Colic

I did a search and did find several old threads about colic but just wanting to get some second opinions.

Ryan's always been a bit of a crying and we are pretty sure he had reflux early on. However, that has now been replaced with what looks like colic. He tends to get very upset at various points throughout the day - specifically a little while after he eats. His little legs start pumping up to his chest like he's riding a bicycle and he screams this shrill, horrific scream that sometimes goes silent because he's still screaming but doesn't have the energy to make the noise anymore.

It's worse in the evening - especially after his last feed and he can cry for hours before he finally seems to succumb to exhaustion. Some days are worse than others and it doesn't seem to strike at a particular time of day - like 4pm.

What gets me is a couple weeks ago he was having really good nights - having good feeds, going down easily and sleeping for 7-7.5 hours. Then all of a sudden this started up worse than before. I haven't had any changes to diet, etc.

Do you reckon it sounds like colic?

I didn't have any drugs in labour - it was a completely natural, drug-free birth. He's been to osteo 3 times now. I've already cut out dairy and wheat to see if that makes a difference and did so for several weeks. He would have good days and bad days so couldn't see that it was helping that much - although still dairy free at the moment as he does seem to spew more if I eat too much dairy.

We have as much of a schedule as I'm able to - sometimes he doesn't get to play because he's crying too hard.

He's taking Weleda colic powder.

Nothing seems to help...

Yep, he'll use a dummy at some times - but it doesn't help when he's having a colic attack because he's screaming too hard.

We thought Ryan had reflux too. He went on Gaviscon for a few weeks. The osteo did seem to help with that quite a bit. We weaned him off Gaviscon and he seemed to do just as fine as he did on it.

Is pulling legs up to chest a symptom of reflux as well?

Hmmm....it's just that he's been off Gaviscon for awhile now. Maybe I'll give him some tonight - I suppose it can't hurt. I just don't know anymore.

If you have a routine, cutting out dairy, been to osteo etc etc, it really sounds more like reflux, they can have silent reflux where they don't spill much but it still really hurts as the acid comes up and then rather than spilling it goes back down (so they get it twice poor little things)

I found colic powder good if DD was a little blocked up, but otherwise it made her worse. Our 'colic' turned out to be mismanagement (lack of routine) and silent reflux.

Does the gavison work at all? Have you tried carrying DS in a wrap or something to keep him upright and soothed after feeds? Reflux/colic babies love to be carried. It might just be a matter of doing whatever you can to get through while he is bad.

I know how stressful it can be, our DD used to scream for hours everyday. The only thing that would keep her happy was bath time, she was really bad. We tried everything and eventually I just stopped listening to all the pediatricians and went with my gut that is was reflux. Luckly she grew out of the real bad reflux by about 12weeks and now just has it a little.




Edited by skp

thats great that the gaviscon helped. We found sitting DD up for 20min after feeds really helped too. Poor little mites can't tell us what's wrong, its so sad to see them in so much pain!

Hopefully you have cracked it now, well done Mollycat