What to do When Your Baby Has Colic
70
When your baby has colic it can be very difficult for you as a parent to function. Here are some tips to help relieve the pain caused by colic:
What is colic? Colic is extremely painful gas which causes an infant to cry nearly incessantly.
Since this is such an important topic I'll be adding a few more video's than usual, if you're having a problem with your little one who has colic please take the time to watch the video's. Different techniques work for each child and a combination of these techniques through the day can help to even prevent colic!
Lull-A-Band, see link below...
Many infants under the age of six months who have been killed by their parents shaking them, (Shaken Baby Syndrome,) had colic and would not stop crying. Before you say that you would never do that, realize that infants with colic can cry for upwards of four to seven hours a day. Piercing, ear-shattering, head-splitting incessant crying combined with a lack of sleep can cause otherwise sane parents to be driven to acts they would never think themselves capable of.
At the bottom of this article are also some links for the different products available to help colicky infants. I highly recommend the Amby Baby Hammock Motion Bed for infants. Whether or not you have your infant sleep with you is a personal decision based on family and culture, but it is preferable for most families and safer for infants to sleep in their own crib or bed.
How to Comfort a Gassy Baby (Colic)
Very carefully, lie the child on your knees with its face towards the floor. Pat their back lightly.
Lie your child on its back and have them brace their legs against your hands. The infant will push against your hands with their feet. Don't push for your child, let them work it out themselves. You can move their feet / legs in a pedaling motion, however, as if they were riding a bicycle. (As demonstrated in the video above.)
Lie the child on their stomach and rub their back in gentle circular motions, alternating by patting their back lightly.
Tips for New Parents
Place the child in their safety seat or baby carrier, place child (supervised, of course,) on the dryer while it is in operation. DO NOT leave your child unattended in this position.
Go for a drive. Obviously if you're sleep deprived this isn't an option, but like the dryer, the motion of the car tends to help little ones sleep.
Take turns with your partner sleeping. This is really important, whoever is caring for the child during the day needs sleep, too, so try to pick up a little of the responsibility of child care at night so your partner can get some much deserved rest.
 | Amazon Price: $18.94 List Price: $18.95 |
 | Amazon Price: $4.40 List Price: $13.95 |
 | Amazon Price: $13.95 |
 | Amazon Price: $5.30 List Price: $10.99 |
I hope that you've found this article to be useful. Remember, as parents to a newborn one of your biggest resources is your family and other parents. Get involved in parenting groups with other young parents, see if you can exchange babysitting duties with a set of parents you trust. If you have family near by do not hesitate to ask for help. Your parents have been there and done that, so to speak, even if we don't always agree with their old fashioned ways they are here to help, if they live nearby, ask them occasionally to lend a hand.
- Baby colic relief. Help calm your colicky baby!
Give your baby their own place to sleep and help ease the pain of colic with the Amby Baby Motion Bed! - Colic-Ease Gripe Water
Helps ease the discomfort associated with babies colicky pains. Colic-Ease gripe water is alcohol free, colorant free and contains no artificial flavorings...naturally the right choice! - LULL-A-BAND The Natural Way to Relieve Colic
LULL-A-BAND is the only patented method that provides gentle, relief from your baby's colic. LULL-A-BAND is safe, effective and easy to use.
Participate!
Did you find this article useful?
See results without votingCommentsLoading...
Frieda Babbley: Hey, thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read & comment... I really appreciate it! Seriously, that Lullaband thing looks like the coolest thing in the world, doesn't it? Yeah, when babies can have their bodies relaxed and stretched out it seems to help the most, I've noticed that, too. Though, sometimes the car rides would work for our daughter, other parents swear by car rides. Personally, I don't think driving around while feeling sleep deprived and cranky is the best option in the world. I know what you mean about watching your little one be in so much pain, it hurts to see them hurting so badly.
A LOT of people swear by the car rides. We had to stay home most of the time. Good thing we knew how to keep ourselves occupied!. One of our friends used to turn the vacuum cleaner on. It was one of those loud uprights. She doesn't know why it worked, but it did, so she kept with it. She was WAY too tired to drive. I don't know anyone else who's tried it, but it's worth a shot for someone, right?
Thanks for very good article. I do not remember our babies had any colic. The prevention is to get gas out after eating so they can belch.
A screaming baby is so frustrating! The thing that worked best with my little ones was to lay them on my tummy, skin to skin, and rub their lower back. The warmth really seemed to make a difference, and when all else failed, gas drops worked.
Its been a while now (thank goodness, my girls are 3 and 5) and my younger one was colicky, i used to put her across my knees so her stomach recevied some pressure and then stroked her back, that seemed to soothe her and also produced some satisfyingly noisy emissions as i remember. :)
Vladimir Uhri: You're welcome! Sometimes it just isn't possible to get gas out, their little digestive systems are so under-developed, it is difficult. You were very lucky to not have to go through the colicky baby stage! Thanks for stopping by and reading and commenting, I appreciate it!
Ivorwen: Yeah, I meant to put the gas drops that I've seen my mom use up here, but I couldn't find them anywhere! The warmth probably helps your little one relax enough to "let go" as it were, thanks, that's an awesome suggestion. I appreciate you coming by and commenting, thank-you!
Reena Daruwalla: *lol* I like how you put it! Thanks for coming by and commenting, I really appreciate it. That's a really good method of calming and helping your baby relieve gas, thanks!
Boy! Do I remembe those days! My oldest was the worst. I felt so helpless in trying to comfort her.
All 3 of mine had it, but my oldest was the worst! The driving, the dryer and just carrying them over my shoulder was the only things we ever found to work. We'd drive in circles around our neighborhood because I'd have to hold them instead of putting them in a car seat. The neighbors who didn't know us thought we were stalkers!
RGraf: I think that's the worst part about colic for parents, we're wired to react when they scream like that, not being able to help them drives us batty! Thanks for stopping by and sharing.
Laughing Mom: Hah! And you had two more?!? Too funny, thanks for reading and commenting, I really appreciate it.
Go figure! :-)
Car rides worked for mine and it didn't seem to take long, thank goodness. I personally know of two infants that were shaken severely. They both survived, but one is severely mentally challenged and the other has some learning disabilities and eye impairments. Both are teenagers now.
KCC Big Country: Like I said, some people swear by the car ride, I'm happy that worked out well for you. When I was growing up I remember one of our neighbors would start the car and put the baby in and just leave the car running in the driveway for 10 minutes or so. They'd take the baby out and it would be sleeping. Shaken baby syndrome is terrible. Their little brains are so delicate, how terrible for their families, was it one of the parents? That is so terribly sad.
I second the car ride solution. I'd leave my wife to sleep and take a looooong ride with my daughter, volume low as to not disturb her or just me singing to her. I remember how it felt as a child and figured it would work for my baby and it did, well sometimes. Both of my daughters were colic, it was absolutely horrible.
R.Edwards: Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read / comment. Wow. Two daughters, both with colic, how did you guys do it?!? Like I was saying to KCC Big Country, I'm happy the car rides worked for you guys, you're a good partner to help your wife out and let her get her sleep!
I'm currently 27 weeks pregnant. I found this very helpful and some good tips on how to deal with it. I just hope I dont have to use them.
rios65: Congratulations! I hope you don't have to use these tips, either, but do take a look at the snug band and automated rocker, they're really neat! Good luck over the next few months, I wish you and yours well. Thanks for stopping by and commenting, I appreciate it.
Great job! And never feel afraid to add videos; as long as it's useful, relevant, or part of the plan it should be fine. No need to apologize.
I myself was very colic as a baby, too bad these products weren't around then.
oscillationatend: Thank-you for taking the time to read and comment, I really appreciate your encouragement! I'm sure a lot of parents wish these products were around when they had little ones, but sometimes the tried and true methods of colic relief are the best. It's not like you can take a baby swing with you wherever you go! :)
Frieda Babbley Level 2 Commenter 2 years ago
Great article! Our first daughter had colic. We found rocking her in a bassinet worked wonders. Car rides where a definite no no. Any kind of sitting was really no good for her during these bouts. That's why the bassinet worked so well, her body could be relaxed and stretched out. It was tough, but we made it through and did our best. It broke our heart that she was in so much pain. Great topic, great videos. I especially liked the second one. Most of those tips in there worked for us. I wish I'd have seen the third video back then! And that lullaband. Is that for real? I would have tried that for sure. That is far out! It's true, it does drive you insane sometimes, especially when you have no help or too many outside demands on your life. We were lucky our life allowed us to stay fairly put together through all this.