Congratulations! If you are reading this post, you probably just have a new family member, or is probably having one coming soon.
Babies are cute and adorable. So prepare to immerse yourself into parenthood and enjoy the moments with you child, seeing them through the different stages of their life growing up.
When you have your first baby as a new mother or father, you may probably experience your cute babies going through a “colicky” period with frequent crying attacks, making new baby care suddenly becoming even more challenging. Why babies cry so badly? So you may ask why my baby develops colic and how do I as a new parent deals with the situation?
What is Colic in Babies?
Colic babies are not cry babies. A colic baby is not throwing tantrum nor is your cute little one trying to manipulate you.
The colic definition is the severe pain in the abdomen caused by wind or obstruction in the intestines and suffered especially by babies. Colic is known to be a common phenomenon in baby development, especially for premature babies, and is estimated to affect at least 20% of babies.
It does not have much to do with whether you are breastfeeding or using baby bottles. While the inconsolable crying can be distressing, upsetting and/or frustrating for the mother and baby, colic is not known to be dangerous or harmful. Well, it is good news to know that there are ways to manage your colic baby, and your baby grows up without any long-term effects and being different from those babies that does not have infant colic. It is also important to remember that, if it is colic, it is a common phase of parenthood which will eventually go away and has nothing to do with bad parenting.
When Does Colic Start & How Long Does Colic Last?
Baby colic usually starts occurring around the age of two weeks and the challenges of colic babies usually will resolve itself when the new babies are about three to four months old.
Colic babies are not known to cry more frequently than babies without a colic condition. It is just that once these colic babies start crying, they take much more time to quiet down.
What Causes Colic & What Are The Symptoms of Colic?
It is commonly suggested that wind or indigestion may be involved, and could be that the baby’s digestive system is immature and/or sensitive to some of the substances in breast milk or new born baby formula milk / baby milk. These may be a resultant of muscle tensions causing pain or gastric distress such as flatulence, regurgitation, vomiting and diarrhoea. However, these theories are not supported by medical research.
The colic symptoms are not easy to detect, especially if this is your first parenting experience to define colic. So if your new baby has repeated episodes of intense crying at predictable patterns, no abnormally with the baby temperature using baby thermometers, and the newborn baby appears to be healthy and well, these may be signs of colic in your baby girl or baby boy.
These intense crying episodes may last from a few minutes to much longer periods, and the crying may start or stop without apparent reason. During episodes of intense crying, the colicky baby may pass wind or baby gas, or there may be reflux in babies. Your baby’s sleep may also become irregular and could be interrupted with episodes of crying.
However, it is important for you to know that there are many other possible underlying causes that can cause the colic pain in your newborn babies. For example, sometimes milk allergies and lactose intolerance have similar symptoms to those caused by colicky pain. Hence if you are concerned, your doctor or paediatrician may be able to carry out a physical examination to determine if anything may be causing distress to the newborn baby, such as an intestinal obstruction. For example, if your baby is suffering from lactose intolerance, you may simply switch to lactose free formula milk. If the baby is found to be healthy, the doctor may diagnose your infant as with the colic condition. Should colic be the medical diagnosis, there is no need for you to panic and laboratory tests / scans are not usually necessary, unless the doctor suspects there may be other underlying causes.
What Are The Treatment Options For Colic?
There are not many ways to treat colic. Often, new parents will have to venture into various “baby care games” to determine what works and what do not. For example, there are many parenting books out there to teach you how to play with your babies. Make the new baby feel comfortable and feel your love. Comforting a colic baby usually requires the parent to experiment various methods to see what calms the baby.
It is important for the care giver to stay calm to offer proper care to the colic baby. Colic can threaten your mental health and harm your relationship with your baby. New mum could also be more susceptible to developing depression as a result of colic babies – struggling from feelings of helplessness, anger and rejection. Hence, sometimes, getting some extra help to relief the new parents’ anxiety and stress, could see an improvement to the situation, as an over-stressed parent may unknowingly hurt the colicky infant resulting in situations such as shaken baby syndrome. Alternatively, go for a relaxing massage or take a short holiday break. Even just 1-2 hours away can be helpful in reducing stress and anxiety in a new parent when the new baby is colicky.
Possible methods for parents to colic calm the babies could be like cuddling the baby, playing baby games / baby toys, using baby pacifiers or baby bolsters, and/or taking the baby out on baby strollers, etc. Doctors or paediatrician may at times prescribe gripe water for babies as colic remedies to minimize the amount of air being built-up in the baby stomach during feeding thus providing some colic relief.
Other suggestions to minimize the colic condition in your babies as baby tips could include:
- Sitting the baby upright during feeding to minimize the amount of air swallowed
- Avoid putting the baby down immediately after feeding, consider carrying the baby upright (e.g. baby carrier) for a period of time immediately after milk
- Giving the mum’s breast for the baby to suckle
- Sometimes more frequent feeding but smaller portions at any one time may help
- Baby pacifiers may help
- Using anti-colic bottles may help, but there are no “best baby bottles”
- Use right size bottle teats / holes
- Learn how to burp a baby properly
- Learn how to do baby massage
Beware of unconfirmed “cures” that claim to work for all babies. Unfortunately, there is no such thing.
But one thing for sure, you will be a more experienced parent for your next baby! And so enjoy your precious time with your new arrival to the family, and make your new baby boy or new baby girl a happy baby.