colic

both the boys have been diagnosed with colic and acid reflux...YAY!! so they have been crying ALL day long and i am at my wits end trying to console them. the pedi has changed their formula to alimentum and told us to continue the prevacid for 1 week to see what happens. they've been on the alimentum for a day so that's really not enough to say that it's working or isn't but it seems like they have gotten worse. the pedi basically said that the colic has to run it's course but that could be weeks and our sleep deprivation is getting worse by the second...so what to do? gripe water, chamomile tea, ear muffs???

 

My ped described colic to me as basically baby neurological overload. So, I would suggest tight swaddling(if they tolerate it), white noise, less stimulation, and low lights, if possible. It was worst for us between about 6 and 12 weeks, so it does last awhile, unfortunately.

:hug: Reflux and colic are no fun.

 

Does it seem like they have gas too?? My dd had reflux, colic and gas, I begged my ped for levsin drops. They are much stronger than mylicon drops. It didn't cure the colic, but it did help with her crying sometimes.

Otherwise, hang in there! :hug: I agree with becky that it's at it's worst now! :hug: Swinging helps sometimes, as does the sound of vacuum cleaner. I've even heard some parents put their babies in their infant seat on top of a running dryer, the noise and vibration can help calm them. Although don't leave them there they may bounce off, be sure to stand nearby with a hand on them.

 

how did you cope? i mean everyone tells you to hold them when they cry but when they are crying 24 hours a day it's impossible and when there are 2 of them crying at once it makes it even more difficult. then people say to get a sling, well that doesn't work if the baby doesn't like it and what do you do with the other one??

i'm at my wits end with how to handle all the crying. i feel like i'm not holding them enough because everyone says they "can't stand to hear a baby cry" and "you should hold them more"....seriously?? i don't know what to do! i mean i am not at a breaking point to where i'm going to hurt them but i am very frustrated and lacking a tremendous amount of sleep and unfortunately there isn't really anyone around to help me deal with them. so what do i do???

:help:

 

Here is what I suggest....

1. swaddle if they like it

2. put them in their bouncy seat or swing or carseat whatever they tolerate the best

3. park your vacuum cleaner between them and turn it on

4. walk away and go about what you need to do....

I nearly wore out our old vacuum cleaner when Ian was a baby - both my kids had the worst colic...Pedi suggested soy formula which worked wonders for Abby but Ian was still colicky...one day at my wits end I just put him in his swing and turned on the vacuum - he slept for 2 hours! It was loud but he finally calmed for an extended period of time...

also - let them sleep wherever they will tolerate it - whether thats the swing, bouncy, carseat, hell even the stroller! You're still in survival mode - and will be for a while yet....mine slept in their swings till they were 4 mos old...at which time the colic cleared, and they transitioned to their cribs easily!

 

What worked for us:

• Swaddling
• White Noise
• Hypoallergenic formula
• Gripe Water
• Prevacid
• Gas Drops
• and a lot of TLC for sure!

 

I would highly highly recommend the Happiest baby on the Block movie, I swear that stuff is magic, tons of girls on this board swore by it too, has to do with the same theory as the it being the baby not adapting from being in the womb to the outside world and recreating the same enviorment by swaddling (miracle blanket by far the best blanket and they can't break free from it), white noise, motion and passifer. It sounds silly to watch a movie on how to parent, but this guys is an expert on colic and it is so worth every minute of the 1 1/2 hour I spent watching it. Even while my son was colicy I got him to sleep 12 straight through the night because of this movie. I was able to rent mine at my local library.

 

Yes! We used all of these too. Also, I'd recommend probiotics (I sound like a broken record) to mix into the formula or breastmilk. Did WONDERS for us. My kids didn't take to the sound of a vacuum but the hair dryer worked well.

If there's ANY way you can get someone to watch them, even if it's for an hour, do it. Take care of yourself.

 

Gripe water nor mylicon seem to make much difference when our boys are on a crying jag. But several times these little Cocyntal vials seem to have calmed them. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 of them but they have settled down so many times within 10-15 min that I don't think it's coincidence. Of course then there are times where nothing works for us. I buy that Cocyntal from Amazon. I also highly recommend the book Colic Solved! So far it is very informative and it gets great reviews on Amazon.

 

I read Happiest Baby on the Block to get some soothing technique help.

And my Mom put me in my bouncy and put some tennis shoes in the dryer and turned on. She said it worked like a charm. ardon:

 

My pedi told me that colic is a digestive system issue. Here are some of the things that worked for us:

-Probiotics-worked great at aiding in digestion and decreasing the abdominal cramps. I still give it to my kids

-soak babe in warm epson salt baths, if you can get close to 15 min it is more effective

-warm up a receiving blanket or bean bag and place it on your babes lower back. Also helps decrease abdominal cramps. We would warm up a blanket(20sec in microwave) and put it in the swing then set my boys on top of it. It was the only way I could put them down and they would stay sleeping.

-Baby massage of the abdomen, google it and see what you can find.

-we went through 6 formulas until we found infamil gental ease, it has less lactulose and the milk protien is partially broken down.

-I have heard chamomile tea works good but I have never tried it.

It is okay to let them cry for a while, sometimes you just need a sanity break. Also I would get all the help you can so you can get some sleep in. My boys screamed 24/7 for the first few months. I had people come over and take shifts with them. In order for me to sleep through it while other people watched them I had to wear either ear plugs or play my ipod. Good luck and hang in there. you can PM me anytime

 

I agree with all of the suggestions above. I tried all of them with Luke and some worked & some didn't, you have to find out what works for you & the babies. Mostly you have to hang in there, even though I know it's hard. You are at the worst point for colic right now. There were nights when I thought I was going to pull my hair out and there were nights when I just cried with him, but eventually it got better and now it's all just a distant memory. You will get there, too. :hug:

 

I am so relieved to read this thread. We are going through this exact thing right now and it is exhausting and so sad. Our babies cry non-stop beginning at 6:00pm or so and lasting until the wee hours of the morning. We feel like such bad parents and wish we could find the magic antidote to make it all better. You are not alone and thanks everyone for the suggestions!

 

Great advice already as always but for us we -
swaddled,
used white noise,
most sleep was in swings or carseats,
dimmed lights and noise during witching hours,
gas drops,
probiotics,
reflux meds infant gaviscon (uk based)

Bless you and your babies, stay strong Hayley it does end and the crying will stop eventually. :grouphug:

 

:hug: I have no advice except that I have heard the happiest baby on the block and the miracle blankets are both awesome...I have 2 of the blankets in my online cart and should just pull the plug and buy them myself LOL.

When you all talk about probiotics what do you mean? My last dd had the flu badly last year at 6 months and they gave me some drops for her which worked wonders and I think they might have been probiotics, they were called Bio Gaia???

Hope it gets better for you soon Kristine!!!!

 

Probiotics! Try Nature's Way Primadophilus Reuteri.

They did a study on Reuteri with babies with colic. Half got probiotics and half got gas drops. The ones that got the probiotics (I can't remember the exact numbers)saw a 70% decrease in crying by 4 weeks and the gas drops hardly no decrease. It broke the study down into each week and each week the babies' crying decreased a significant amount. It's worth a try!

 

Nature's Way Primadophilus Reuteri appears to be a capsule. How do you administer them? What dosage do you add to a bottle?

Edited to say: nevermind. I see a 5 oz powder container on Amazon.

 

my peds recommend
Gripe water
Milycon
Cocyntal (Boiron homeopatic med)

we tried everything.
not sure what help more but something dose.

 

Pro-bioticss. My pedi recommended Bio Gaia. I read the studies online and there seems to be incredible evidence that it helped reduce the crying time and agony in poor little babies.

I just started it yesterday, so we will see. But I have known my pedi for 27 years (trusted family friend - my family's pedi) and usually what she says to do for any issue, almost always works.

Niki

 

Hugs to you! All of the suggestions are great.

Three things: the first is that you must get as much sleep as possible. (I know at this point it probably seems impossible to you!) However, it takes a lot of patience to deal with a baby that has colic and acid reflux and with two babies you need twice as much patience. If you have help, try to figure out a way that you can get a block of uninterrupted sleep time (taking every other night off, or taking the night in shifts, etc.)

Two, if one baby enjoys the sling it is still possible to hold and cuddle your other lo, as they are still quite small. The sling worked for me as one would nestle down and sleep in the sling for an hour or so and I was still free to pick up the other baby when he or she cried.

Three, as the other posters have said, you will find out what works best for your lo's--swing, bouncy, seat, etc. We found that during the day one preferred the bouncy and the other preferred the swing. At night our lo's preferred sleeping in their car seats. They were upright (for acid reflux) and when they woke, we could rock them back to sleep in the car seats. However, I hesitate to recommend this as (although I have no scientific evidence)I believe that sleeping in their car seats contributed somewhat to the flat spots at the backs of their heads.

You will figure out what works best. GL!

 

:hug: They don't know what causes colic but many pedis believe in one theory or another. I know ours wasn't neurological - you could hear the gurgling and our LOs poor little body binded up in pain. Ditto to everyone's suggestions, but the things that worked for our colic were the following - hopefully out of all the lists you'll find your own. Hopefully you are getting close to the end - ours ended between 11-12 weeks.

- happiest baby on the block video (get the DVD, don't have time for reading, it was wonderful)
- gripe water (only partial relief, but still, some relief)
- I went dairy free just in case for a couple months (now back on everything except straight cow's milk)
- using the twin hold in the maya wrap (if you have one or can borrow one) - they were little enough - cried at first but once I started walking or bouncing this was the key
- a big exercise ball that you could hold one or both and just sit and bounce - this thing was an absolute lifesaver
- lastly, a lot of gentle talking to them as I held them, just to let them know "mommy was there" and a lot of shushing in their ear - love that happiest baby on the block!

Good luck - this is a very distant memory now but I cried many a day, sometimes got in the shower for 10 mins while they cried so I could get myself together. It started in the late afternoon and usually subsided by 1 or 2 a.m. It was brutal - big hugs to you. BTW - if you have a swing and they seem to hate it, keep trying. Sometimes it is tempting to give up instantly but after a little practice our swings were lifesavers. I am speaking of full-size papasan cradle swings - not the portable ones.

Shoot - edited to say something else. We slept ours in those stationary papasan chairs in the cribs the first 12 weeks. We swaddled them tight then buckled them in - basically they slept at like a 45 degree angle or so. The pedi recommended it and it was incredibly helpful. Once they started wiggling more we had to move to the crib. I am sure the crib wedge does the same thing but ours always slipped off so these seats were instrumental to getting sleep. Just a thought if you are sleeping them flat on their backs. I hope you find what works.

 

One of my boys had a mild colicky phase so I'm not quite sure I've been where you are but I wanted to let you know what worked for me. Our pedi also switched Izak over to Alimentum. It took about 4 or 5 days before we noticed a difference so stick with that a little while longer. Our boys pretty much lived in their swings and one of us would sleep on the couch. We had the swing that would swing both ways ... side to side and front and back. They loved them. Let them sleep wherever they will at this point. We also used the mylicon drops for both boys ...every feeding. My pedi told us that the mylicon drops only work for about 25% of babies so if it doesn't work for you talk to your pedi about a prescription gas drop. I don't care what they say...gas and upset stomachs is definitely part of them being colicky. Good luck and hang in there... it WILL get better soon!

Edited to say: the swings were called papasan swings; I couldn't think of it right away ... you can find them at target or walmart. Best purchase I ever made!!

 

I don't have personal experience with colic, but when I was pregnant with DS I read a book by a doctor who has a clinic that specializes in colic and colic research. I think the book may have been "Why Is My Baby Crying" by Barry Lester and this is a link to his clinic:

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Children_at_Risk/Colic.htm

And an article about their approach:
http://www.parents.com/baby/care/crying-colic/inside-a-colic-clinic/?page=3

Anyway, the one piece of coping advice that stuck out from the book was to get an iPod and headphones and crank up the tunes. If you can't get the babies to stop crying, the doctor said it's ok to drown it out for your own sanity while you tend to the babies...