Belly Gripes

 Top tips from group members on dealing with Colic, Wind and other newborn Belly Gripes

Disclaimer
'''All of these tips have been posted on the group by members at one time or another since the group started in October 2011. The links reflect a range of different parenting styles and none are endorsed by the group as a whole, or by any healthcare professional.'''

Anecdotal
We used infacol, massage, colief, holding them facing outward but I think it only actually stopped for my 2 when they could sit up unaided

My son had bad wind and reflux until about 8-10 weeks if memory serves right. He seems to have just needed to outgrow it, even though he still is quite burpy and has occasional reflux still at 18 wks. Time really does change things. I was so reluctant to trust that in the beginning!

Baby Massage
The massage move for wind is two fingers gently round and round the belly button in a CLOCKWISE direction, or anti-clockwise on the lower back. It is important to go in the correct direction as this is the direction the bowels work. Use olive oil as massage oil.

Doing the 'daisy' pattern on their tummies then drawing your hands down, lifting their legs up and hey presto!!

Enrol in a local baby massage class - available at most children's centres.

Baby Massage For Wind And Constipation

Bicycling Legs
For wind, bicycling his legs when he's on his back, and moving his knees up towards his tummy. Very gently though, and don't force it if he resists. Cluster Feeding If baby is breastfed, cluster feeding late afternoon till bedtime. Once I cottoned on to this my daughter's problems were gone. It might never have been wind related and the poor chick was just hungry but still, you never know! Worth a try as you could be thinking it's wind/colic when actually they just want more boob!!!



My son had 'colic' from week 1 to about week 9, cluster fed from 6pm ish til midnight and if he wasn't sucking, was crying inconsolably. Gradually got better. If it's any help I recently did some work for the ISIS online team who held a conference recently on circadian rhythms. 'Colic' is often thought of as a digestive thing, wind etc and in some cases it has a genuine medical cause (reflux etc) but in the academic world it's generally just called 'early infant crying' and the latest research shows that in the main it may just be a normal stage of human development in terms of circadian and melatonin (the sleep hormone) rhythms establishing themselves. There's a very wide spectrum of babies who suffer varying degrees of it but almost all have outgrown it by 3 months and it coincides with these circadian rhythms becoming more 'adult like' in nature. For my baby frequent breastfeeding I.e constant sucking was the only relief/comfort for him and though it made me very sore the frequent feeding helped establish my supply. I also found cosleeping helped calm him as he refused to be put in a Moses basket. This article from Dr. Sears has a number of good tips: 10 Tips For Comforting Colic



 Colief

<p style="margin-left:0cm;margin-right:0.32cm;margin-bottom:0cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;"><span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:15.359999656677246px;">Lo suffered from horrendous colic an colief was amazing!!! <h2 style="margin-left:0cm;margin-right:0.32cm;margin-bottom:0cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">Comfort Formula <p style="margin-left:0cm;margin-right:0.32cm;margin-bottom:0cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">If baby is formula fed there are special types of formula that can be prescribed. <h2 style="margin-left:0cm;margin-right:0.32cm;margin-bottom:0cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">Dentinox <p style="margin-left:0cm;margin-right:0.32cm;margin-bottom:0cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;"><span data-reactid=".ye.1:3:1:$comment577374249028500_577750185657573:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0:$comment-body.0.0" style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:15.359999656677246px;">My son was very windy not quite colic I don't think, we had a few bad nights starting at 4 weeks and one of our super mums came to my rescue suggestion dentinox colic drops. They are a life saver, I ignored the recommended max 6 dosage a day and he stil <span data-reactid=".ye.1:3:1:$comment577374249028500_577750185657573:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0:$comment-body.0.3" style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:15.359999656677246px;">l has them in every bottle. (Now 19weeks) tried taking him off it last weekend and he was inconsolable again. Also found lying him on our legs and patting his back like a massage works, he likes to fall asleep on my husband like this xxx <h2 style="margin-left:0cm;margin-right:0.32cm;margin-bottom:0cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">Gripe Water <p style="margin-left:0cm;margin-right:0.32cm;margin-bottom:0cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;"><span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:15.359999656677246px;">I give my son cooled boiled water frequently, and I always put a drop of gripe in it. It just flavored the water a little and he's always been good at his burps ...but I have to say its one of those it's hard to say what it's doing... I just do it as routine x <h2 style="margin-left:0cm;margin-right:0.32cm;margin-bottom:0cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">Infacol <p style="margin-left:0cm;margin-right:0.32cm;margin-bottom:0cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;"><span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:15.359999656677246px;">For colic (crying from 6-11 every evening) from about 1 week until 8 weeks old - stopped about 2 weeks after we started infacol at every feed... <h2 style="margin-left:0cm;margin-right:0.32cm;margin-bottom:0cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;"> Reiki <p style="margin-left:0cm;margin-right:0.32cm;margin-bottom:0cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;"><span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:15.359999656677246px;">I also found Reiki worked wonders for my eldest whenever he was uncomfortable and hadn't pooed in ages...

<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-size:20px;">Water
Another option for wind is <span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);">a little bit of cool, boiled water in a bottle or medicine syringe. Literally just an ounce though, their tummies are so small at that age any more could make the problem worse.

Winding Positions
<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,'lucidagrande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:15.359999656677246px;">Over daddy's shoulder. Worked every time!

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