5 Tips for a Coping with a Baby with Colic

My baby with colic is now eight years old, but there are times when I look into her sweet, beautiful face and have an instant flashback to the nightmare that was her babyhood.

Look, I love my daughter now and I loved her as a baby, but if I’m being honest, her newborn and infant stages were really, really hard. Like, cry-in-a-corner hard. Like, she-never-stopped-crying-and-projectile-vomited-on-every-outfit-we-both-had hard. Like, I-still-feel-a-bit-traumatized-hard.

As a 24-year-old exhausted mother of two, I didn’t realize it back then, but my daughter had colic, and she had it bad. My husband and I chalked it up to her as being “one of those babies” and basically just dealt with it on our own. She was gaining weight and growing normally, so we tried our hardest to make her comfortable and because I was breastfeeding her, I worked on cutting out any triggers from my diet. We managed until she eventually grew out of her colicky stage, but for months and months, we were all pretty miserable. Looking back, I can see that I was sorely lacking the resources I needed to deal with my baby’s colic. Colic can be a very isolating and overwhelming time for parents, but there are some strategies that can help. Here are a few tips for coping with a baby who has colic:

One of the theories on colic is that the condition can be caused or exacerbated by excess gas in the baby; thus, reducing the amount of air in your baby’s stomach that accumulates during feedings might help relieve some of the symptoms of colic.

For instance, many babies swallow air when they are eating, especially if they are using a bottle. The bottle may have extra air in it, or the baby’s mouth doesn’t seal all the way around the nipple, leading the baby to swallow extra air. To help reduce the amount of air that your baby is swallowing during feedings, you can try some strategies such as:

Because I was breastfeeding my baby, the only way I could manage her discomfort was through my own diet. So, I did my best and started a food diary to keep careful track of what I was eating and how my baby’s symptoms seemed to worsen depending on what I consumed. And what I found? Well, it turned out to be rather depressing, because anytime I had so much as a bite of dairy, seeded fruit like raspberries or strawberries, most forms of starchy carbs, and horror of horrors — coffee and chocolate — her symptoms were much worse. And despite the sadness it brought me to cut those things out of my diet, keeping the diary helped me figure out what her triggers were so I could avoid eating them.

When dealing with a colicky baby, it’s also really important that you don’t discount the importance of speaking to a pediatrician to ensure that there aren’t any medical complications behind your baby’s crying. Too many parents are quick to rule out a cranky, crying newborn as a normal part of parenting or worry that a doctor will dismiss their worries as over-anxious parents.

But the truth is, there may be an underlying reason behind your baby’s colic. Some babies, for example, have acid reflux or a sensitivity that could be causing discomfort that leads to the crying. Especially if your baby has any other symptoms, such as spitting up excessively or signs that he/she is in pain, be sure to address your concerns with a doctor.

Related posts:

We came back to feminism this week, both in the in-class video on women in computer science and briefly in Chapter 3 of Pressed for Time, when Wajcman explained the disparity in work/leisure…

Our range of pocket squares can be the right choice of gift for your man. “Pocket Squares for Men” is published by Designer Cufflinks.

I write almost every morning on Medium.com, but today I was having a lot of trouble getting my thoughts out. Out of frustration I tried something totally different. I turned on my mic, closed my eyes…