Tried and Tested Tips for Coping with Colic

You bring home your beautiful new bundle of joy, and for the first week you're in this wonderful bubble where baby sleeps soundly in your arms and you gaze into their perfect face. Thoughts of 'this is easier than I expected' begin to creep into your mind and you're led into this false sense of smugness as other mum's around you tell you tales of unsettled, screaming babies.

And then, one evening, it hits you! Full force right when you weren’t expecting it. You try to feed your baby, they begin to get fussy. You change them and rub their back and try again but the fussiness gets worse. Their little faces screw up and they start to let out loud ear splitting screams. For a while you pat babies back, cuddle them into you and laugh about how 'your baby has finally found their lungs'. Three hours later, the joke is less funny as your scroll through the Internet desperately searching for ways to stop the crying. Time and time again you read the word 'colic'

For any mum who has had a baby who has suffered from colic will cringe at the mere word as they flash back through the awful memories of it. Often when I talk to other parents about colic, if they have experienced it, there's a moment of shared sympathy that passes between us.

Colic usually starts after a couple of weeks and can (if you’re unlucky) last up to six months, more commonly it ends at roughly 4 months. Colic is common and does resolve on its own. Your baby might have colic if they cry for more than three hours a day with no obvious reason. Colic tends to start during the evenings. In my experience, I would often watch the clock roll round to 6pm and know it was coming, the witching hour, the feeling of dread would rise as the hours and minutes would tick past knowing what was in store for the evening.

I have had four children, three of which have suffered from colic. I am well aware of how hard it is to look at you newborn baby and feel completely helpless and overwhelmed by their cries. Even fourth time round I had moments when I had to ask my husband to take her out of the room while I stuck my fingers in my ears and rocked! or Bury my head in a pillow to dull out the screams. There is evidence that shows mothers are genetically programmed to hate the sound of their baby crying so the physical pain that colic brings to the mother is real and shouldn't be taken lightly.

So here are a few tips and tricks that I have road tested along the way for helping ease colic, please note that some of these helped with one child but not another, I'm not a medical professional, I'm just a Mum with experience of colic, every child is different and it's about finding what works best for you and them.

1. Wind, wind, wind!

Throughout the day its advised you wind your baby during and after every feed! It sometimes helps to do it after every ounce, if breastfeeding, wind during baby’s natural pauses. This is to help reduce the amount of air trapped in baby’s tummy come the evening. I found that changing the direction baby was facing during winding helpful for bringing up wind naturally when my wrists were tired of patting and back rubbing.

2. When they're crabby, put them in water.

A warm bath can work wonders for a sore tummy. Sometimes just the change in room and activity is enough to distract baby long enough for them to calm down. And the warm water can be soothing for baby. I found an evening bath helped so much that we made it part of our bedtime routine, even now with older children (8, 5 and 4 years) the bath can be a great way to cool down bad tempers and create a better atmosphere.

3. Make more noise

White noise was amazing for soothing my daughter. You can download a white noise app, play around with the sounds and find out what works. Or turn the hoover on, although making more noise seems counter intuitive it does work! Just be careful with this one as for a good few months after, my husband could only fall asleep to the sounds of waves or tropical rain forests.

4.The position makes a difference.

Walk with baby, rock, bounce, swing (but don't drop!) baby. Motion can really help with allowing the air to come up and can help sooth baby enough for them to fall asleep. There were times when the only thing I could do to stop my child from screaming was to strap him in a car seat and go for a drive, you can almost guarantee that any mum with a colicky baby has been desperate enough to try this.

Also, consider the position when feeding. Try and keep baby upright during and after a feed so they gulp in less air.

5. Remedies

There are loads of them out there designed to help ease the pain of colic. We used infacol as our preferred colic drops for my eldest, we found they were less effective with our other children, but there are plenty of others and maybe they're worth a try! My mum swore by gripe water.

6.How are they feeding?

If your formula feeding what bottles are you using? Try some anti-colic bottles, they're designed to reduce the amount of air baby takes in during a feed. Dr Browns are known for being fantastic bottle for colicky babies but we also used the tommee tommee anti colic bottles and they seemed just as good. Some mums swear by fast flowing teats to reduce babies air intake.

If you’re breastfeeding, consider what is in your diet as this is passing through to baby. Although the evidence is not clear on this, trying to reduce your caffeine and alcohol intake may help to reduce colic.

7. Carry, cuddle, swaddle

Colic is incredibly uncomfortable for the mum and baby and sometimes the best thing to do is cuddle them. I would often put them in a sling and carry them on my front keeping them upright and close to me as we waited the crying out. Some babies respond very well to being swaddled.

8. Baby massage.

When my first child start experiencing colic, I attended a baby massage class at the local children's centre. Here, I learn all about how to rub a baby’s tummy to soothe the pains of colic using a circular motion. Since Covid 19 has prevented these classes from taking place, it may be worth watching a few YouTube videos around baby massage.

9. Time to speak to a GP

If your baby’s colic reaches a point when you feel it is not improving, then seek medical help, your Health Visitor will have a wealth of knowledge and suggestions and a Doctor can rule out other health issues that might be causing your baby to feel unsettled. Colic is sometimes mistaken for other problems such a cluster feeding or developmental spurts.

Colic can be tough, trying to calm and soothe a baby that won't stop screaming can be relentless and exhausting. If you start to feel overwhelmed or like you are not coping, It's OK to ask for help, ask for someone else to hold the baby for a while and step outside. It's OK to place baby down somewhere safe and give yourself a minute to breathe. Remember colic will end and although it may seen like forever, in the grand scheme of things, is actually a relatively short period of time. You will get your happy smiley baby back very soon!