Dad Advice: How To Cope With A Colicky Baby

Dad Advice: How To Cope With A Colicky Baby

When one of our own needs help, hundreds of fellow dads never fail to deliver solid, tested advice. Here’s how to cope with colic and a colicky baby.

Antimo Buonanno: Dude, this was me a year ago… 3 month old… She stay calm only on the car, so I took her car seat and move all night long…
You can see the desperation in my eyes.

Peter Canales: If your pediatrician says it’s just colic and not much can be done get a second opinion. There is nothing wrong with making sure Baby is safe in a crib in a clean diaper and walking into the living room for a few minutes and checking back. People have breaking points. Everyone. You do t want to be the parent who snapped and shakes your baby.
Heck remember all those people who blew up Facebook and Snapchat saying baby is cute and how they can babysit anytime? Hit them up. All of them. Tell them that the baby will not stop and that’s ok. But you just need an hour or two to nap/shower/eat/whatever.

Jackie Gerhardt: My son had god awful colic like that, and it turned out he had a severe dairy allergy that we didn’t find out about until he was much older. Does she throw up? Is her belly distended? Does she seem to over eat or comfort eat/comfort nurse if she’s breast fed?

James Vogeli: Grab her feet and do the motions of peddling on a bike. More then likely it is severe gas. If the wife is breast feeding you can google what NOT to eat. And what TO eat to help prevent this. Crying is the only way she can tell you something is wrong.

Chad Weidner: Sounds too familiar. We thought our girl had colic, but it turns out that her esophagus wasn’t fully developed and stomach acid made her hurt. Whenever we put her down she cried. It was awful. What a relief it was when the doc gave us medicine that helped.

Tom Lord: Stay strong and don’t be afraid to go out for a walk by yourself!!! We had same for nearly 3 months! If all you can get is 5 minutes of quiet whilst walking, that make all the difference for your day. Head up and kiddo will be fine!

Christopher James: Colic is just a word for, “we haven’t figured out what’s wrong”. There’s a reason for it. For our son it was sever reflux, and we worked with a GI to address it. Once we did he did a drastic turnaround and by 4 months was sleeping 7-7, with a perfect nap schedule through the day.

Ian Wrigley: Get some Losec from your doctor. Cranial manipulation can sometimes help, often an elimination diet is the key thing. Highly likely the flap that covers the top of the stomach going into the esophagus is underdeveloped and just need to reduce the acidity of the food coming in. Good luck, it’s hard. Take time out, give your partner time out too, be there for each other as this will test you both. You could opt for baby food delivery services covered by Empower Kids MD for wellness will help you decide which is better for your baby.

Adam Dusty Foust: My oldest daughter was a colic baby. She didn’t sleep long and, like you stated, when she was awake she was screaming. Her mother couldn’t handle it and distanced herself from her during this time. I would go through different remedies for her and even figured some out on my own. First thing I would always do is swaddle her tightly. I would try white noise. That worked only sometimes. I would rock her and lightly pat her on the back or booty the whole time in a certain rhythm that seemed to calm her. I would rest her head on my bare chest and hum lowly over and over. These were the methods that worked the best for her to actually fall asleep. For her when she was awake, the tight swaddle and holding worked. Sometimes even getting her distracted by something when she was screaming would work. You’ll figure it out and it will actually bring your bond even closer to your child. I know it’s not easy and how trying it is but don’t give up. You’ll get there and eventually they’ll be past it.

Otávio Cardoso: You’ll find it weird, but my eldest daughter cried a bit when she was that young. One day, my wife was drying her hair next to me and my little one simply stopped crying instantly. We did the test and it was the noise of the hair dryer. I suggest you look up on the internet. Some kids that sleep with noises of washing machines, hoovers, hair dryers… The explanation is that it mimics the sounds the babies hear inside the mothers womb and it soothes them. You should give it a try.

What’s your best advice for helping cope with colic and a new baby?

Flickr photo by Visa Kopu.