What is Colic?

Colic is basically random fits of crying that certain baby's tend to do for no apparent reason. It speaks nothing to the health of the child and is more of a fluke than anything else.

The symptoms a baby will show from colic are the look of distress by grimacing, raising their legs and clenching their fists. The main symptom is crying excessively and/or intensely for up to 3 hours, 3 times a week. Colic will usually subside between months 3-4.

Even though there is no definitive known cause of colic, there are some probable things that could be bothering your baby such as gas, constipation, hunger, overfeeding or reflux.

The way I manage colic as a doula and what I recommend to parents based off of experience is that I don't actually love the coveted mylicon drops that tend to make new parents feel better because they start hearing the gas coming out, but the baby doesn't actually seem to be feeling better. The other go-to that parents tend to love is gripe water. I'm fine with gripe water as long as the baby has no major reflux issues in which case it tends to come right back out. What I do love is probiotic/vitamin d drops as a combo. It always seems to alleviate everything, and I like it as a good daily practice regardless of if there are any issues. I also like to look at all the basics first as well like if there is there a dirty diaper, is the baby hungry, maybe the baby needs extra burps. Should the basics not work, I treat it as though the baby is overstimulated. In which case, I take the baby to the smallest, darkest, quietest room and sway (not bounce) while saying "shhh" on the louder side while offering a pacifier. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it seems like nothing works and the time just needs to pass so I will just keep repeating the cycles of the suggestions I made above until something sticks a