A picture says a thousand words. (I wish I had a shot of how “productive” this massage was for little Evan…but you probably don’t want to see that picture!) I am fond of saying “every baby is a gassy baby”… but if you are dealing with colic, I want you to know there IS something you can do to help.
Studies show Infant Massage leads to a 50% decrease crying with just 10-15 minutes a day. And if your baby has colic, it helps by comforting and soothing them, helping their digestion and to cope with stress.
I think there is no worse feeling than hopelessness…and if someone told me there was “nothing” I could do…that is exactly how I would feel – hopeless.
If you are dealing with colic…keep hope. If your baby had or has colic, what are some of the things besides massage that you have found help???
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Suzanne Tucker, aka Zen Mommy
In addition to mommying to two magical girls born in 2000 and 2003, Suzanne owns a holistic health center in St. Louis, Missouri where she practices as a physical therapist, Certified Infant Massage Instructor and health education teacher. Certified in a number of healing and life education approaches, Suzanne offers life coaching as Zen Mommy Coach and is the co-creator of the Yogi Parenting approach to positive parenting.
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We tried everything under the sun. The one thing that would make him stop crying is him swaddled and holding him in our arms while bouncing up and down on an exercise ball. For hours and hours.
There are feeding bottles available that can help avoid colic. I think those can really help.
My aunt uses some kind of an ointment and she rubs it to her baby’s stomach every night to keep her baby away from having a gassy stomach. As far as I know it works!
Give your baby a warm bath or place a warm water bottle on your baby’s stomach. Be sure the bottle is not hot!
Make sure to burp your baby after feeding to avoid colic. Also, anti-colic feeding bottles help too.
Hmm, i hope the warm bath or the warm bottle of water will make my baby stop crying so much. I really need one good night sleep.
After breast feeding or bottle feeding put the child on your shoulders with the childs belly pressing on your chest and the child is facing your backside direction. In that posture move your hand from the child’s chest to the buttocks three four times so that the gases come out .Don’t put the child to cradle immediately after feeding, Help the gases to come up from stomach and go out of mouth by way of belching etc.
Thank you for all these awesome ideas. All learned from experience I am sure. To the Moms (and Dads) that are reading this now and are going through Colic/Gas issues with your little one, hold on!!!
-Do what you can.
- Get help. Talk to other people.
- And ALWAYS always, always follow your intuition.
*HUGS*
Suzanne
I often used a warm compress (not too warm or hot of course) on my son’s tummy when he really seemed to be in pain. It was very soothing to him. I used a hand towel that I held under warm water, and then laid it on my son’s stomach and warmed it back up as necessary.
You can also try another exercise where you slowly advance his knees up to his belly.After holding them there for a few seconds release the pressure, Repeat this a few times while stroking the baby’s legs to relax him.. Next, bring baby’s knees back to his belly and circle his thighs in a clockwise direction several times. Another variation of this is to “bicycle” the baby’s legs before doing the circular motions with his thighs.
Massage is truly one of the most natural baby colic remedies there is. Obviously you want to be very careful with your baby, but gently moving his or her legs up and down can help to release that gas. You’ll notice that the baby pulls its legs up when it’s fighting off the colic pains, so imitate that by moving baby’s legs in a similar fashion. Also gently rub your baby’s back when it is lying on its tummy. This can help loosen that gas tremendously bringing your son or daughter some relief.
I never had a baby with colic,but people told me to use the Dr. Brown’s Bottles. I never had a problem withcolic or being really gassy.
Great Video…i like baby specially when he smile..look so cute!
Sometimes if you lay the baby on its back this will help reduce intestional gas and will end up soothing the baby. If this position doesn’t work keep trying new positions until you find one that works for your baby. Riding in a car or placing the baby in a baby swing helps because some colicky babies just like to be kept moving. Keep a colicky baby in the dark when feeding them rather than a lighted room. Singing softly to a baby can help because babies like to hear soothing sounds.
The video is very helpful. My girl was just 2 months and until now I’ve tried few cures: baby drink, Bonissan (natural one) and few other remedies. However, this simple trick seems to be very effective in the colicy of the baby. Thank you for the video !
I heard that for infants with colic if you switch formulas from ones without cows milk can help your baby prevent colic, I was lucky though my little one never got it.
We where told our son had colic, but my wife had other ideas and she was right, it proved to be pyloric stenosis.
The doctors even told me that my wife was paranoid, there was a sense of satisfaction when we received a letter of appology.
Just remember, lots of hugs.
G
I love Graham’s advice . . .“Just remember, lots of hugs.”
As for my husband and I, we have always had a lot of luck with the bottles. I feel like they have helped us to avoid a lot of colic issues throughout the years.(No way to prove this, but we didn’t have a lot of issues with it, and we have always used them.) For the times that our children were colicy, we found that massage seemed to be the fastest fix.
Thanks for sharing this tip Zen Mommy! I’m a first-time mom. I wish I had known this when my son was still a baby. He was always colicy and my husband and I would always worry so much because we felt that we weren’t helping him enough. Baby #2 would be luckier!
Nice post!its interesting and very informative, thanks for sharing this tips and sharing this wonderful post, keep it up!
Definitely believe that which you stated. Your favorite justification seemed to be on the web the simplest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I definitely get annoyed while people think about worries that they plainly don’t know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and defined out the whole thing without having side effect , people can take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks
I feel so lucky that my Julia — my firstborn — was never really very fussy when she was a baby. She slept well, was always smiling and I cannot even remember her crying for no apparent reason. I’m 6 months pregnant now.
I’ll keep this tip in mind just in case Jacob (yep, it’s a boy!) turns out to be his sister’s opposite.
The baby in the video seems like he’s having the time of his life! How I wish every colicky baby had that pleasant disposition.
I love to take a care a baby. I felt so happy and complete when i saw their innocent smile. And the best thing of it is that when you have something to teach them and then they will learned it immediately. It is really an overwhelming feeling.
Wow, thanks for sharing this, Zen Mommy! I’ll keep this in mind. Colic was such a huge problem with Megan, my first born. Baby #2 won’t be making a big entrance anytime soon, but I’m already dreading the sleepless nights and over-fatigued days. Your tip might prove to be a huge help for me.
I was just having a conversation over this I am glad I came across this it cleared some of the questions I had.Very help full video .
50% is better than 0%. My daughter was colic for what seemed like the first 5 months, and I hated feeling helpless. If something didn’t seem to work, I’d keep trying, or move on to the next suggestion. Thank you for the helpful video. Little Evan sure seemed to be enjoying his tummy rub!