Colic.

[Backroads]

So... those with experience and know-what, tell me.

How to soothe. Any remedies. When to get the doctor involved.

[Guest]

In my experience, you can treat it and it will go away at about 4 months, or not treat it and it will go away at about 16 weeks.

We tried stomach massage, working their little legs, gripe water, gas drops, Rx reflux medicine, fennel tea, and anything else anyone recommended. I don't know that any of it helped much.

Just make sure you're taking care of yourself so you stay sane until it passes. It's rough but it does pass!

[Backroads]

Tis one of the perks of living with the parents while Husband is at military training. There's usually someone around I can pass her off to.

[Wordnerd]

My colicky little one seemed more comfortable if I held her belly along my arm, so she was face down, and then I rocked her for hours until it passed. Some people try simethicone drops, or if nursing cut out various foods, I didn't really have any luck with any of that, I just rested when I could and organized dinner early because she would scream from about 4 till 6 or 7 every day. Even when she outgrew it, she was always cranky at that time of the day, she still is usually cranky and she's 8 now!

[Guest]

I went through this. My pediatrician put ME on a diet because the baby was breastfed. I eliminated dairy, soy, wheat, legumes, and sugar except for what comes naturally in fruit. And then we put probiotics mixed with breast milk in a dropper and gave it to the baby. It worked in our case. My kid still has food allergies until today.

[selek]

So... those with experience and know-what, tell me.

How to soothe. Any remedies. When to get the doctor involved.

According to my mother, I was a very colicky baby. She alleges that I once screamed for more than twenty-four hours straight.

Her one sure-fire solution was "grandma" (handing me off to her mom so she could get some sleep).

When my own daughter was being colicky, I was advised to put her bassinet (car carrier, whatever) on the washing machine while it was running.

The other suggestion was a drop (just a drop) of peppermint oil in a bottle of water to help soothe her tummy.

[Gwen]

Has the dr checked for acid reflux? It's not always serious enough to cause spitting up but can still burn the throat.

[Backroads]

Has the dr checked for acid reflux? It's not always serious enough to cause spitting up but can still burn the throat.

I am rescheduling her appointment that was to be next week to this week. Get shots and advice all at once.

We are now thinking reflux.

[dahlia]

Do you drink cow's milk? You may want to rethink that. You don't need it. If you are using a cow's milk-based formula, you may want to rethink that as well. If you are nursing, the baby shouldn't have colic. Nursed babies with colic are usually reacting to something the mother ate. If you are nursing, I hope your doctor goes over your diet with you, as well as checking out the baby.

Gartner LM, Morton J, Lawrence RA, et al; American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Breastfeeding. Breastfeeding and the use of human milk. Pediatrics. 2005;115:496-506.

Lucassen PL, Assendelft WJ, van Eijk JT, Gubbels JW, Douwes AC, van Geldrop WJ. Systematic review of the occurrence of infantile colic in the community. Arch Dis Child. 2001;84:398–403.

Jarvinen KM, Makinen-Kiljunen S, Suomalainen H. Cow’s milk challenge through human milk evoked immune responses in infants with cow’s milk allergy. J Pediatr. 1999;135:506-512.

Paronen J, Bjorksten B, Hattevig G, Akerblom HK, Vaarala O. Effect of maternal diet during lactation on development of bovine insulin-binding antibodies in children at risk for allergy. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2000;106:302-306.

[MarginOfError]

Nursed babies with colic are usually reacting to something the mother ate.

While it's certain that some babies with colic are reacting to something the mother ate, I think the term 'usually' is probably a little strong. Colic is used to describe inconsolable crying without a known cause. It's a wide net that probably captures multiple causes and pathologies. Certainly changing diet is worth trying (it's usually cheap and it's quite easy), but if it works, it should be considered a blessing, not an expectation.

My best remedy for colic (aside from trying a couple of cheap and easy interventions) is to find someone who has the patience and temperament to hold a crying baby for 2-3 hours.

[annewandering]

I sang to the one child we had with it. If nothing else it calmed me.

[Gwen]

I am rescheduling her appointment that was to be next week to this week. Get shots and advice all at once.

We are now thinking reflux.

My sister has 2. Her first she was told was colic. The second spit up a lot and they discovered reflux. Now that she is learning about it because of him she is thinking her first wasn't colic but less severe reflux. Mine never had it so I can't say much more than that. I do recall my sister talking about constantly asking the dr about her daughter's "watery breathing". He would always check her lungs and say she was fine. Looking back she thinks that was the acid in her throat causing a wet sound to her breathing but not in her lungs.

Good luck. I hope you find an answer for your sanity and your baby's.

[applepansy]

I am rescheduling her appointment that was to be next week to this week. Get shots and advice all at once.

We are now thinking reflux.

All my babies had reflux. The last two were severe. It wasn't until I had four that I could recognize a refluxing baby just by holding them. I'm slow I guess. I can feel the little "urp" in their chest. Anyway, it hurts. It causing a burning and if severe can cause ulcers in the esophagus.

Talk to your pediatrician. There is so much they can do to help today.

Edited May 8, 2013 by applepansy

[Backroads]

Well, Doctor suspects mild reflux that is also causing her to swallow too much air. Gave me some feeding/burping tips that do seem to help.

[Backroads]

So another question...

Doc thinks it's reflux, but nothing severe. My baby doesn't cry for hours and hours--maybe 45 minutes at the MOST. She says she'll prescribe medication if I want it but also recommended gripe water and some lifestyle changes.

My mom keeps freaking out like this is the worst baby situation she has ever seen.

I am about ready to get a prescription just to keep the peace in the house, yet I just don't think it's as bad as my mom thinks it is.

[Gwen]

A few things to consider....

Are the changes working (reducing the amt of crying) and just need more time or has everything pretty much stayed the same?

Yes mom's experience is nice but you are the one with stewardship for this baby, trust your mommy instincts. (Unless you are wanting to bail that 45 min onto your mom to deal with then that might change my thoughts. lol)

In the grand scheme of things you and I know 45 min isn't a big deal (even for pain) you deal with it. But this isn't you or I. If this is reflux her throat is burning when you feed her (which for a baby should be the most restful and peaceful time of their little existence). She is in enough pain to cry for 45 min straight. I'm not a big fan of meds and my older kids I make breath (deal with the pain) and get control of themselves before I will give pain meds. It's important to learn how to deal with things as they come and not just panic. But she's not an older kid, you can't talk her through this, and she can't understand. For her 45 min is forever. If you can make this go away is it worth it to wait? For an infant, personally, I think I would be inclined to give the meds. But every parent is different and must cost/benefit that. All meds have some other impact on the body. Again, trust your instincts, you will know what is best for your baby, no one else has a right to judge that.

[Backroads]

The modifications do seem to be working, as is the gripe water.

But someone today also gave me the same things to consider as you, Gwen. I think I'm stressed about it with my mom worrying about it and that's clouding my judgment--I'm worrying about my mom worrying and worrying about my own daughter all at the same time. And I am a bit worried because my friend's little boy got even sicker off a reflux medication, but I also think that's probably rare.

[Gwen]

Is the time of day she cries consistent? Can you plan to be away from your mom during that time?

Is your mom the type that you can sit down and talk this out with (at a time when she is rested and not been listening to the crying)? Explain that you are stressed too but the changes are working and need more time. Let her know why you are hesitant on the meds, etc. Let her know that her stress is making it harder for you to be 100% there for the baby through this and that is what you need to be doing right now..... Might work?

[jerrop]

Hopefully yours is doing better by now. If not . . .

Starting around one month our little boy was well beyond colicky, although everyone we talked to would say "oh, yeah, one of mine was really bad with colic" and describe symptoms that seemed like a sunburn compared to falling asleep in the oven. When we talked with the doctor she said he was the most difficult baby she's treated -- taken with a grain of salt -- and the symptoms didn't entirely match reflux. We tried meds, gripe water, changing mom's diet, etc. and nothing worked for more than a few days if at all. (One thing the doctor suggested which I'm convinced helped but my wife decided she wasn't comfortable with was mixing a little bit of rice cereal in with about 4 oz of breastmilk, once a day; he improved but then got worse when we took it away. Don't do this without talking to your doctor.)

He was in pain almost all the time, and I seriously contemplated whether I could handle having another child.

I was busy during the day at work and busy at night being reinforcements for my wife and didn't try to find any information but ignored work one day out of desperation and went searching for information. I came upon silent infant reflux. There are some reflux symptoms, but not all. What seemed to happen was reflux that came up but was usually swallowed back down - it hurts coming up and going back down . We could hear it happening (and he still does it but it seems less painful), even though nothing usually came up.

This may not be your baby (though what you describe seems similar), but since there's not a magic cure we shifted to making him comfortable. Life was great during his feeding periods, but extra feeding just exacerbated it. Anything cool also seemed to help -- a frozen pacifier, making sure gripe water was nice and cold, and cold air outside since it was winter. Anything that made him more comfortable made us more comfortable.

We would give him to people so we could get even short breaks. We're halfway across the country from family and are blessed with incredible friends from our ward, who probably saved us. If your baby's going to be fussy no matter what, let her be fussy for someone else. It was also kind of satisfying to get the validation that he was a bit of a nightmare.

Lastly, listen to what other people say and then make your own decisions (even if they pretend otherwise, that's what they did when they were in your shoes). Every other bit of advice is just educational. You know your baby better than them.

We had to ride it out for six weeks until he settled into normal mild colic (at 2.5 months). Now at four months he's really enjoyable :), but we weren't actually sure we'd make it this long.

[Backroads]

Well, due to moving and insurance changes and all that good stuff... my baby wound up seeing three different doctors. They all thought it was silant reflux, yet no one wanted to give her medicine for it just yet. The closest is her primary doctor, who says she will give her an anti-reflux prescription later. Another doctor said he plain just doesn't like giving it to babies under 6 months.

Anywho, the primary doctor did put her on a 3-day course of antibiotics after I mentioned some other concerns and then sent us to an allergist.

The results:

1. The antibiotic took care of much of the issue.

2. I am officially not allowed to have large quantities of milk products (per the allergist's tests).

jerrop, it's stories like yours that make me wonder if my baby is as bad as everyone else's. Mine would be the sunburn to your oven!

Edited June 12, 2013 by Backroads

[Gwen]

I'm glad you are getting answers.

There are no bad babies. Some are more difficult for the parents to deal with than others. Sometimes babies have aches and pains and it's a guessing game to figure it out. That baby loves you no matter how long it takes to figure it out.

Hang in there. It sounds like you are doing a good job.

[Bini]

MOE hit the nail on the head. Colic is basically a term used for a crying baby that is inconsolable (and when the pediatrician can't put a finger on it either!).

My little sweetheart that is now a few months away from turning two, was colicky clear up until she was about 6 months old. It sucked! I tried everything and yet, nothing seemed to work. That said, her pedi assured me that she was a healthy baby girl. So to reiterate what's been said, depending on how bad it is, keep patient company that can trade off with you. Make sure you get rest and down time. My daughter as a newborn did a lot of crying it out (about 15-20 mins between checks) when I was home alone with her--she turned out fine--and sometimes that's what you have to do when you're all out of options. Like MOE once said in a thread long ago in reply to my pleas, letting a baby CIO is better than a dead baby. Just know you're not alone and ask for help when you need it. Sounds like having the grandparents around is already a huge blessing.