Put This In Your Baby's First Aid Box (Infacol)

Member Name: krazykat2005

Product:	Infacol
Date:	15/01/06 (4013 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Helps baby bring up trapped wind

Disadvantages: Smells awful, a bit expensive for long term use

Infacol is given to babies to relieve infant colic or wind due to trapped air.

- What is colic? -
No one is one hundred per cent sure what it is that causes colic, though it is most often blamed on a baby’s immature digestive system and excessive trapped wind. It usually starts at about two weeks and lasts until about three months. A baby with colic usually cries or fusses for more than three hours a day, for more than three days in one week. They look to be in some discomfort, usually sharply extending and pulling up their legs, straining and passing wind. Colic is most common in the evenings.

- What is wind? -
Wind is air trapped in a baby’s stomach, usually caused by air being taken in whilst your baby is feeding or crying. It can occur in both breastfed and bottle-fed babies, though it is less common in breastfed babies (I believe this is because they have more control over how quickly or slowly the milk comes out of the breast).

To wind a baby you either pat or rub their backs in one of three positions – over the shoulder, sitting up or face down on your lap. Try all three of these positions as most babies find one more effective that the others. (Oliver burps more when over my shoulder, but prefers to lie face down on my lap)

To try and reduce wind you should:
- Feed your baby sitting up
- Try a faster/slower flow teat as if your baby is feeding too slowly or too quickly the amount of air they swallow can increase
- Try baby massage
- Try mixing formula powder into the water, rather than shaking it as this introduces air bubbles into the milk

-- PRODUCT DESCRIPTION --

The active ingredient in Infacol is Simethicone, which is an 'anti-foaming agent' that works by reducing the amount of trapped wind in the stomach by allowing it to be released as large bubbles rather than multiple small bubbles.

It also contains: Saccharin Sodium, Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Orange Flavour, Methyl Paraben, Propyl Paraben and Purified Water

It is sugar, alcohol and colourant free with an orange flavour.

It is suitable from birth onwards.

-- PRICE --

A 50ml bottle costs from between £2.98 (at Asda and Tesco) up to £3.29 (from Boots).

This does sound quite expensive until you consider that this is for 100 doses which usually lasts me just under two weeks. I think it is also possible to get Infacol on prescription from your doctor, although I believe you have to really push for it as they do not like to give it to you.

-- PACKAGING --

Infacol comes in a white plastic bottle with a grey lid, which is also the dropper for administering the medicine.

On the front there is the red Infacol logo and a basic description of what it is Infacol does. It also says that Infacol is suitable from birth onwards.

On the back there is dosage and usage information. There is also listed the ‘ingredients’ and storage information.

-- WHAT I THOUGHT --

Oliver is bottle-fed and tends to suffer from a lot of trapped wind. In the beginning, getting him to burp it up could take a long time, and at times there was nothing we could to help him manage this. It was very stressful watching him in obvious pain and not being able to help. Due to this inability to get the wind up, he started becoming quite colicky last thing at night. Every night he would be fed at ten o’clock and still be up and crying at two in the morning.

I was tired. My partner was tired. Oliver was tired. It was getting to the point where I wasn’t sure whether I could cope for very much longer. I felt like I was failing my child because even after hours of trying to wind him I couldn’t get any burps at all.

Then, when Oliver was about a week old, I remembered that on one of my many spending sprees I had bought a bottle of Infacol to put in my infant first aid box. I wasn’t sure if I could give it to him due to him being very young, but thought it was worth a look anyway. Imagine my relief when I found that I could use it.

When I opened it at his next feed, I was struck by the sickly sweet orangey smell. I thought it was horrible and did wonder why they chose orange as I am sure infants are not supposed to have citrus fruits until they are a year old at least (not sure of this fact – correct me if I am wrong). I tasted it before giving it to Oliver and was surprised to find that whilst it smelled very strongly of oranges, it did not taste very sweet at all – it was actually quite bland tasting, though you should have seen my baby grimace the first few times I gave it to him.

I found that administering the Infacol was very easy especially if baby is crying. You just pop the dropper in baby’s mouth and squeeze the bulb at the top to release the liquid onto the back of the tongue. Oliver tries to spit it back out sometimes, but I make sure I have the bottle of milk ready and pop it into his mouth straight afterward so he doesn’t get the chance.

Infacol has an accumulative affect, so the longer you use it the more effective it becomes. We did get burps after the first couple of doses, so did find that it helped straight away also. However, it seems Oliver finds it easier to have his trapped air come out of the nappy end, so we do not always get burps with every feed. All in all he seems to be a lot happier within himself and, although he does still have the occasional cry due to wind, the colic seems to have settled (fingers crossed, touching wood).

My one complaint is that when you get towards the end of a bottle it does get hard to get a full dropper of the liquid. I would advise you to check that you are getting the full 0.5ml dose as I was only able to get it to fill halfway and was therefore having to give him two half doses.

-- CONCLUSION --

I am giving Infacol four stars out of five. I believe it has definitely helped Oliver, which means I am now getting more sleep and am not having to worry about my little one being in pain. I didn’t give it full marks because I did find that it was difficult to get the full one hundred doses out of the bottle and it smells awful.

-- Good Points --
- comes with a dropper
- no sugar, alcohol or colourants
- can use from birth
- worked on my baby

-- Bad Points --
- smells awful
- a bit pricey for long term usage and hard to get on prescription
- hard to get full dose towards the end of a bottle

Summary: Definitely helps my baby!