Hi,

My friend has a little boy of 6 months old who has been getting colic on and off for the last couple of weeks. He normally gets this at night. She will put him down to sleep on his back and about 45 mins to an hour later he starts screaming and won't settle. After about an hour to two hours he will settle, but will then only sleep on his tummy. My friend seems to think that as his tummy is hurting, he likes lying on it because the pressure helps the pain?

She is getting a bit desperate now and is very much into alternative therapies, so wants to know if there are any good natural remedies for colic?

Thanks


Sarah

Boy do I ever know what she is going through. People claim so many things work, but nothing worked for me (and we tried it all!) It really is just a matter of telling yourself 'this too shall pass' and eventually it does. I know what AAP is recommending back sleeping now, but both of my children were tummy sleepers. Both of them are fine. They change their tune every year about which position to put them to sleep in. Some babies just need to tummy sleep. And I work in a peds ICU and a NICU. Guess how many of em get put on their tummies to sleep? All of em! And yeah, we do have monitors available, but still, most nurses agree. My son had horrible colic.He would scream from the time he woke up til the time he went to bed. It was a matter of getting through from one nap to the next. Then when he was six months old, he just stopped. Nothing worked. I tried car rides, the swing, carrying him in a front carrier, massaging his tummy, gas drops, whatever. It was just a matter of time. And I don't know about those home remedies. Because a lot of them just dope the baby up and make them sleep. Which I don't think is safe. Anyway,. the best you can do for her is offer to watch baby for her so she can go out for a while. When she comes home she will be refreshed and ready to do it again. Good luck,
Dawn

Thanks for that. I have offered to go round and baby sit for her one afternoon this week, so that she can escape to go do some shopping and take a break. It is hard for her during the week as hubby is at work all day and the baby screaming is driving her mad at the moment.

When I was round last time, I did actually try very gently massaging his tummy and it did seem to help. He actually stopped screaming for a bit and arching his legs up to his tummy. I think that I may have moved some gas which could have been making his tummy hurt. He then filled his diaper and stopped screaming completely after that.

Thanks for the advice anyway.