Start With The Basics
- Change your baby’s diaper.
- Use a pacifier.
- Burp your baby.
- Hold and rock your baby, or use a swing or bouncer if your baby is old enough.
- Make sure your baby is not too hot or cold.
- If breastfeeding, can try to cut down on milk, spicy foods, citrus, and caffeine in your diet. However, colic is usually not related to anything mom has eaten.
When Does Colic Start
In most cases, colic starts when a baby is aged between 2 to 5 weeks. This is the time when a baby is getting used to the environment, and any allergy or abnormal thing may cause colic in a newborn. The colic usually lasts when a baby is 4 months young, but in some rare cases, it may stay for as long as 6 months.
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How Do You Know Baby Is Not Sick
When your baby has colic, there is a pattern of crying meaning it happens every day at the relatively same time of day. Since this pattern of crying will last weeks or months, your doctor will rule out health issues and diagnose your baby with colic.
If your baby is sick, there will probably be other things going on such as diarrhea, vomiting, fever, weight loss, not feeding, etc.
Because you wont know if your baby is showing a pattern of crying from colic for a number of weeks, it is very important to have your doctor do tests and examine your baby just in case it is a medical condition. Your doctor needs to rule out other reasons for the crying first and foremost.
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What If A Baby Wont Stop Crying
Caring for a colicky baby can be hard. If your baby wont stop crying:
- If nothing else works, put the baby on his or her back in a crib without loose blankets or stuffed animals, close the door, and check on the baby in 10 minutes. During that 10 minutes, do something to try to relax and calm down. Try washing your face, eating a snack, deep breathing, or listening to music.
Dont blame yourself or your baby for the crying colic is nobodys fault. Try to relax, and know that your baby will outgrow this phase.
If you ever feel like you might hurt yourself or the baby, put the baby down in the crib and call for help right away. Never shake a baby.
What Are The Symptoms Of A Colicky Baby
There are many signs of colic in newborn babies. However, how to know if my baby has colic. There are two of the major symptoms of a colicky baby include extreme crying and systematic and cyclic crying for no apparent reason. Other than it, you can also look for other minor symptoms of colic in babies including:
- Extreme fussiness after crying
- Bodily tension including clenching of fists and stiffened legs
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Swaddling Can Help Relieve Colic In Babies
Swaddling is one of the anciently used ways to keep the baby calm and relaxed. So, if you feel your baby is colicky, swaddling may help you. It helps to provide your baby with a womb-like feel, and this keeps her calm.
For this, you need to take a large and smooth cloth and wrap it around your baby, ensuring that her arms do not move. However, you need to ensure that the legs of your baby are relaxed and finely moveable. It will let the baby pass the gas quite easily.
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Coping With A Colicky Baby As A Parent
When your baby has colic, itâs important to pay attention to your own emotional state. Caring for a colicky baby can be tough, and can make many parents feel anxious and inadequate, not to mention stressed.
No matter how frustrated you feel, never shake your baby. Shaking an infant can cause bleeding in the brain, leading to permanent damage and even death.
If you find yourself feeling out of control and unable to cope with your babyâs crying, try one or more of the following steps:
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Take deep breaths and count to 10
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Put your baby in his crib or another safe place, and leave the room to take a break
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Ask for and accept help from family and friends who can take care of your baby for a short period, giving you a much-needed break
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Donât feel guilty about soothing your baby. You are not spoiling her. By holding and comforting her, you are trying to make her feel better, and eventually the colic will subside.
Give Your Baby Some Quiet Time
Trying to cheer up your baby during colic episodes would not alleviate or soothe the discomforts. What your baby needs is some quiet time. You can treat your baby with some quiet time by taking him or her to a dark room and try to talk in whispers or soft tones.
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Effcetive Home Remedies To Treat Colic In Babies
Babies diagnosed with colic are based on the following: Babies feel comfortable while sleeping and get up early without having enough sleep hours.
5 tips for colic that really work colic baby baby. A baby with colic will inhale a lot of air while crying and burp frequently.
5 tips to get a colicky baby to sleep baby sleeping. A lot of sleep for babies early on is a good thing.
5 ways to prevent colic in babies with images colic. A newborn has a lot to adjust to in his new world.
Baby colic everything you need to know a moms guide. And its possible that one of the causes of colic pain is related to levels of serotonin and melatonin.
Baby colic remedies that worked for our colicky baby. Babies diagnosed with colic are based on the following:
Baby with colic 5 tips to help your colicky baby sleep. Babies feel comfortable while sleeping and get up early without having enough sleep hours.
Colic baby or a fussy baby a perfect guide on how to. Babies who have colic can sometimes respond well to different ways of being held or rocked.
Colic baby or a fussy baby a perfect guide on how to. Being among the top causes of incessant screaming and mommys frustration, infantile colic is not just hard on the newborn
Colicky vs fussy baby the difference and why it matters. Changing how your baby is fed, and using different calming methods, can help to soothe a colicky baby.
How Other Mamas Helped Soothe A Colic Baby Naturally
I asked the moms on my Facebook page what they did to ease colic symptoms. Here are some of their responses:
- My daughter had really bad colic. At 2 am and almost 24 hours of no sleep, I turned on my hair dryer. Instant quiet. As soon as I turned it off, shed start crying. Thank God my hair dryer had a cool setting. My daughter, hair dryer, and I spent a lot of time rocking together. Kimberly G.
- My second child was extremely colicky. I tried wearing him, different holding positions , catnip tea, among others. Our saving grace was a chiropractor. He was amazing. After our first visit, it was like we had a new little boy that same night. Kimberly H.
- My first baby was extremely colicky until almost 6 months. It was really one of the hardest experiences of my life! Wearing her a lot, infant massage, and being proactive about helping her get gas out were super helpful. Also, we would put her infant tub under the warm water and let it run on her bellythis would almost always bring her relief! Kelley S.
- Brauers homeopathic colic formula. Simba & Mama
- Catnip tea. Ashley G.
- Babywearing, bouncing nothing really helped much. It was an agonizing three months. Julie T.
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Try The Pedalling Exercise
This is a simple but effective exercise. Place your baby on her back. Hold her ankles carefully together and gently push one leg at a time towards her tummy. Hold each leg near the tummy for a few seconds. Repeat the pedalling exercise for a few minutes. However, if your baby resists this exercise, stop it immediately.
How Do I Know If It’s Colic Or Normal Crying
Colic is a special pattern of crying. Babies with colic are healthy, and eating and growing well but cry in spells. The spells happen at the same time of day. Most often, the crying starts in the early evening.
During a colic spell, a baby:
- has high-pitched crying or screaming
- is very hard to soothe
- can have a red face or pale skin around the mouth
- may pull in the legs, stiffen the arms, arch the back, or clench fists
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How To Soothe Colic In Babies
In addition to frustration and exhaustion, you may have feelings of inadequacy and guilt as you try in vain to soothe your fussy baby. So while staying calm is easier said than done, these strategies may help ease the strain until colic passes.
Just give each a fair shot before you switch to another . Talk to your doctor for tips and possible causes of your baby’s colic too.
Seeing Your Baby’s Health Care Provider
Your baby’s health care provider can often diagnose colic by asking you about the baby’s medical history, symptoms, and how long the crying lasts. The provider will perform a physical exam and may do some tests to check your baby.
The provider needs to make sure your baby does not have other medical problems, such as reflux, a hernia, or intussusception.
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How To Help A Baby With Colic
There is no treatment for colic. Different things will help different babies. As you get to know your baby, you will learn what works for you.
Things that might help include:
- Hold your baby close during a crying episode. You are not ‘spoiling’ your baby by responding to their needs in this way.
- Sit your baby upright during feeds.
- Wind or burp your baby after feeds.
- Gently rock your baby.
- A warm bath can really help some babies with colic.
- Avoid over-stimulating your baby with loud noise, bright lights or a crowded room.
- Gently massaging your baby’s tummy before they are likely to cry may help. Do this in a circular motion. Do not massage after a feed.
There are some other things you may like to try. There is no scientific research to support their use, but some parents find them helpful:
- Movement and motion, for example a walk in the buggy or pram, or a car journey.
- Music.
- ‘White noise’ like the low frequency noise of a vacuum cleaner, a radio not tuned in properly or ‘white noise’ music or apps.
Achieve Colic Relief By Babywearing
Anthropologists who have studied infant care practices throughout the world have noted that carried babies tend to fuss less. We use the term babywearing because wearing means more than just picking up a baby and putting her in a carrier when she fusses. It means carrying a baby several hours a day, before baby begins to fuss.
Carrie, a mother in our practice, had a colicky baby who was content as long as she was in a sling. But Carrie had to return to work when her baby was six-weeks-old. I wrote the following prescription to give to her daycare provider: To keep Tiffany content, wear her in a sling at least three hours a day. One of the theories about colicky behavior is that its a symptom of disorganized biorhythms. During pregnancy, the womb automatically regulates babys systems. Birth temporarily disrupts this organization. The more quickly a baby gets outside help with organizing these biorhythms, the more easily she adapts to life outside the womb.
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What If A Baby Won’t Stop Crying
Caring for a colicky baby can be hard. If your baby won’t stop crying:
- If nothing else works, put the baby on his or her back in a crib without loose blankets or stuffed animals, close the door, and check on the baby in 10 minutes. During that 10 minutes, do something to try to relax and calm down. Try washing your face, eating a snack, deep breathing, or listening to music.
Don’t blame yourself or your baby for the crying colic is nobody’s fault. Try to relax, and know that your baby will outgrow this phase.
If you ever feel like you might hurt yourself or the baby, put the baby down in the crib and call for help right away. Never shake a baby.
Crying Isnt Always Colic
If your baby is not eating and growing normally, they are not experiencing colic. More likely, there is a medical issue that is impeding feeding.
Notify your pediatrician of this, or if your baby cries for extended periods of time , which could indicate an issue such as an ear infection, dehydration, or an illness.
If a baby under 2 months old has a fever of 100.4 degrees F or above, thats a potential emergency, so seek immediate medical attention.
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Why Do Babies Get Colic
There is no exact reason as to why babies get colic. Which makes it difficult if you want to know how to relieve colic in babies. According to WebMD colic could be caused by their digestive system that is still developing or hormones that could cause stomach pain.
What we really want to know though is how to relieve colic in babies, or at least how to ease the symptoms to make it more comfortable for your little one and easier on mum and dad.