Does my baby have colic?

It’s not often that I liken my youngest to a panda but it seems that she’s had something in common with the newest inhabitants at Edinburgh Zoo. The dreaded colic. Just like Yang Guang and Tian Tian, Little Sis has been horribly unsettled; crying and not sleeping or feeding properly until the small hours. This was so out of character that we had to seek help from our Health Visitor. It’s difficult to imagine when she’s sleeping so peacefully next to me during the day but we’d come to dread the evenings.

We agreed it was probably colic which is defined as a condition in which an otherwise healthy baby cries or displays symptoms of distress frequently and for extended periods, without any discernible reason.

The Health Visitor gave some great advice and, after she left, we rushed out and bought some Tommee Tippee anti-colic bottles, gripe water, and changed her formula from SMA to Aptamil. The Health Visitor said the brand we had been using had a reputation for causing wind in babies so we were very happy to make the change!

She also wrote a letter to our doctor reinforcing our opinion that the infant gaviscon had made a huge difference to Little Sis. It reduced her reflux and made her more comfortable in the evenings. That just left the colic to deal with!

The constant crying affected the whole household. We worried that the noise would wake her older brother and we spent evenings trying to comfort her without much success. It seemed to affect my husband more than me as he would feel unable to help her and get tired of her crying. I knew she wasn’t crying on purpose and although at the time it didn’t feel like the phase would ever end, I kept telling myself she would grow out of it eventually.

At 12 weeks the colic does seem to be less severe than it was.  A couple of things really helped so I thought I’d post them in case it helped others:

• learning some baby massage techniques, especially around her tummy
• white noise
• Colief
• anti-colic bottles
• Infacol
• holding her upright against me so she benefited from my body heat
• swaddling
• baby wearing