Crazy Colic Days

I've made it no secret to those around us that Daniel has colic, among the other five-letter words such as 'reflux' and 'gassy'. We found out around 3 weeks that the unexpected fussiness and general discomfort was due to reflux, which our doctor said is likely causing part of his colic.

Needless to say, following a blissful two weeks, it has been a rough two months.

I never expected to have a colicky baby. Since it was not even on my radar, learning how to cope with a sad and uncomfortable baby was a long journey, one that I can say seems to be nearing its end. And, while all the baby books and internet searching has helped, my pediatrician has been the one to teach me how to keep him comfortable and happy.

Basically, I've been keeping him sitting upright (for the acid), telling myself this will pass eventually, and doing lot of a lot of babywearing/cuddling.

But I can tell that the end is near! So here are some general truths that I've found to be pretty much accurate.

1.  Colic generally shows up around 2-3 weeks of age, and goes away around 3 months. It peeks around 6-8 weeks of age, and of course, every baby is different and these numbers are general guidelines.
   
   I have to say though, that his colic did show up at 2.5 weeks, peeked at 8 weeks exactly, and most people who I've spoken with said their baby seemed to 'miraculously' get better at 3 months old. I sure hope so. 11 weeks today, so we're almost there!


2. Colicky babies tend to be more miserable in the evening hours. This was true to some degree for us. In the beginning weeks, we noticed that he was fussy after 5pm, until bedtime and that he was always a happy baby in the mornings. Then around 6 weeks, his fussy time expanded, and anytime after noon you could expect him to start fussing and then 
   
   eventually the relentless crying would begin. But always happy in the mornings.
   
   From weeks 6-8, he found a entirely new level of colic, where he screamed nonstop from noon until bedtime. Oddly enough he kept going to bed at his regular time. He never had colic at night, which was a huge blessing. At least we could get some sleep. And, since he was exerting so much energy crying he started sleeping longer period of time. On Feb 9th, he slept 6.5 hours and then 2.5 hours. And, we ordered Hyland's Colic Tabs, which seems to soothe his tummy and calm him down even more. Of course, it took us until he was screaming bloody murder to find something that helped, and by that point he was getting better. Figures, right?
   
   
   
   
3. Gas is a certainty with colic. When a baby cries, they suck in air and get very gassy. Which is uncomfortable, and means that they will cry more and become even gassier. So one of the best tricks that the pediatrician taught me was to give him TONS of tummy time (as much as he would permit) and to massage his lower abdomen whenever I held him. She also said not to bounce or jiggle him but to sway him instead. Would you like to be bounced around when you have an upset stomach? Neither would I.


4. Colic is unexplained crying, and nothing you do caused it. My pediatrician said that she and her father (also a pediatrician) were talking about colic one evening, and thought that it could very likely be something as obscure as infant growing pains. If teenagers grow several inches in a short period of time, imagine the insane amount of growth that newborns do in their first few months. Granted, she said, we'll never quite know what is tormenting them.
   
   Daniel is a big baby, no question. But he's a pretty long baby too, and at 10 weeks he measured 25 inches long and at the 97th percentile for length. He was born at 19.5. Maybe there's something to this theory, but more importantly, it shows that we'll never be able to ask the baby what's wrong and where it hurts, if anything hurts.

I might be back at a later date with another post written on colic... but I sure hope not. We seem to be leaving these crazy colicky days behind us (but then again, don't ask me how yesterday went...) so pending future babies who suffer from it as well, I hope that I never have to think about this again.

And... I hope that as Daniel keeps growing towards a less clingy, more comfortable baby that he'll allow me to use the computer to write here more often :)

So tell me...
Did you (or anyone you knew) have a colicky baby?
How did you handle those early days?
Did it disappear by the 3-month old mark, or stick around longer?


                 
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