Colic in 6 Week Old?

This is my exact story for my first born! And gripe water is the ONLY thing that worked! I finally contributed it to gas/colic - she eventually grew out of it (sorry, can't remember how long it took), but the Gripe water certainly helped. Good luck!

Another thing to try, that helped with my daughter.... wearing her in a sling...
when she got to this point of fussiness I put her in the sling wrapped a blanket around her and then put my husband's big coat on over us both. I would take a 15 minute walk outside (or whatever it took to relax us both). She usually calmed quickly once I started walking and then often fell asleep. Then I would leave her in the sling and come back inside and do things around the house....
good luck

FIRST....Keep up the breastmilk! You are doing the best thing for you and baby. It could be something that you are eating. Try eliminating dairy, eggs, chocolate, any "gassy" veggies like broc, cauliflower, cabbage or anything that might upset YOUR tummy. Some babies are just fussy in the evening. Crying is way they relieve their stress...how does a 6 week old have stress?...anyway they do for whatever reason. Have you tried the "football hold"...draping her across your arm with her head towards your elbow, your forearm across her belly and hold her between her legs....bounce a bit and walk. It's good exercise for you to LOL! If none of this works, keep in mind babies that fuss usually stop at about 3 or 4 months...you are 1/2 way there. This too shall pass! Hope this helps.

This sounds all familiar to me so I feel your pain. The first couple of months I thought I was going to lose my mind until I took dairy out of my diet and boy did it make a HUGE difference. She is almost a year old now and I'm finally starting to introduce a bit of dairy here and there cause I'm still nursing and didn't want to take any chances. I also had to cut out the gassy good as well but hang in there hopefully it gets better for you:)

hello H. ~

I went through this w/both my kids (DD 5 yrs old & DS 14 months)...who were breastfed exclusively for 6 months then transitioned to sippy cup w/breastmilk around 7 months. When I eliminated dairy from my diet it made a HUGE difference...babies tummies have a hard time breaking down milk protein and can be very sensitive to it. Congrats on your little girl!

You have all excellent posts and many ideas to try. However, if all else fails, as it did with my son, my mother came over after a while to help with this part, and all she did was lay him down in his crib, kept a hand on his tummy, and soon after he fell asleep. He was just tired and couldn't tell me! Good Luck with your daughter!

I also experienced the same thing with my daughter (who is now 12 weeks old). After several hours of fussiness, my boyfriend went to the store (at 4:00am) and found the Gripe Water. Within 15 minutes of giving it to her, she settled down and fell asleep! The great thing about Gripe Water is its all natural (fennel and ginsing). It has worked for me on a few occasions and my daughter was also exclusively given breast milk. I still keep a bottle of it in my refrigerator just in case...

I have never heard of gripe water. However, I do know that enzymes help. A product I've used is Ez Gest. Since you are breastfeeding you would take it as it is in a capsule form. Enzymes help break down food and it is easier for the baby to digest.

Do you notice if your baby has more reactions to certain foods you eat? What about milk. Do you drink regular cow's milk? She may have reactions to various foods and that is why I bring this up.

What about keeping a journal of what you eat and journal her reaction. Which can determine if her reactions or less or greater when you eat/drink certain foods/liquids.

Hope this helps.

Hi H.! I can definitely appreciate what you are going through! My daughter is 8 weeks old and does the exact same thing starting around 5:30 pm and does it on and off during her night feeding as well. We mentioned this to the doctor during her 1 month checkup (she's been doing this since about 2 weeks old) and the doc suggested that she might have acid reflux. From everything that I've read, the symptoms seem to be very similar to colic so here are a few things that have worked very well for us:

1. During feedings put a pacifier in her mouth if she's not eating or being burped. I too exclusively pump so she gets bottles with my milk. She seems to take "breaks" (normally last just a minute or so) and we just pop the pacifier in her mouth until she's ready to eat again.
2. Burp often...we try between every ounce. It takes longer to feed but it seems like she doesn't spit up as much and the burps come a little easier.
3. Keep her upright for 15-30 minutes after feedings. Again, this makes feedings longer but it helps keep everything down and prevent spitting up. She'll spit up but it is not as bad as if we just laid her down after eating. Also, when she starts to get fussy for seemingly no reason (has a clean diaper, isn't hungry and won't take a pacifier) I hold her upright on my chest and she seems to calm right down!
4. Elevate her crib or bassinet mattress. This also seems to help hold things down and keeps her comfortable. You don't have to elevate it much, we just put a few pillows and blankets underneath the actual mattress so that the whole thing is elevated. I believe they also sell wide sleeping wedges to help prop them up.

These things seemed to really help us. I know how helpless and frustrated you feel so I wish you the best of luck!!! ;o)

I have four children two had colic and two didn't. First while nothing really cures colic you can try some things to help. I did use the Gripe Water it does help some. Another would be infant gas drops (Milocon sp). It sounds like she may have a lot of gas and the gas drops help a lot, we used them after every feeding. Lastly watch what you are eating while it may not give you gas it can give it to her.

Ok first let see check what your eating sometime what your eating can cause fussy ness or colic. Second I would massage her when she gets crazy and try to sooth her if that doesn't work run the vacumn. I had a friend who had a son who was colicky the same amount of time at night every day and he would be crazy for 6 hrs. plus u have to stay calm the more you flip or get nervous or can't handle his colicky crazyness he will sense and feel that and make it worse. try using lavendar oil or grapseed with something soothing smell in it for him lavander and calming from young living help my kids. anything load can calm them too. you can also try to put him or her in a stoller and walk her around the house or put her in the swing while the vacumn is running also you can try the gripe water but thats used mostly for gas. you have to determine is this gas or colick. also have the baby on it belly on your knees and bounce your knees and tap there back or rub it might help too. good luck make sure if you get frustrated which you will remember it is ok to leave the baby in the crib and walk away till you get your bearings even if it takes a half hr. have a reinforcment if you can grandma or friend to help once in a while.

Updated

Ok first let see check what your eating sometime what your eating can cause fussy ness or colic. Second I would massage her when she gets crazy and try to sooth her if that doesn't work run the vacumn. I had a friend who had a son who was colicky the same amount of time at night every day and he would be crazy for 6 hrs. plus u have to stay calm the more you flip or get nervous or can't handle his colicky crazyness he will sense and feel that and make it worse. try using lavendar oil or grapseed with something soothing smell in it for him lavander and calming from young living help my kids. anything load can calm them too. you can also try to put him or her in a stoller and walk her around the house or put her in the swing while the vacumn is running also you can try the gripe water but thats used mostly for gas. you have to determine is this gas or colick. also have the baby on it belly on your knees and bounce your knees and tap there back or rub it might help too. good luck make sure if you get frustrated which you will remember it is ok to leave the baby in the crib and walk away till you get your bearings even if it takes a half hr. have a reinforcment if you can grandma or friend to help once in a while.

I'm currently using colic calm for my 5m old, have been for the past month and we love it! We're using it for reflux and have seen a huge improvement. The downside is it's black and may stain clothes. I've been fortunate to get out any stains as soon as they happen and prefer this over the prescription meds.

http://www.coliccalm.com/

Here is a link to an article that I found very interesting as I was researching information on acid reflux. I've copied and pasted part of the article under the link.

http://icpa4kids.org/Wellness-Articles/a-holistic-perspec...

Mucus and inflammation are byproducts of poor digestion. The symptoms that are produced include colic, vomiting, spitting up, constipation, diarrhea, ear fluid and chronic ear infections, fever, chronic nasal congestion, sinusitis, acute and chronic allergies, acute and chronic coughs and asthma and eczema.

Peace,
J.

My first question would be is she breastfed? I can help, if she is breastfed!

try "colic calm". i give my six week old just 1/4 of a teaspoon and he quiets down within minutes. hope this helps(:

You may want to consider seeing a chiropractor, specifically a pediatric specialist. It may "cure" the colic!

All 5 of my kids had colic when they were from 4 weeks up to 8 weeks old. My latest baby just turned 8 weeks old yesterday and she's finally getting over it. If there is a remedy out there, believe me, I've tried it. Nothing really worked a miracle. Most babies just have to grow out of this. The thing that did work pretty well with my new baby girl is I would hold her and run the vacuum cleaner. The second I turn it on, she quits crying. She calms down long enough to relax. The sad thing about colic is that the babies suck in so much air when they are crying that it can make them gassy which causes a vicious circle and that's why it can take hours for them to calm down. When my 6 yr old son was going through it, the only thing that worked for him was a ride in the car. Every baby is different and if you don't find the magic cure, just know that this only lasts a little while.
You can try Mylacon gas drops too.

Gripe water worked for my younger daughter, but not my older daughter. Make sure you buy some that has no parabens or pthalates in it. I also used a product called Colic-Ease, it's a gripe water with different ingredients than most others. We tried Colic-Calm, but it was so expensive. It worked very well though, except it left charcoal stains on some of her sleepers (activated charcoal is one of the ingredients). That worked very well.

My younger daughter was very colicky, like you describe, not hysterical but extremely fussy/uncomfortable. It was about 6 weeks of hell, and then once she hit the 2 month mark it started being less and less so in duration and by the time she was 3 months old, she was the best baby! Life is pretty terrible those weeks with a fussy newborn, and I remember feeling so frustrated and helpless, but she will phase out of it.

The other thing you can try is Hyland's Colic tablets. They dissolve instantly, but I still would put them in a 1/8 tsp measuring spoon with some warm water to dissolve them first. I also put them in her bottles every now and then.

Is she bottle fed? If so, you may also try dropping a few (like 3) drops of Mylicon IN the bottle when you mix it. That worked wonders when I knew she was gassy.

sounds like my daughter.. as I look back on those early weeks of walking the floor with a crying baby.. I think most of the time my baby was tired.. and overtired.

I highly recommend the book by Marc weissbluth (sp) healthy sleep habits happy child..

has your baby been awake more than 2 hours when she is crying like this?/if she has .. well she is tired.. the trick is getting her to sleep while she is tired but before she is overtired.

this evening crying thing is common.. it starts at about 6 weeks and gradually diminishes until 12 weeks. but I would see if you can try to get her to sleep earlier before the crankies start.

Maybe you could change the bottle you are using, it might be causing colic. I also pump and breastfeed, and I use the breastflow bottle by safety 1st.
Also, I would recommend giving your baby Hyland's homeopathic colic tablets. I haven't had a problem with colic, but I trust Hyand's. I use the Hyland's homeopathic teething tablets, and they are a Godsend. You can find them at Target or your local pharmacy.

**UPDATE**
There were some mentions about what you eat, and I wanted to mention that cabbage gave my daughter horrible gas when she was a few months old. She cried uncontrollably until we ended up going to the ER, and they did all sorts of tests, and finally they did an ultrasound, and found a TON of gas in her tummy. The only thing I'd eaten differently that day was cabbage, and I remember because I had specifically been avoiding cabbage, and I just spaced that day. Hope this helps!

Maybe she is overtired by that time. I would try to lay her down at 6:30 or 7:00 for the "night" and see if that helps. You could try putting her in a swing or carseat to sleep while this wears off. Good luck!