her to the doctors. It's hard because as soon as she's stopped screaming and starts being cute, OH seems to forget all about the screaming and is happy to carry on asif there isn't a problem, or asif we've solvee it! So it makes me feel like i'm being silly.

I made sure she slept longer this morning and she's been better so far today but then she started screaming and was sick for the first time... :-S

Do you think it'll be worth trying her on Lactose free formula or soy formula to see if that makes a difference?

 

[aliss]

Soy was particularly helpful for me and for mrsthomas. You could give it a try. It's usually a combination of many factors.

 

[annawrigley]

Was 4 months for us, absolute hell. Hopefully you won't be as unlucky tho

 

[noree]

Hi my LO is 12 weeks now and although we aren't completely out of the woods yet things have eased up alot on the colic front and started to get better at about 8-10 weeks where I noticed more good days than bad instead of the other way around. Please don't think it's overkill going to your GP, my hV was crap so I went to my GP 3 times and he was brilliant, and yes she made a liar of me and smiled and behaved like an angel but again the GP understood, my LO is being treated for silent reflux now and we changed to comfort milk which made a big difference.If you are FF there are lots of milks that can be tried and if your BF and it was a lactose problem you could still use colief. There are things to try and even when they didn't work for us it gave me a 'plan' and something to focus on which saved me going completely mad. I hope things get better for you soon x

 

[angelic_one]

Just to update: The doctor gave her a real good lookover and said he doesn't think it's silent reflux, but then his reasons still seemed to be because she's not been sick!, despite me keep saying that's why I think it's SILENT reflux! But he thinks that lactose intolerance is quite likely though since she was switched from breast to bottle which is one of the causes, so we've sent off a stool sample to get her tested for that and in the meantime have started her on colief to see if that makes a difference. If it is lactose intolerance I'll switch her to SMA LF or Soy formula...if not I'll switch her to comfort formula to see if that helps and consult a different doctor on the possibility of silent reflux! Does that sound like a plan?

Thanks again for everyone's help! xx

 

[littleblonde]

kaceys had colic till 20 weeks. Over night it got better. From bout 6 weeks it got better and went from 5 or 6hr of crying a night to just 1. I changed kacey to comfort milk and it helped loads. Didnt ask hv just did it. I also changed to dr brown bottles and added dentinox. Did it all at the sametime and the difference was amazing. I also raised the head end of her basket and held her up after milk.

 

[littleblonde]

most dr wont treat babys inless they lose weight. They said kacey had it but gave her nothing to help

 

[2016]

There is a way of swaddling that holds their top half and leaves legs free...go on Youtube and search for "double swaddle".
I thought LO had colic but later discovered he had reflux AND I was also missing his sleepy cues and getting him overtired.

Persist with the doctors and I hope you come right soon.

 

[angelic_one]

Hey everyone! Emily has been on a colief a week tomorrow....and it's been another colief success story!! She's absolutely a different baby! What's more, she's settling on her own in her cot BETTER then when she's being cuddled! It's absolutely amazing! She still has a hell of a temper on her, but she's consolable now and the hours of crying have gone right down! I mean, fingers crossed that it carries on and everything but so far so good! There's another few days till the results come back but I'm fully expecting them to come back saying she's lactose intolerant! In which case i'm going to try and get a prescription for SMA LF milk if he'll do it.

Thank you so much everyone. I just feel sorry for all the Mummys out there who don't have BnB and have to 'grin and bare' the 'colic'!