The worst time of our lives. (Coping with Colic Babies)

Member Name: SamPerry

Product:	Coping with Colic Babies
Date:	01/10/08 (137 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Non stop screaming, feeling terrible

Colic, the word alone is enough to send shivers down my spine and I am sure that any parents out there that have had to deal with a colicky baby will be well aware of what I am talking about! My five month old son, Rhys suffered with colic from the age of 3 weeks up until he was 12 weeks old and I have to say that those 9 weeks were the longest 9 weeks of my life!

Nobody really knows what causes colic; this is why there is no cure to treat it, although there are some treatments on the market that can help to ease the symptoms for some babies. Colic is described as uncontrollable crying in a baby when there is no known cause for it, it can start from when a baby is a few weeks old and usually goes on for about 3 or 4 months. Health professionals think that colic is due to the digestive system not being fully mature and think that trapped gas or wind causes discomfort in the baby which in turn causes the colic and the crying, but there is no evidence to prove this theory. It is also thought that colic may be due to lactose intolerance, or that your baby is highly sensitive to its surroundings but again, there is no evidence to prove these theories. The long and short of it is that nobody knows what causes colic, it is just one of those awful things that as parent, some of us have to live with until it has worked its way out of your baby's system.

Colic is said to be worse in late evenings where your baby could scream for 2 or 3 hours non stop, I have to say that Rhys suffered with it all throughout the day up until bed time, not just at night so every baby suffers differently with it. I wished that Rhys would have just cried on an evening but we were one of the unlucky one's!

Although colic isnt thought to be due to pain, when your baby is crying they may seem uncomfortable or look as if they are in pain. When Rhys used to cry, his little face used to screw up and go bright red and he would draw his legs right up, as if he had trapped wind.

As previously mentioned, there are is no cure or treatment for colic but there are medicines available that may help your baby. Unfortunately nothing helped Rhys but we tried everything that was available!!

There is Infacol and gripe water, these are medicines you give your child before each feed and they are meant to help to break down the trapped wind and help the baby to release it easier. Neither of these helped Rhys at all so we then tried a medicine called Colief, this works by breaking down the lactose in your baby's formula in case your baby is lactose intolerant, again this didn't work either and for a tiny bottle of Colief, it cost £10, so I am glad we didn't have to buy anymore!! I even tried changing his formula in case he was reacting badly to the formula he was on, but nothing helped to ease the crying.

The final thing i tried was cranial osteopathy; this is an alternative treatment that is believed to help. Osteopaths believe that when a baby is born, the labour is so traumatic to the baby that it disrupts the flow of cranial fluid up and down the spinal cord; they believe that this is what causes the colic. By administering cranial osteopathy this is believed to balance out the cranial fluid, therefore cure your baby. I must add that each half hour treatment cost £30, so this isnt a cheap solution. Rhys had four treatments and I have to say that he did seem to improve slightly each week, but then I had the doubts in my head wondering whether it was the osteopathy that was helping him, or was it just a case of him getting older and healing himself? I therefore deiced to stop the treatment as by this point Rhys was 10 weeks old and I simply could not justify paying out any more money for it.

The only things that helped to calm Rhys down when he was crying was his vibrating bouncing chair, I think the vibrations soothed him enough to get him to sleep. We also used to take him out for walks in his pushchair as the motion would again send him to sleep, plus lots of cuddles helped sometimes. No matter how bad our day was though, the crying would stop as soon as Rhys had his bath at 7pm, I think the water used to also soothe him. He would then have his feed and go straight to sleep and not wake up again until his next feed was due!

Rhys reached 12 weeks old and as if by magic the crying suddenly stopped! It was as if someone had pressed the off button and the colic instantly disappeared! He was still quite temperamental but this was nothing compared to the constant crying we had endured since he was three weeks old.

Whilst pregnant, I had visions of what having a baby would be like, this gorgeous little baby that only cried when he was hungry or tired and would be good as gold for me, what I actually got was quite the opposite. I cannot put into words how stressful and terrible the period of time was that we lived with colic; I wouldn't wish colic upon my worst enemy. No first time parent expects to have a baby with colic and when it suddenly happened to us I found myself wondering what we had done to deserve it. I felt alone, lost, desperate and most of all felt like a useless mother and felt like I was letting my son down as I couldn't stop him crying, a new Mother shouldn't feel like this, they should be elated and over joyed at having a new baby in their lives, but this wasn't the case for me. Don't get me wrong the colic never stopped me loving Rhys; in fact I probably loved him more as all I wanted to do was cuddle him to take away his pain.

Rhys is now almost 5 months old and I am pleased to say that the pain of living with colic is a fading memory, just like childbirth and having a tattoo; you always forget about the pain and end up doing it again!! Rhys is a gorgeous, smiley little boy who seems to be growing so quickly and surprises me with a new trick every day, I am very pleased that the colic didn't affect him in any way. Only now do I even consider maybe having another baby in the future, if you would have asked me if I would have another baby when Rhys was 7 weeks old and the colic was at its worst, my answer would have been 'NO WAY'!!!

To anyone out there with a child suffering with colic, I completely sympathise with you and believe me you are not alone, no matter how bad it feels at the moment. I know that none of the treatments worked for me, but give them a go as they may work for your little one. Another point I will make is don't be afraid or too proud to ask people for help, you will definitely need it with a baby that cries all time. My saving grace was the support I had from my husband, family and friends, they all rallied round to help as much as they could and often took Rhys off my hands for an hour or so just to let me keep my sanity!! My final point is to say that it doesn't last forever, I know this is a cliché and when your baby is only 6 weeks old, to think that you have to wait another 6 weeks for them to get to 12 weeks seems like a lifetime away. Honestly, the time will come when your baby will be full of smiles for you, without a tear in sight!!

Summary: Made me feel like a useless Mother