It was heartbreaking to see, to know there's pretty much nothing we could do to make him feel better, and that he was so uncomfortable it made him scream and cry. The next day I took to the internet to see what we could do to help him.
After reading up lots and speaking to lots of people on Facebook and Twitter, we decided to make some changes. Here's what we did:
Dr Browns colic bottles
We had been using the Tommee Tippee bottles, but the health visitor had recommended getting the proper colic ones with a straw in the middle as I'd been saying for a little while I thought he was a little colicy. We bought a pack of 4 Dr Browns bottles, we opted for them over the Tommee Tippee ones as everywhere I'd read about colic, they didn't mention the TT ones, only the Dr Browns ones.
Infacol
Different people recommend different things, like Colief or Infacol etc. Well back when I was pregnant I bought some Infacol - at the time I didn't know what it was for, but I'd seen loads of people talk about it, so I picked it up during an Asda baby event. It has an ingredient in it called Simeticone, it doesn't work straight away, but takes about a week to build up in your baby's system, so if your baby has colic and you're thinking of using Infacol, I'd start it straight away as it'll take a while to work. But bear in mind, about 1 in 5 babies develop colic, and Infacol won't work on all of them, so if this doesn't work on your baby, perhaps try Colief. You give them one dropper of it before each feed.
Feeding upright
If you feed your baby with them laid back in your arms or if you're breastfeeding, they tend to take in more air, so try feeding him in a more upright position if possible, this should help him take in less air and be more comfortable.
New food
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| Squidge on Day 1 of having colic (isn't that the cutest crying face!) |
Ideally this is something you should discuss with your health visitor, midwife or Dr before switching, but seeing as it's on the shelf, you don't 'need' to have their say-so to buy it. Our health visitor recommended the Cow & Gate Comfort formula, he was already on their newborn formula (with expressed breast milk) so it was a simple switch. The formula is different as it has reduced lactose and partially digested whey protein. We've found that he throws up a lot less on this, almost never. He loves it! Using this with the Dr Browns helps too as their bottles seem to have a slower flow than the TT ones, giving him more time to digest.
Baby massage
Another thing that was recommended to us was tummy massage. The way it was described, was to imagine with two fingers, drawing a box around his belly button, but without drawing the bottom part, just keep doing that. Pretty much each time we do this, he passes a lot of wind which helps him calm down. Also, if you lay your baby down your legs so their head is furthest away from you, grab their legs and cycle them like they're peddling a bike, this helps to work wind around their system too, and looks super cute :)
Burping
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| Squidge chilling out on day 2 of our colic remedies |
I know most mums and dads will do this as a matter of course, but it's important to remember to burp your baby. I usually give him a break half way through a feed which is when I burp him, then at the end of the feed I'll burp him again.
Position
You might find that your baby is most comfortable lying on his tummy, I've found that the best way to calm him down is to lay him on my chest on his tummy - it's also a good position for burping him and giving him a cuddle at the same time, plus it doubles up as some tummy time for him too :)
I don't know what it is that's helped, I think it's been a combination of all of it as when there's one of the elements we miss out, he cries a lot more. But, so far, and it's early days yet, he seems to have improved. If your baby has colic, I'd recommend implementing as many of these as you can. Things like the tummy massage and cycling legs are easy to do and have pretty quick results
Oh no, so sorry you're going through colic! My little girl had it too and it was tough. We used a combinations on gripe water, comfort milk and lots of tummy rubbing and it does get better. The comfort milk poops are something I definitely don't miss haha xx
ReplyDelete'Oh no, sending you big hugs... both mine had colic, I LOVE dr brown bottles.... they do work, but are a faff to clean, infacol worked with my first along with a swing chair that rocked her back and forth so I could hide in the kitchen and cry myself.... yes it got that bad some days... with my youngest she also had silent reflux with the colic, and we discovered gripe water.... right when there was a fire at the factory so they supply was low, and it seemed the demand high... it worked so well we even made a 60mile round trip to clear a chemist we phoned up that had some in stock... (all the others between ours and there had sold out) its worth a try. Now it seems they have repaired the factory and its back in the supermarkets too... I hope the colic stage passes quickly, and there is light at the end of the tunnel. #binkylinky
ReplyDeleteThanks Emily :) It's hard isn't it? OMG, the comfort milk poop smell... horrific!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks lovely :) Yeah, I had one of those crying sessions the other day, I was hugging Squidge and sobbing, it's heartbreaking when you can't help them :( I think he has reflux too, you see him 'chewing the cud' a lot and dry wretching :/ We bought some gripe water yesterday too, so will be giving that a go :) The colic has eased, we still have bad days but now we have more good days than bad days :)
ReplyDeleteIt's horrible isn't it! Baby R outgrew it by 12 weeks, almost over night. It does get better I promise you #binkylinky
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