Colicky baby - out of the box ideas
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Anonymous
Wow thank you for all the sympathy and responses! Really warming to a sleep deprived mother's heart! I will be rereading this thread for ideas regularly 
I ran out to cvs and got some ready to feed. It came in cans, and perhaps that will at least reduce bubbles. Our pediatrician says you need to try each formula for at least a week and we are on day 3/4 so I didn't want to switch to Nutramigen. I will start him on it now - thank you for the tips! |
Anonymous
| I’m so sorry OP! Ask your DH to take a few days off and you go rest? |
Anonymous
| OP- have you addressed the baby wearing and diet elimination? And keep walking outside. your rejection of everything seems to be PPD and there is NOTHING wrong with that. |
Anonymous
+1 Good luck, OP and hang in there. |
Anonymous
| Check the tooth chart. When my baby was colicky a tooth was usually about to break through. We gave them Motrin and everyone was happy again. |
Anonymous
To respond I am not nursing so no diet elimination. I am following pediatrician orders re which formula to be on and will ask her about a GI referral. Waiting for yet another call back. I plan to research baby carriers tonight. I can't walk for hours with a screaming baby outside, especially at night. People will hate their thoughtless neighbor who lets a colicky baby scream in the street and wakes them up as they walk by. I'm not taking him to any funerals either. I do not think I am rejecting suggestions unnecessarily. Where did I do that? I cannot help if he hates to be swaddled. Maybe HE has PPD. No smiles yet. He's definitely TRYING to give me ppd. Remind me if there is another suggestion I missed or rejected. |
Anonymous
The trialing period is true but blood in the stool should really be an immediate referral to GI since it takes some time to get in. And if things resolve you can cancel. Colic is a symptom not a diagnosis. Heres the things you want to look for mucus not so much blood. Blood is an indication but not always harmful. Visible amounts would obviously be of concern but the testing will show up microscopic particles too. Mucus is pretty big indication - especially consistent- and even more so when there are colic symptoms that something is off GI-wise. I had a rough baby and very little help. My first daycare provider actually told me there was something wrong with my child and she couldnt care for him. She gave me 2 days notice for ceasing care. She'd be in business for 15 years and had plenty of experience with newborns. We ended up needing a 1:1 provider from 3-8 months because he was so high needs. Needed to be carried or held, small amount in bottles, held upright, etc. Swings and rockers were not particularly helpful and he slept in a rock n play until 5 months and then we started cosleeping where I had to nurse him on a wedge. Like literally, we slept on a wedge all night for months. Take small but frequent amounts of time every day and make sure you get a break- a real one, not errands or "shower self-care". Also, this helped me that even if he/she was still crying I was still holding them and comforting them even if I wasnt able to remove the pain. As frustrating and isolating as that was. Wishing you the best and some resolution for both of you. |
Anonymous
| We found gently bouncing on a large exercise ball while holding the baby helped. Especially at night and facing a window, he would stare at the darkened window and something about the combo of bouncing/light reflecting in the dark was soothing. |
Anonymous
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My co worker recommended turning on the vacuum cleaner,,It worked. We kept it out at all times. Just tuned it on as needed. We also put the carseat on the dryer (warm and movement). Sling really helped us. It was very hard!
Baby #2 we used the techniques in Happiest Baby on the Block. I think it would have helped with #1 as well (though it does involve swaddling) Good news..Nightmare Baby 1 was an amazing kid and young adult once we got through babydom. |
Anonymous
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Sorry, OP. I’ve been there. I agree what you ultimately need is time. Mine was very colicky, just hours and hours of crying every day. I remember looking at other new moms going to baby and me classes and just not understanding how. Mine just cried! He didn’t like strollers or swings, only could be held and bounced. The first time I got up the gumption to take a solo walk with him was when he was four months, and he cried bloody murder half the time! There may be some treatable condition, but maybe not.
Mine had blood in the stool (invisible), and it continued despite diet changes, using RTF Nutramigen, and the like. And it continued well beyond when he was no longer colicky. He always grew just fine. Not one pediatrician ever suggested seeing a specialist. What I did to help survive was: - baby wearing during the main crying hours of 10-12pm while listening to podcasts loudly to take my mind off the crying - a break every night where I got 4-5 hours of sleep, with the ear plugs another person recommended This is a marathon so treat it as such and build in breaks NOW so you can last at least with another 2-3 months of this. Mine slowly got better but was always high needs, even as a toddler. Didn’t sleep through the night until 2 years old and would cry for 20 minutes after waking up from a nap. Can report that he’s a happy, healthy, and low-key kindergartener now *shrug* And going back to work eventually was a way to regain some balance for me. It felt like vacation. Hang in there! |
Anonymous
Also adding (as others have said) when you need a few minutes it is FINE to put the baby some place safe and collect yourself for a few minutes. |
Anonymous
No, no you won't. |
Anonymous
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You need to do a blood allergy test. It’s very simple. Blood in stool is a big deal and not common. I agree with others that Elecare or Alfamino etc would be the logical next thing to try after your week off Alimentum.
Alimentum is hydrolyzed more than Nutramigen so if Alimentum doesn’t work and dairy protein is the issue, Nutramigen definitely won’t work. Unfortunately CMPA is non ige mediated so no blood test for it. Just trial and error to make the screaming stop. It took us a very long time to figure things out. Ear pods to listen to podcasts with noise canceling. Let people hold the baby. Reach out to old lady neighbors, family, friends, anyone during this time and accept their help! That was the most helpful thing I did. |
Anonymous
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I posted earlier recommending the alimentum liquid. Hope that helps.
Pediatric GI is a good idea to rule out anything more serious but there’s not much they can do - the baby needs to eat something and there are only so many formulas to try. The only other avenue is reflux medicine. OP, you say it’s not that, but colic is the biggest reflux symptom and often goes hand in hand with the allergy. I don’t know what you’ve tried already (and you don’t need to tell me!) but just wanted to mention it. Both my two had blood in stool. Both did best on the liquid alimentum. But I know some kids need amino formula. I wish you the best, this is no fun but it does pass. |
Anonymous
Reflux looks really different kid to kid. For my kid with severe reflux, one of the things that helped the most was showers. I would hold him on my chest, sitting in a shower chair with a death grip around one ankle and let the warm but not scalding water hit him on the back. It would calm him when nothing else would. |