How do I deal with a colic baby?

Question

I feel so bad for my son, he has colic. And I knwo his little tummy hurts, he has gas bad. I give him gentle ease Enfamil formula and Mylicon gas drops. And I swaddle him and rock him to sleep with his pacifier. Oh and change his diaper. And sometimes that still isn't enough. HELP!

Answer 1

I know EXACTLY how you feel. My son was the same way. Unfortunately the gentel ease wasn't around until my newest daughter...which helped imensely with her. But with my son, I had to use the Alimentum, Mylecon drops and I had to do this little motion with him to force some air bubbles out of his little tummy.

What you do is:
1. Lay baby flat on back on floor legs facing you
2. Grab baby's legs at ankels
3. Push babys legs together at knees and slowly motion upwards twords tummy.
4. When babys butt is up in the air a little, pull knees apart, and pull down to straight possition.
5. Repeat motion

It helped A LOT!!

Answer 2

Been there, done that. Try laying the baby in the face down position across your lap and rub his back. The heat from your body and friction from rubbing his back should help relieve some of that gas. If that doesn't work, sit him in a tub of warm water. The warmer the water it is, the more effective (just make sure it's not to hot, we don't want to burn him obviously). This is what my daughter's pedi office said to do when I called there after she had been crying for hours. They heard her cry and knew by the sound of it what the problem was. The mylicon drops didn't work, in fact some times seemed to make it worse (until she got older). But the thing with the lap was like magic for her. P.S., She was swaddled while I did that. Good Luck!

Answer 3

I just wrote this in another post but i'll cut and paste. Similac and Enfamil both did NOT agree with my daughter at all. She vomitted, had horrible stomach pains, constipation and was very irritable. The gas drops did nothing. When she was almost 6 weeks, after much research, I changed her formula 1 more time to Nestle Good Start ~easy to digest formula (has a purple label) and I can't even tell you how big of a change it made. She became such a happy baby the next day. She has a very sensitive stomach and she loves this formula. I'd highly recommend trying it.


And I use the platex bottles w/ disposable drop in liners which helped eliminate gas.

Answer 4

Is he arching his back and then jerking them in to the tummy You can heat a blanket in a micro wave for 10 second just (barley warm) in a square shape and place on tummy before you swaddle. Don't leave him alone. (heating pads are to hot for babies so don't use that)

My son screamed for weeks and weeks and they finally deduce it was colic gave him a med which did not help What did help was the swaddling and making sure he went BM
What I was told was to take his temp rectally barley just the tip with lots of lubricants [caused him to pass gas and BM thus walla no colic. Learned this in New born baby nursery when I worked there works like a charm.

Answer 5

He might be lactose intolerant....check with your Dr about what formula you should be using.
A baby with colic ussually likes to have preasure on thier belly, and, it ussually brings the gas out faster like that. Lay him accross your knees and pat his back firmly, or hold him tummy down along the length of your arm. Also, always make sure you burp him when he eats ( every few ounces) you'd be suprised at how much gas will build up from one missed burp. Also, gas drops help sometimes, but be careful not to overuse them. Good luck, and my best wishes for the tired mommy!

Answer 6

My guy was too. There is a book called "The Happiest Baby on the block" Harvey Karp that really helped us ( it is available in dvd as well). It talked about the 5 steps to sooth a colicy infant.
But it is strongly recomended you do them in the right order for full results. I believe this is the order but you may want to check yourself.

1 Swaddle. this helps them feel secure and also prevents them from flailing about and waking themselves up


2 Side or stomach position. But place baby in that position only when awake and in your arms or under close supervision. The back position is still safest for sleep.



3 Shush. Saying "shhh" mimics the sound baby hears in the uterus. You'll need to say it at the same volume he or she is crying. A white-noise machine or recording of uterine sounds works, too.We got a rainstorm and a ocean sounds relaxation cd's and played them and it really helped him. He also soothed when I shhuuusssed him or turned his humidifier on


4 Swinging. "This is not shaking," Karp cautions. "It's more like a shiver." It starts as fast jiggling of about one inch back and forth, then slows to a gentle swinging motion as the baby calms. or putting in a baby swing.

5 Sucking.you could use a paci or Breast-feeding or feeding from a bottle deepens baby's calm.

You may also want to try going to the lactose free formula. Maybe he can't tolerate any lactose
Good luck

Answer 7

mine is on nutramigen ( enfamil) that is specially formulated for colic. It is pricey (22-23 a can ) and you need to ask your pedi. for drops called lepson drops that help with colic mine had it bad and she is a lot better but she is 11 months and she still fussy at times.

carnation good start... comfort proteins is a good formula too.

Answer 8

You can try a product called Gripewater. It helped my daughter some - her's wasn't quite colic, but we had a couple of hours of crying every night for a while, and Gripewater helped soothe it. She wouldn't take it as recommended, so I used to add it to her formula. I also used to hold her and dance gently with music on a lot. Good luck. It does go away, I promise!

Answer 9

I can feel you dear there is no such thing more painful than seeing your kids in pain, but cure is always there you just need to find it, if nothing worked I would suggest you that give a try to "babies magic tea" once because it is an herbal tonic for babies colic and tummy ache, I came across a few people in my family who tried it and they are pretty satisfied with its results. see it on secretsoftea.com or you can find it on amazon as well

Answer 10

The thing that really helped me with both of my colicky babies was rocking them forward. I'll explain, I would sit them in my lap, with their legs facing forward and rock them to the front, it helped to press the gas out of their stomach, I would get a nice gasey fart shortly thereafter, works like a charm...