Honeymoon Moments
We had a fabulous honeymoon. We went to Bali for 10 nights and saw so much that it still lives in my memories as the best trip ever. However, there is something that you...
Tips for Caring for Colicky Babies
There is nothing simple or easy about colic. In fact, I believe that colic is one the hardest things that many new parents have to deal with.
There is nothing more harrowing than not being able to sooth a crying baby.And Colic takes no prisoners. Colicky babies can be up all night. They can cry for hours on end. Colicky babies can stress out even the most patient of all parents.
I can remember hours and hours of crying with no end in sight. I felt like a failure as a parent. I felt as if I couldn't even take care of my own child. It was heartbreaking. Frustrating. Disconcerting.
My best tip for dealing with colic? Take turns. My husband and I had hour shifts because we figured that was the most that either of us could do at a time and not feel horrible about our parenting skills. My parents even helped out. Sometimes just to get away for even a few minutes made all the difference in the world.
After a short break, I felt revived and ready to take on the colicky baby once again.
My other tip? Remember that you are not a failure. Colic is not preventable.
Make certain to join us on Tuesday, November 2nd (my birthday) at noon EST for a live text-chat on TheMotherhood where we will talk colic with Dr. Jen Trachtenberg about caring for babies with colic.
If you have any questions about colic, please let me know and I will make certain to get them to our expert to be answered at the chat.
ENTER TO WIN AN AVENT GIFT BASKET (3 bottles – one of each size: 4, 9 and 11 oz) & Dr. JEN TRACHTENBERG'S NEW BOOK: THE SMART PARENT'S GUIDE TO GETTING YOUR KIDS THROUGH CHECKUPS, ILLNESSES, AND ACCIDENTS: EXPERT ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS PARENTS ASK MOST.
What are your tips for caring for colicky babies or for parents to get through this tough time? Share your tips in the comments below to be entered to win this giveaway. One entry for each comment. No limit on the number of tips you can enter.
NOTE: All tips will be submitted to Avent. AVENT will then choose their favorites and create an ultimate list of “Tips for Caring for Babies with Colic … and Their Parents.” So your tip may be used on this great list that will be posted on many blogs.
Please visit the other bloggers hosting this giveaway as well:
Clarissa Nassar from The Diary of a POSHpreneur
Victoria Mason fromThe Mummy Chronicles and Mummy's Product Reviews
Alaina Frederick from{my heartfelt} Life
Angie Knutson fromMy Four Monkeys
Contest Closes October 29th at 10:59 PM EST. Best tip will be chosen right after contest closing. Winner will be notified and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.
DISCLOSURE: I was engaged by AVENT and TheMotherhood to write about my experiences. I was provided with a stipend for my time.
The best tip I can give is put the baby across your knees on their stomach and turn on some music. That is how I got through it.
Mine is to put a warm water bottle under babys sheet. It soothes the tummy.
Thanks for the chance.
mogrill@comcast.net
Great Prize 🙂
ktgonyea at gmail.com
be patient take turns taking care of the little one mverno@roadrunner.com
A sound machine can help soothe the baby while they are in their nursery.
Swaddling babies can help soothe all babies,and it can help ease the discomfort of colic in young babies!
Clothing washers are great for car seats and collicky babies!
six_one_nine_girlie86 (at) yahoo (dot) com
A soothing bath & a calming top to toe massage worked wonders for us.
Natural colic remedies (drops) to relieve gas/colic was the answer
sswpss at yahoo dot com
We swaddled our daughter with the Miracle Blanket to help with colic! We also would lay her on her stomach on our knees and stroke her back with a little pressure to relieve some of the indigestion!
A sound machine helped with my baby
My niece was colicky, and the only thing that soothed her was laying her on her belly with the vacuum cleaner on! That’s how she got to sleep every night.
My niece was a colicky baby and they found that putting her in an infant tub and letting the water run seemed to calm her down. (She was watched at all times of course).
i love the happiest baby on the block for my colicky baby. its all about swaddling, shushing, swinging, and laying them on there tummy on your lap
Walking w/the baby is the best thing I’ve found, if you can’t get out to walk, try putting the car seat on the washing machine, the movement sometimes helps.
I think a mobi wrap is essential for all babies, but is especially helpful with colic. There are many different holds and gives the baby a since of being swaddled and being close to you. It was a lifesaver!
TonyaMCrain [at] aol.com
.-= Tonya@ A Family Completed´s last blog ..Anytime Costume Review =-.
A friend of mine also swears by the hairdryer. She said it’s the only thing to calm down her baby.
.-= Tonya@ A Family Completed´s last blog ..Anytime Costume Review =-.
I also had a Womb Sounds Bear that was really great too, we used that instead of a crib mobile.
.-= Tonya@ A Family Completed´s last blog ..Anytime Costume Review =-.
Whisper in the little one’s ear!
my tip that worked with my son was lots of walking and music.
The rocking chair in our nursery was a complete lifesaver for my child with colic. I picked my son up and rocked him for hours. I think that I could sleep while rocking in the chair.
The wind-up swing was an absolute godsend for my colicky baby. I rolled up a towel to make certain that his head was supported, wound up the swing and then let him go. His crying stopped immediately and he was soothed.
I breastfed my son and we soon discovered that he had colic. I really altered my diet. I changed everything that I ate if it affected my son and/or came through the breast milk. I feel that this really helped tremendously. If I thought that a food was really affecting my son, I immediately took it out of my diet.
The best advice that I had for colic came from my mother.
She told me to keep the baby upright when feeding and burp him often.
This really works. It worked for my mom when I was a baby and then worked for me with my children.
Man, my daughter had the worst colic in the world. She was miserable every single day. CRY. CRY. CRY.
It was tough. We spent a lot of time in a steamy shower and in warm baths. This always made her feel better.w
I wore my child all of the time. This is one of the only things that helped with colic. It was amazing how quiet she become or how easily she could be calmed down as soon as she was snuggled against me in a carrier.
fennel tea calmed my infant! it worked every time! and it helped with the constipation!!
I completely forgot about this remedy. My husband developed a plan of what he called Baby Calisthenics and it was the funniest thing.
He would take each child and run it through a series of what looked like baby aerobics. The best move was laying the child on his/her back and pushing the legs or knees to its chest.
Tons of gas would come out and he would do it in this high pitched, crazy sounding sing-song voice that had each child mesmerized.
I cannot believe I forgot that. It was the greatest thing to watch and really calmed down all three of our children putting them to sleep almost instantly.
I would go for a drive. Sometimes I would drive for hours just to get my child to go to sleep. Of course gas prices were much cheaper back then.
Give a bath with lavendar wash, swaddle and then craddle and rock, also if you can take turns with your husband that will help your stress level eaglesofrjack@gmail.com
The best tip I can give is to soothe and massage him
The pacifier was my lifesaver. Both of my girls had colic and I made sure to never run out of pacifiers.
I would swaddle my baby as tightly as I could, put her in the stroller and go for walk. We would walk and walk and walk. I would walk until she went to sleep. If she woke up, I would walk some more.
Rub your baby’s belly. My wife told me to do this and I became the expert belly rubber. It would take me less than ten minutes to get my children to go to sleep. This worked for all five of my children.
Never, ever overfeed your baby. I think we commonly want to pop a bottle in their mouth to get the baby soothed or to quiet down but overfeeding your baby can make him or her even more uncomfortable than before.
My husband would take a shower with our son. He loved it. Calmed him right down.
We changed our bottles. The bottles that help reduce the amount of air that gets into your child worked wonders!
I gave my child several massages every day. The massage helped to lessen his tension, really reduced fussiness and seemed to help with his digestion overall. A couple of massages every day definitely helped to make my son less irritable.
We changed formulas several times until we found one that worked best for our baby. Although this didn’t stop him from crying completely, it did lessen his colicky spells.
Infant gas drops
We used Colic Calm Gripe Water and it worked every time.
Moms who are breastfeeding should avoid milk products, spicy foods, peppers, onions, caffeine, cabbage, broccoli, garlic, beans and any other gas producing or potentially stomach irritating foods. If it may irritate you or your stomach, imagine what it is doing to your baby.
My daughter was fussy/colicky. I would run the sink, vac or a “fuzzy” TV station. That type of white noise usually calmed her.
This may sound odd but I would vacuum. The sound would knock my son right out and my house was never cleaner.
My grandmother told me to bounce my child on my knee. I think that my daughter went to sleep for the first three months of her life while bouncing on my knee. Worked like a charm!
My daughter loved to be on my stomach. When I couldn’t get her to stop crying, I’d lay her on my tummy.
Swaddling was also a great way to ease her colic.
I used gripe water with my son, it seemed to help him through some tough bouts, the thing that cured him was going to the doctor and finding out he had an intestinal blockage and cleansing him, then he was a new man.
Rocking gently and laying them on their stomach with a gentle rocking motion to help sooth them
The best advice that I have is to remember that colic is not a health problem. Many people think that they have an unhealthy baby if their child has colic and this is not the case at all.
I cuddle my colicky babies. They grow and go out of my arms so quickly.