Top Ten Helpful Soothing....

[mommyof2gurlies]

;DOkay Ladies...
I know some of our babies aren't SO colicky anymore, some are over it completely....But for all the people that are just starting the whole colic mess, i thought it would be helpful for us all to share the top ten things that worked for soothing our babies.
That way people that come on here, who are at their wits end might get some new ideas? Suggestions??

Heres mine:
(In no specific order)
1. Swaddling (OMG, this was a lifesaver the first 4 months...yes, i swaddled her to atleast 4 1/2 months. And no, shes not got issues because of it! lol Shes normal, and sleeps fairly well now, WITHOUT anything but jammies and a blanket)
2. White noise (My oldest daughter...we had to sit in the bathroom with the shower running. For HOURS. The noise of the water calmed her down. It didnt work so well with Brooklyn...We used a white noise machine next to her swing...and at night we STILL use a box fan next to her crib to drown out noises...and the humming helps her sleep.
3. Constant moving ....NOT sitting down.
4. Front carrier backpack. We tried using the ERGO...i heard that works great. Brooklyn hated it. We bought one, and she hated it. She liked facing forward and being able to see everything. We just used a SNUGLI.
5. Being outside. Sometimes STILL when she gets really upset, once i take her outside and the evening air hits her face, she will calm down.
6. Swinging. Our swing was a total lifesaver the first 4 months of Brooklyn's life. That was the only place she would nap during the day.
7. Walking, holding her facing outward.
8. MOMMY TAKING A BREAK. I noticed the more anxious i was...the worse she was. Sometimes i just had to put her down in her crib and walk away and let her scream, so i could gather my thoughts a bit....take a breather...have some tea, or coffee or whatever calms you down. As long as the baby is changed, fed, and all the major needs are taken care of, putting her down for a 10 min break so you can regain your sanity a bit....is MUCH needed.
9. Comfort feeding/comfort nursing. I know its not really recommended, but those first few months...sometimes thats what got us thru....
10. Formula change. Not so much with Brooklyn (although we did do quite a few formula switches) but with my oldest she had a really hard time on formulas. We ended up finding Nutramigen worked REALLY well. She was on it till 10 months (when she stopped taking bottles). It made a huge diff. in her screaming/fussiness. I think it CAN make a huge difference to switch formulas when that is a big factor in the problem. Mya's colic seemed to be due to intolerance to formula...gas.....more than anything. Her colic ended by 3 months. Brooklyn wasnt like that. She was just plain COLICKY....HORRIBLY colicky. Hers didnt end till about 4 1/2 - 5 months.

[mommyof2gurlies]

I wanted to add one more thing....
For those of you who want to swaddle....a cheaper way to go about it, without having to buy an expensive wrap, is to buy the "Swaddle Me, Kiddopotamus wraps" I think you can get them as cheap as $9.99. When they are smaller the velcro holds well...and when they start to get a little bigger, i found if you use TWO wraps...and wrap them and velcro very tightly, it works really well for those babies that are escape artists (Mine was)
The cotton ones work best for this (they come in fleece too) so they dont get too overheated. Anyways, thats what we did, and it worked well without breaking the wallet (which we were doing with ALL the little gadgets and extras to try to help her colic)
Anywhere you can save a few bucks always helps, and the quality of these wraps is actually fairly good. They even have a hole in the back of the wrap so you can wrap them in their carseats as well. They even make a specific one thats FOR carseats...
Just a suggestion

[mel5mel]

We are white noise junkies at our house, P still sleeps with it really loud but he sleeps so who cares.

the swing helped us a lot too

we used to swaddle P and bounce on the exercise ball

we also put Payton on Nutramigen, it changed him into an entirely different happy kid

He also spent a lot of time sleeping face in, in his snugglie, with a blanket over his head, we still do this some times if hes too distracted and fussy say like at the mall

and lastly sometimes a kids just gotta cry, and mommy needs time to cry too. its ok to put your kids in their beds for a little bit to take a break no matter what anyone says crying wont kill them

[mommyof2gurlies]

Anyone else with any suggestions?
I was hoping to get a lot more ppl with ideas....so others could look at the list, and get suggestions....possibly help them out?
Doesnt even have to be 10...just any advice

[pamcrt]

Let me see, it will probably take a while for me to "compile" this list because I have tried like hell to block out colic, but here goes:

1) SWADDLE!!! and we used 2 also, same brand as tamara, not fleece though, Abby is a furnace all her own. And she was 6 MONTHS OLD before we stopped swaddling and that was only because it was her choice. She finally wanted out of it and was rolling over and breaking free, so we tried it without it one night and she did fine.

2) many formula switches until we finally got to nutramigen because she actually had a milk intolerance.

3) classical music worked for a while, but she wasn't much for white noise, she actually likes quiet.

4) the ceiling fan with the lights turned on. something about the motion and the lights- it fascinated her... still does!

5) daddy's football hold, she loved being held like that and only by him. it would quiet her in a heartbeat, but I could never do it no matter how hard I tried. she did like the "smother my face in your boob and hold me as tight as possible" hold that I did with her. now she just likes to "lounge", flailing her arms about.

6) warm peppermint and karo bottles, especially when her tummy was (and still) upset. I would let a peppermint dissolve in a warm bottle of water with some karo in it, let her drink that and rub her back and she would go to sleep. She would usually wake up a little while later because she had to poop. (this was usually the cause of her crying beforehand- she was constipated).

7) mommy got on anti-depressants to help her PPD to help cope with Abby's colic. not a bad idea if you need it.

8) we found out that Abby HATED the car. put her in it and it was instant screams. take her out, happy baby... sort of, happy as you can get with a colicky baby!

9) sleeping with us when needed, I felt it was okay as long as it was needed because I was getting sleep and so was she.

[mommyof2gurlies]

OOOh yah. i agree with the meds. The lexapro has helped me out a lot. I literally had a mental breakdown before then...and realized i needed to get something to help me with the post partum...and just overall depression.

[pamcrt]

wellbutrin and lexapro. good stuff.

[deeter54]

ok I will put my two cents in.
Rocking her in my glider while comfort nursing with the sound of wind on the sound machine-also doing all this with her laying on her side
works great. I am doing so now ha
This is a near surefire way to relax her

sometimes singing to her

fresh air

walking her in a sling

rocking
sometimes walking with her helps

no gimmicks ever worked for me like teas, probiotics, formula changes,swaddling she hated, the car is a nightmare

Those ways listed are the only things I had luck with. hope I was helpful

[lizzie11]

For us the big one was comfort nursing, for the first three months we did it almost constantly. He also liked the Bjorn carrier, walking around while holding him, going outside, and switching to someone else's arms.

Hated the stroller and car for the first three months, now that he is 4 months sometimes he will fall asleep in them.

He never liked the swing, music, rocking, swaddling.

[mommyof2gurlies]

I think Brooklyn was the worst kid you've ever seen in the car. People would look at us like we were murdering her.
I think she outgrew it.....because she doesnt do it anymore.
Sometimes she'll throw a fit because she doesnt feel like being there, but for the most part she loves riding next to her big sister and looking out the windows now

[mel5mel]

Tamara, is Brooklyn front facing now? All Payton wants to do is look out the window you can see him raising his upper body to look out but nope hes still 16 lbs cant go front facing yet

[mommyof2gurlies]

Yah...shes front facing. Dont tell anyone ...lol
We front faced Mya fairly early too.
The reason why we did this time...is the way her convertible car seat fit in the car...rear facing, didnt look safe anyways. Our seats are slanted.
Front facing is much safer for her seat...and shes a big girl anyways...height and weight. 28 inches now...and almost 21 lbs.
Shes SO much happier.
I know youre not supposed to...but i honestly dont drive a TON anyways....we just do local driving for the most part in town....
and we also did it with Mya about the same age.