Baby has colic, suggestions?

Our little bundle of joy has turned into a screaming, flailing mess over the past few days. She is doing well in terms of general health - breastfeeding well, gaining weight, pooping, etc etc.

She just won't sleep. Or let us sleep. My wife has been keeping track today - about 9 hours of sleep so far in a 22 hour period. That's not what the baby books told us to expect at 3 weeks.

I researched colic on PubMed and it seems the only things proven to help at all are Lactobacillus, cutting out dairy, and time. We're trying everything.

Anyway, what I really want to know is - do those swingy seats work? What kind of swingy seat? Side-to-side? Front-back? I'm eyeing a $130 model that plugs in instead of batteries. I don't have a ton of room in this old house for a giant baby swing, but I'm going back to work here next week, and I don't want my wife dealing with this alone with no good tools. If they work I will make room.

Our second baby had colic, and not much helped. The swing didn't work for him at all. The only thing that worked was this stuff my wife got called "gripe water". It was black and stained everything, but it would calm him down for a while. I asked her for a name brand, but she can't remember. It should be available at your local pharmacy.

I know nothing about this, so I asked mom.

A lot of colic is caused by gas in the intestines. This is often from foods that were not digested long enough in the stomach passing from the stomach to the intestine where they produce gases as they ferment. Feeding less frequently - or a smaller amount - can help with this type of colic. So can burping a kid well after feeding.

Swings are an option, but there are other motion-to-induce-sleep options. Some kids fall asleep from the vibrations of a car (road trip!!). Others will fall asleep if you put them in their car seat and set it on top of a clothes dryer that is running.

In olden days the go-to treatment was paragoric, which would work by reducing the peristalsis of the GI tract. Now days, using an opiate derivative for colic would be frowned upon.

Best of luck. Hopefully Dr. Hess will chime in here with some useful advice.

My first boy had it; went from breastmilk to Nutramagen formula...the expensive stuff. Helped somewhat.

As noted, late night car rides help, as does letting them sleep in the car seat--you can put in on a running clothes-dryer for the noise/slight vibration which seems to soothe them.

Been here few months ago. Our lifesaver was Nap Nanny (napnanny.com), only thing she would sleep in for long periods of time. Ever kid is different though. It gets better just isn't easy.

car rides and gas drops. both of my boys had it really bad. also make sure she isnt eating spicy food or alot of dairy if she is breastfeeding the baby.

and on the swingy seat front back side to side circles all depends on the baby. i know ours best thing was just a vibrating seat

I'm not a baby doctor. You're on your own. Sorry. You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.

(I always did enjoy doing the startle reflex test on newborns. Their arms and legs go all sprongy. Hilarious....)

Thanks everyone. I think time and patience are the only things that really work, from everything I've read online.

basto yep pretty much. from a mom of 2 good luck.

Yours is defective. Take it back to the hospital and get another one.

Do a YouTube search for "Baby got Colic", there's a video there (the noise is the only important thing) that helps immensely .

And yes, it's usually from too much gas. Have Mom cut out the dairy and see what happens. We have a swing, too, and she likes it (ours is 4 months old) and it has a base that you can turn the seat, so she can go front/back or side/side on the same swing. We picked it up used on CL, plug in w/ battery backup. I'll get you the name/model/part # if interested.

On Becoming Babywise (http://www.amazon.com/On-Becoming-Baby-Wise-Nighttime/dp/1932740082/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337395630&sr=8-1) has been something that my wife and I both read before each child (we have 3). I personally think they take things a little too far in many regards, but we've definitely used a few of their suggestions:

• Wake, Eat, Play, Sleep - schedule
• Parent-directed feeding (and sleeping) schedule

Like I said, I don't agree with everything they say in the book, but the schedule has really helped us out tremendously...

First: CONGRATS!

Second: Awwwwwwww!

Third: Our baby is a total spaz and hates sleep. When we were pulling our hair out, reading every book known to man, I remember there was a specific definition for Colic (baby cries for x amount of time yada yada.) I don't remember if she officially qualified as "Colicy" but it was close.

Two things we figured out:

One: We weren't 'putting baby down' for naps often enough (she fights sleep hard without being rocked there.)

Two: Funny you should bring up the swing. She'd rock in that thing (side to side) for ten minutes and be OUT!!! Mommy was totally against it as it was like "cheating." Daddy is totally about WHATEVER WORKS!!! Ours grew out of it quick. She's a 1 percenter.

Anyway, it did work for us. Go to the used baby gear places!!! I think ours was $30. I'll ship ours to you for free if you want to cover shipping. No gaurantees! All babies are different!

PS: Talk to the doctor if need be. Our friend's baby was deemed "colicy." Turns out he had a rare and very severe milk allergy. Also, don't get to wrapped up in the books. We kind of obsessed over hitting every milestone, and it's a waste of time and worry. Enjoy every second. First birthday is next month, and I'd swear she was born a few weeks ago.

Shake it until it stops crying?

I keed, I keed! Seriously, I have no idea, which is why don't have kids. Good luck!

Car rides work. Actually, my 17 year old still falls asleep in the back seat on any road trip approaching an hour. My older daughter would fall asleep if I bounced her on my knee...I might have just been knocking her out, I dunno. I've heard a ton of people claim the car seat on the dryer works a treat, although we never used that.

Its very rare for people to actually die from a lack of sleep.

Short version: Used baby swing. Side to side. Thirty bucks. Might change your life.

Dr. Brown bottles did wonders for us. Not cheap, but absolutely worth it.

You'll read that cutting out dairy doesn't work, but it did with ours. Tested and tried with all four of them. Also tried reintroducing dairy and brought back hell. It took 3-5 days for it to really work, but it really did work. At least give it a go and keep to it for two whole weeks before you write it off. Get used to living in shifts. We would each sleep 4 hours a night when it was bad, two hours on, two hours off, but one of us would be with the baby when we needed to be. It was rough, it got better. It always gets better with babies and colic.
So many hours of walking laps in the dark with a crying baby. Oh god, so many hours.

I once walked from Toronto to Glasgow with an 18 month old who had developed an ear infection. The flight attendants thought I was a prince of a guy, but it was the only way she would shut up.

It makes for a funny story now. Her puking all over my wife just as the wheels left the ground in Toronto is one of the highlights.

So many hours of walking laps in the dark with a crying baby. Oh god, so many hours.

Ya know? Walking laps in the light at the hospital every day for months while grandpa is sick is no walk in the park either. Crazy how we can just trudge through it. Looking back it seems impossible.

Primadophilus gave instant relief to my son. Drove us nuts crying, not sleeping etc. Car rides always got him to sleep. The good wife used to rock him to sleep, held him out in front of her, one hand on back of head, the other on his bum, and gently rocked him up & down. One day Primadophilus was suggested, I rushed out & got some, teaspoon mixed with water in his bottle, drank it, burped and asleep in 15 minutes...That had NEVER happened before. WHY had no body told us about this before?

My daughter is now 11 months and is very picky about sleep procedures. We have just come to the conclusion she is a high needs baby. (rather than do the leave the baby to cry itself to sleep BS that is all the trend now, which also causes brain damage to the child).

The things that worked the best for getting her to sleep would include scheduling, baby straight jacket "called swaddle me" vibrating chair, later on swinging chair, poly fleece blankets instead of sheets with no shirt, space heater, and 2 fans (one is used more for white noise the other for when it is hot), CD player with baby lullaby music, black out curtains for day time naps, scented lotion rub down before bed (part of good scheduling), steam vaporizer, and just holding her in the rocking chair.

We don't eat any dairy but we did find problems with momma eating soy and giving breast milk. Keep that in mind if baby seems worse than usual and there has been a diet change for the mother.

And if baby has gas problems turning her at a new angle for a while helps, as well as some pressure to the belly.

Come to think of it, at 3 weeks she's probably waaaaay too small for the swingy thing. The vibrating chair deal that jere mentioned worked pretty well for us at that age though.

Ours is also 11 months, jere, and also a night owl like her daddy.

Ah what the hell, I'll throw my 2 pence in. We knew going in that our lil guy might have some gastro sensitivity- as both of his parents do from time to time. Sure enough, he had some gas issues. Gripe water worked well, gas drops worked even better. He was also on the Enfamil sensitive formula for a while until moms milk production caught up. He never liked a swing or a bouncy seat- so that was out for us. Currently hates his car seat as well, so that makes it interesting. We're transitioning to solids right now, so we're back to the gassy issues (kid gets the WORST gas after some bananas) and we just keep the gas drops on hand.