There are many threads here about gas, acid reflux, etc. However, before DS and without the fabulous CC I would have never known my DS's colic was really something else. I thought it would be helpful to start this thread for those searching as well as a general meeting place for those dealing with and those who have conquered living with a colicy newborn.
So come in and vent, get emotional support from those who are there/have been there, share what has worked, what your ped has recommended, etc. All being mothers of colicy babies we all know what it is like to feel like you just want to drop your baby at the nearest bus stop until it is over.
So my question for those dealing with or who have dealt with a colicy baby, is what about daycare? DS is going to be babysat with a friend who watches other children. She leans more on the CIO side plus cannot fully attend to DS like I can 1:1. This is a big reason why I've worked so hard trying to help him feel better. I just know the change is going to be stressful for him and I worry about this a lot.
"It's so easy to laugh, it's so easy to hate, it takes guts to be gentle and kind" ~ The Smiths
DS1 6.29.06 ~:~ DS2 10.7.10
Can someone help me troubleshoot ds's symptoms. I have no idea what i'm dealing with here and i'm at my wits end.
Cross posted in gripe water thread (b/c i had questions about remedies)
I'd do just about anything to get through tonight after the day i just had! Tomorrow morning i'm calling the ped because i can't take the uncontrollable painful screaming anymore! I'm at my wits end and today i put the baby in the crib and called dh and asked him to come home from work since at that point I was crying uncontrollably. The really sucky part is that we just had 3 awesome days in a row without any screaming... stupid me thought we were out of the woods. HELP! We've tried Mylicon and Little Tummies. I supplement with formula and we've tried Enfamil Lipil, Similac Soy, and Enfamil Gentlease... none of them seem to produce a better result and within a couple of days of all of them he's screaming again. Is it crazy to switch formula every 3 days to avoid this? Though i guess it coule be purely coincidental that he seems to scream only after a couple of days of each formula type. I don't know what we are dealing with here. He started this in the hospital at just a couple days old (we were there for 5 days) so i'm hesitant to call it 'colic'. We are constantly doing the leg kicks. The bicycle move and pushing the legs back against the belly.
He has painful screams (not crying)
tenses his entire body up
kicks his legs and flails (sp?)
face turns red
he has gas that he passes and screams while he's doing it
he gets hiccups but doesn't spit up too much and burps well while eating except that every couple of feedings he projectile vomits.
In the last 3 days he's only produced one stool per day and it's an explosion of watery mess. (i know the ped told me that he should produce at minimum 1 stool every 3 days so i think this is okay)
Wakes up within minutes of being put in his crib asleep
Could it be reflux? Today every time i rocked him to sleep then put him in his crib sound asleep (believe me... getting him to sleep was a challenge all in it's own. The entire process took about 2 hours and i think he only gave in because the screaming was wearing him out) he'd wake up within 10 minutes screaming again. Dh and i both have GERD so i know that lying down and especially on the back can be awful.
ellidew - it sounds like your son has a food intolerance -- especially since his stools have changed (liquidy is normal, but a baby who is getting some formula often has firmer stools -- this sounds like diarrhea almost). If you began supplementing in the hospital, then it makes sense that the symptoms began in the hospital.
The formulas you describe are all either milk or soy based, and the proteins in milk/soy are what babies have so much trouble with in the beginning. If supplementing is a necessity, you may have to switch to a hypoallergenic formula such as Alimentium.
All babies tend to have a bit of reflux -- their digestive systems are not mature -- but a food sensitivity will exacerbate it. Try elevating the crib, use a sleep positioning wedge, or let him sleep semi-upright in his swing until you get past this hurdle. Gravity will help keep his meals down.
I would not recommend switching formulas every three days; as I said, if he is MSPI (milk/soy protein intolerant) then you're not really making any difference with one brand or another.
Thanks Marisa. We actually did elevate the crib (rather the pnp). He wont sleep in the swing or the bouncer. If it makes a difference he's had nothing but breastmilk since last night and still screamed all day long. How long does it take a baby to digest? The last formula bottle he had was probably 2am.
this sounds like diarrhea almost). If you began supplementing in the hospital, then it makes sense that the symptoms began in the hospital.
I agree and i hadn't made the connection between the formula and the hospital. I pulled out my Similac coupons so i can go out and buy it tomorrow. I'd go right now but if i don't go get more sleep while dh is home and awake i'm going to be in big trouble tomorrow when dh goes to work. I agree that it might be diarrhea but he only has one episode a day and i thought with diarrhea he'd be going more, no?
I knew babies cried but until I had DD #2 I didnt know how much they could cry. In fact, she did most of what ellidew explains besides the bowel stuff. She would get tense and let out painful, pitiful screams. She does have acid reflux and other digestive problems (pyloric stenosis) but the symptoms there were directly related to her being in pain while she ate and profusely vomitting. Once she had surgery and was on meds for reflux we just had a colicy baby. I swear it is something you just survive. I look at her now at 9 months and am amazed at how horrendous those early months were. i feel so much guilt. We never got professional pics done. In fact, she has so many fewer pics than her older sister as a baby because she was crying ALL the time. For those who are facing colic, it does go away. I wanted to kick everyone who told me to give it time. I wanted to do even worse things to them because it just wasnt good enough. Unfortunately time did fix it and by 4 months or so you would never have recognized my baby. It was a complete 360 and then some. Colic sucks FWIW, my baby was colicy from birth. She literally was born screaming at didnt stop!
ellidew Our specialist actually had us use hypoallergenic formula for 7 days first before we began testing for reflux. The tests arent fun for reflux or allergies so it may be worth a shot to see if the formula helps first. Good luck, hang in there, and call your ped... keep us updated
Last edited by tray622; 11-28-2006 at 08:04 AM.
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Tracy & Mike 6.22.02
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Ellidew - I just want to second what Marisa said - it sounds like a food intolerance. Here's a brief re-cap of my story:
DD was a colicky baby, but we never had food issues, so she just screamed around the same times each day (for hours). I nearly lost my mind. But she DID grow out of it after 4 or 5 months and is now a generally happy, good-natured toddler.
DS, however, is a different story. He just screamed and cried and screamed some more every second he was awake for the first month of his life. His poops were swampy green and really watery, and he projectile vomited 2 to 3 times a day. He was diagnosed with severe reflux at 3 weeks and put on Zantac, which didn't seem to help much at all. After one particularly awful night, DH and I couldn't take it anymore and we took him back to the ped, who performed a swab test and promptly diagnosed him with a severe milk protein allergy. He put DS on Alimentum for a week while I eliminated every potentially offensive food known to man from my diet so I could try BFing again. The Alimentum seemed to help for a few days, but then he reverted to his old screaming self. We took him to a GI specialist to rule out more serious genetic conditions (tests are normal so far). He's back on the breast full time now at just shy of 4 months old, but I'm on a seriously restricted diet - absolutely no dairy or soy (even a speck will set him off for days), nuts, berries, shellfish, or eggs. I recently was able to add in some wheat products, but if I choose the wrong brand, it sets him off, too.
All of that said, if you're not eliminating dairy, etc. from your own diet, your BM could be causing part of the problem too, not just the formula.
THANK YOU! Seriously i felt completely alone yesterday and just awful that i can't help ds feel better. It helps to know that i'm not alone.
I made an appt for ds at the doctors today. His ped is out of the office on Tuesdays but he's going to see the nurse practitioner. I also made a calendar of everything we've tried, screaming fits, formula usage, etc... to take with me. I can't account for about a week of his short life but i know there were several days of screaming because I remember having several days of just breaking down and crying ALL.DAY.LONG. Hopefully this helps and hopefully they can do something to make him feel better.
He seems to be better today but he's still sleeping awful and waking up screaming. He also had a bottle earlier and within 15 minutes it all came back up. I feel so sorry for him.
I'll give you an update when we get back from the ped.
Now if i could just get the freakin' dog to stop barking while the baby actually sleeps we'll be in business... factor in the bulldozers from the water company digging up the street in front of my house and you can imagine my current mental state.
What you described sounds *exactly* like DS. He has protein intolerance and AR. If the dr. prescribes Zantac ask for something else. It is notorious for not working after a couple of weeks and is really difficult to give. It seems like most drs. go to prevacid but it seems really hard to administer. DS has been on pepcid for quite some time and it works so beautifully. You would never know he has AR and it is super easy to give to him. Also, go out and buy Alimentum Ready to Pour. Alimentum is hypoallergenic formula. DS will not tolerate powdered formulas of any kind, even alimentum, and can only take ready to pour. Once you give him a powdered formula his colic comes back. After he was stablized we switched him to soy ready to pour and it works just as well.
Trust me, once this gets worked out, it gets so much better. DS is called "the happy baby" at his sitters and is so fun to be around now. Also as they get older their digestive systems even out. The screaming while passing gas goes away eventually and now DS will have BM and I wouldn't be able to tell w/o smelling it (got better ~2.5 mos). I never ever imagined he would get to that point when he had colic!
"It's so easy to laugh, it's so easy to hate, it takes guts to be gentle and kind" ~ The Smiths
DS1 6.29.06 ~:~ DS2 10.7.10
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FWIW, my baby was colicy from birth. She literally was born screaming at didnt stop!
