MommyMcg
LIF Infant
Member since 9/07 148 total posts
Name:
Mimi
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Dealing with and helping my Colic infant, Things that made a huge difference and helped me keep my mind
Let me start by saying that Having my son has been truly one of the most amazing and wonderful experiences of my whole life. I never thought I was capable of feeling so much love for another being, and the happiness and anxiety that feeling brings are in stark contrast to each other and make for a tremendous joy and fear. My Beautiful son sadly started to be colic at 2 weeks of life (colic usually shows up between 2 and 3 weeks old and usually can last up to 100 days or between 3 and 4 months) The generic label of colic is defined by it's symptoms rather than a particular cause. It is believed to affect about 25% of babies who exhibit uncontrollable crying over three hours a day and at least three days a week. This formula can be variable and any parent who has to regularly deal with an inconsolable, screaming baby, many days in a row, whether the 3 hour mark is met or not, would be termed by their pediatrician as having a colicky baby.
In general, babies start exhibiting colic symptoms around three weeks of age, with it being at it's worst stage at around six weeks of age and then usually stopping around three or four months of age. Even though it is a relatively short time period in your baby's life, that three or four months will seem like years to the parents who have to "deal" with their baby screaming.
The Good News that I got from my pediatrician is that ONLY HEALTHY BABIES GET COLIC! I held on to that for dear life! Hearing my beautiful baby scream inconsolably in pain for Hours on end has been one of the most horrible feelings I have ever felt. Add that to the raging post pregnancy hormones and I would go from feeling so sorry for my son, to wishing that I never had a child because I could not take one more second of screaming, to horrible guilt for saying and feeling such a thing. Luckily, through all of this, I have had a tremendous amount of support. My mother would come and stay over some nights so I could get a full nights sleep, my sister would come during the day so I could shower and keep my house in order... Here is the Advice and some remedies that I have found that Have made a huge difference in my experience with a colic baby and I believe may have ultimately contributed to the colic period ending early... His colic ended just before my son turned 6 weeks old and by the grace of God has not returned.
First and foremost, if you have people are offering to help, take them up on the help! The first week i tried to do everything by myself and it was horrible! I did not sleep for 7 days and nights straight, I thought I was going to die! Having a support system is so important, so if you have anyone you trust willing to give you help take it! (on a side note, in my experience, I did have offers from some people that I did not trust with my son, because I knew that she could not handle the crying and I was afraid that she would feed my son to try and make him stop crying... and that is a NO NO, feeding a colic child who is not really hungry during a colic episode will make it WORSE, so I do say use your discretion, if you don't think a particular person can be trusted alone with your baby, the best help they can give you is to help you clean up, do laundry,and run errands, and perhaps bring you some much needed food)
Talk to your doctors, both pediatrician and Ob. Your pediatrician can recommend treatments like switching your formula to a hypoallergenic one (like Similac Alimentumn or Enfamil’s Nutrigenmen) and your ob can provide you with some medication for Post partum depression and anxiety. I firmly believe that if your emotions are out of control then getting medication to help is golden! Although getting upset and losing patience is understandable, it is not acceptable if it interferes with your ability to take care of your child.
Consider the use of herbs... Fennel tea has been a life saver! My pediatrician recommended it, and I bought some tea bags from a health food store, made it as directed and added some sugar to sweeten as per my doc, and give my son 1 to 2 ounces 2 to 3 times a day as needed for colic GI pain. Fennel seed tea is a natural anti-spasmadic and can help relax the smooth muscle spasms of the GI Tract that is causing your infant pain.
Mylicon infant drops (simethacone) Are helpful. It is basically Gas ex for babies, and I would add it to the the baby formula, and could see instantly that the bubbles would disappear if the formula itself. Simethacone is safe for babies. It does not get absorbed by the body so I felt comfortable giving it to my son. I also gave it to him directly via the dropper if he was gassy and it seem to be helpful in breaking up his gas bubbles.
ok, back to herbs...Gripe water. You can get Baby Bliss gripe water online or from buy buy baby. It also has fennel seed extract and ginger. The thought is that it relaxes the GI tract and helps ease the gas and stomach pain of colic. I also tried a kind of gripe water called Colic Calm. I ordered it at Coliccalm.com. Our unique homeopathic gripe water calms the irritation of baby caused by colic, infant gas, stomach pain, hiccups, teething and even reflux. It also helps baby’s digestive system adjust to new foods and relieves stomach upset caused by infant teething.*
it is an "all-natural, side-effect-free gripe water [that] contains NO alcohol, sugar, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), simethicone, herbal oils or extracts, citric acid, or artificial sweeteners, flavors or colors. In addition, there is NO wheat, gluten, soy, starch or dairy in our formula.
Ingredients: A Homeopathic Blend of Chamomile, Fennel, Caraway, Peppermint, Ginger, Aloe, Lemon Balm, Blackthorn and Vegetable Charcoal." I have found the colic calm to work the best and the fastest. It is very sweet to my DS loves to take it. I was a little afraid at first to give it, because it is a black liquid that looks like ink, but I first tried it myself and it tasted pretty good, so I felt ok about giving it to DS. Also, I asked my Pediatrician about it and he had heard of it was fine with me giving it a try.
Some other things to try include, running the air conditioner or dryer, or even the vaccum. The thinking here is that the sound is soothing to the newborn as it reminds them of being in utero. I did this and it did work well, even making soft shushing sounds did seem to help.
A warm bath helps to relax the baby's muscles, and helps to calm the nervous system. Add a little Johnson's calming wash and it can provide some relief from the discomfort and crying.
I also read that taking the baby for a car ride with minimal stops helps (for me it did not do much, as my DS HATES the car) or put you baby in the stroller and take a nice long walk (this worked a few times as my DS would fall asleep.
I read about baby massage, but Personally I found that I was to anxious and tired to try and do this one, but I do believe that it is worth a shot.
A colic baby can be mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting. Remember that your dear little one is not doing this on purpose. He/she is not a bad baby; they have no control over their developing and adjusting little body's systems.
Getting upset is understandable, but losing your control and acting out is unacceptable. It is up to us to get help and do everything we can to help our little one through this extremely uncomfortable beginning to their lives.
One more thing, it does help to remember that only healthy babies get colic, and there is no value great enough to express the true blessing in having that healthy beautiful child that we dreamed of and cherished for nine months.
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Message edited 6/6/2008 8:26:34 AM.
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cjik
Welcome 2010!
Member since 2/06 8879 total posts
Name:
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Re: Dealing with and helping my Colic infant, Things that made a huge difference and helped me keep my mind
Well DS must be healthy as he**! He was very colicky. My doctor didn't say this, but she did tell me that colicky babies are usually fine later, there are no lasting health issues.
It's also important to remember that as parents, it's important that we try to soothe them and not feel like a failure when you cannot. All the baby needs is to know someone is there for him/her. And not to feel like you are doing something wrong. I have read that parents bond much more slowly with colicky babies than not.
Running the vacuum or my hair dryer helped--often I would leave him crying, dry my hair, and come back to find him asleep.
As for herbs, I tried chammomile tea, can't say it made a big difference, but it was worth a try.
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