Top 7 Tips to Ease the Distress of Baby Colic Naturally

(and 5 Things You Need to Know About Colic First)

Is your young baby crying a lot and difficult to settle? Maybe the crying gets worse as the day goes on and you dread the evening and are exhausted.

Seeing your baby in so much distress is upsetting and naturally you want to help him or her and make the pain go away.

If this sounds like you or someone you know, it’s quite possible this is infantile colic.

In my 25+ years as a Health Visitor and Midwife I saw many babies with colic – and assisted their Mums often struggling to navigate these early days or parenting.  Evidence based medicine is important, and I wanted to help them find natural solutions and support, natural ways to help, and part of my own journey has been learning to work with homeopathy to help soothe the symptoms and distress of this difficult time.

Infantile Colic is defined as repeated episodes of excessive and inconsolable crying in an infant that otherwise appears to be healthy and thriving (nice.org.uk). It tends to start in the first few weeks after birth and generally resolves naturally by the age of 4 months.

5 things you need to know about Colic First

1. You are not doing anything wrong, it is not your fault your baby has colic.
2. No one knows exactly what causes colic. Possible causes may be abnormal gastrointestinal motility, changes in intestinal microflora or psychosocial factors (nice.org.uk). It is recognised that babies born by Caesarean section or who have had antibiotics are more likely to have colic.
3. Colic affects both breast and formula-fed babies.It is not your way of feeding that is the cause.
4. Colicky babies love to suckle as it eases the pain so you may think they are still hungry despite having just had a good feed. Overfeeding will only aggravate the symptoms in the long run.
5. What helps one baby may not help another. All babies are individuals and their symptoms are unique to them.

Some things to try to help ease the distress – my Top Tips

1. Try to feed your baby upright rather than lying across you and keep him/her upright after feeding. Imagine how you would feel lying down immediately after a big meal.
2. A warm bath in the evening when they are distressed may ease their discomfort. A gentle massage may also help. Always massage in a clockwise movement. This video may help https://www.babycentre.co.uk/x1042921/can-massage-ease-my-babys-colic
3. As suckling eases abdominal discomfort, try introducing a dummy after feeding rather than be tempted to give milk, as overfeeding can exacerbate the issue. You may need to hold it gently in place initially.
4. If you are breastfeeding, consider if there is anything you are eating or drinking excessively. Drinking lots of squash with artificial sweetener can aggravate symptoms for example as can lots of caffeine. Also, think about trying different feeding positions (https://www.laleche.org.uk/positioning-attachment) If formula-feeding consider anti-colic bottles and teats.
5. Fennel, chamomile or peppermint tea may help. Make the tea as normal, allow to cool then give 1 tsp to your baby 4 times a day. It may be easier to give using a dropper, which you can buy from most chemists or online.
6. Ask for help from family and friends. If you have a partner, take turns looking after your baby during colicky times. And try to sleep when your baby sleeps.
7. Having a colicky baby is hard and draining, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Homeopathy can support you both. 

If none of the above help, or even if they do, my preferred approach is to use homeopathy to support Mums with young babies.  I am a registered, trained homeopath as well as having worked in the NHS as a midwife and Health Visitor for over 25 years. Homeopathy is natural, gentle and homeopathic remedies have no lasting side effects, making it ideal for babies.

So you can find out if this might help you and your baby I offer free, no obligation, telephone calls to help you to find your next steps and to see if homeopathy could work for you. 

Remedy selection and choosing the best fitting remedy can be a tricky business. Often you will choose a remedy and Bingo!….. it has all the symptoms we’re looking for and so prescribing is easy. However, sometimes two or three remedies share the same symptoms and look equally relevant to the person we’re trying to help.

This is a very common issue when using Homeopathy. We spend time gathering the details of the symptoms for the condition of the person we are trying to help, we check our resources in search of the best fitting remedy and find that there are two or more remedies showing the symptom picture, we try to narrow it down as best we can but sometimes find that we’re still left with two or more that fit the bill. So how do we decide which one is the best remedy selection for now?

Making sure we have the right Information to help with Remedy Selection

Sometimes we can have too much or too little information and that makes if difficult to narrow down remedies.

When gathering the information we look for symptoms that are different from the person’s normal state.

We discount symptoms that are normal for the person, e.g. if they are thirsty but they are normally a thirsty person then we remove this symptom.

Is there a striking or unusual symptom? For example, a Dry mouth but with no thirst?

C.L.A.M.S.

CLAMS is a very useful acronym to help us remember what information to collect.

Concomitants – this is a secondary symptom that occurs alongside the main symptom, but may not seem related, e.g. Main symptom headache with back pain.

Location – where is the ailment being felt – where is the main complaint? e.g. A sore throat – which side is it? Does the pain extend to another location like the ear?

Aetiology – Is there an identifiable cause for the complaint. Was there an accident that caused a physical injury, was there exposure to elements like cold winds or excessive sunshine, was there an emotional trigger, perhaps a shock such as receiving bad news or having an argument with a friend/relative.

Modalities – what makes the symptoms better or worse? e.g. stomach pain that is better for having heat on it or headache that is worse for lying on left side.

Sensation – what sensations can be felt? Is there pain, if so is it stabbing, sharp, stinging, burning? Is there throbbing? Is there tingling? Does it feel hot? Does it feel cold?

ONCE CLAMS INFORMATION HAS BEEN GATHERED

We always prioritise the symptoms – what are the most important ones, for example the main symptom and/or the strongest symptoms. Is there an unusual symptom, something striking? These go high on our list. Our chosen remedy covers these symptoms and will often lead us to one remedy only.

We go through the rest of the symptoms placing them in priority order and then compare remedies to see which one fits the best.

To compare remedies we look through a book about remedies known as a Materia Medica, or we can use specialised Computer software to help us choose.

Sometimes, despite our best research, two remedies remain equally well indicated.  They will be very similar in their actions and therefore it’s likely that they will both be useful in treating the condition, so really there is no wrong choice here.

In these situations, we will give the first remedy, and if that doesn’t quite work to complete satisfaction, we’ll give the second one.  Giving the body 2 very similar remedies can be just what is needed to affect relief for the condition. Remember, homeopathic remedies are highly diluted substances and so trying a remedy and then finding it hasn’t helped as much as we hoped is completely safe.

At SWIFT, our team will continue to support you throughout your journey and work for a good outcome every step of the way.

Author: Vanessa Pimblett

 

To find out if more about Homeopathy and how it can help you with your individual experience of symptoms, head over to the SWIFT Team page and connect with one of our dedicated Homeopaths.