Colic Workbook
Reduce Fussiness with the Colic Workbook
Your baby is crying yet again (or still), you’re exhausted and feeling overwhelmed, and each day is starting to blur into the next. Sleepless nights, non-stop crying and fussing, feeding issues, gassiness, complete lack of a daily routine.
If you’re like many parents of fussy or colicky babies, you may also be feeling:
- Guilty (“I’m supposed to know how to soothe my child!”)
- Depressed or anxious
- Lonely
- Isolated from friends and/or family
- Full of self-doubt (“Is something I’m eating hurting my baby?”)
- Resentment towards your spouse (“Can’t he/she see I need help?”)
- Anger towards your baby
You knew it would be hard work being a parent, but nothing could have prepared you for this.
You are constantly second-guessing every single one of your decisions.
Regardless of whether your baby cries and fusses constantly or just a few hours a day, it can make your life feel out of control.
As a parent, you have a deep-seated need to know what’s wrong with your baby, and to help soothe and comfort him. Yet everything you try seems to fail, and you’re going in circles trying to figure out what could be wrong.
You wonder whether it’s gas, acid reflux, colic, a dairy or soy intolerance, or worse, whether something is seriously wrong with your baby.
You keep trying new techniques and strategies, sometimes with some success, more often, not. Different soothing techniques, formulas, gripe waters or gas drops, sleep routines – Yet in your sleep-deprived state it can be hard to remember what worked yesterday, never mind last week.
This is where tracking your baby’s routines and behaviors comes in.
Common Consequences of Not Tracking Your Baby’s Routines
In popular parenting books, you’ll often hear of the necessity of tracking your baby’s routines using journals or logs.
But is this just hype, or is it actually necessary? You decide.
Some of the common consequences include:
- Increased crying and fussiness due to lack of sufficient sleep
- Colic-like symptoms caused by food sensitivities or allergies
- Feeding difficulties due to over/under-feeding
- Difficulty establishing effective soothing routines
- Inability to properly explain symptoms to dr/midwife
- Feelings of being overwhelmed by lack of control
- Inability to see important patterns emerging.
It is impossible to fix something if you don’t even know what the problem is.
Now of course, there are some problems that we will never be able to fix. Some babies cry more than others, and regardless of what we do, they are still going to cry.
But trust me when I tell you that sometimes fussiness can be caused or made worse by lack of sleep, food sensitivities, reflux, or even – occasionally – medical issues.
And if you’re not tracking your baby’s routines, you may be missing out on this vital information.
By consistently tracking your baby’s daily routines and behaviours, you may be surprised to see important patterns emerging:
- Your baby is more fussy after certain foods
- The intensity of her crying or fussiness peaks at a certain time of day
- Shorter awake time tends to increase length and quality of naps
- Ultra-early bedtime seems to reduce fussiness
- Certain soothing techniques are consistently effective
- Naps tend to be longer at certain times of day
Just to name a few!
How to Track Your Baby’s Routines
When my son was a newborn, I tracked his routines in a notebook, or on little scraps of paper. The problem I found was that I didn’t have a consistent format, making it harder to see patterns emerging.
Some parents use other tracking methods including smart phone apps, baby journals, or charts and worksheets they find online. And for ‘easy’ babies, these can be really effective and helpful.
The problem though with these tracking methods is this: *They are designed for easy babies, not fussy, colicky or high need babies.*
Issues such as food intolerances, medical issues, sleep problems, reflux, and excessive crying are not addressed. At all. And these are the very things we need to be tracking.
The Colic Workbook
I’ve been running The Fussy Baby Site since 2007, and talk with parents every single day who are struggling with fussiness, colic, and reflux.
I know that parents are often living in survival mode, and feel like their lives are in chaos. They can’t count on any consistent routine, which means they can’t schedule anything, and have to take each moment as it comes.
They feel out of control.
And this is why I developed The Colic Workbook.
Over the course of several months, I planned, revised, and tested a series of printable worksheets that will allow you to manage your baby’s fussiness, and gain back a feeling of competency as a parent.
These are the only worksheets designed specifically for fussy, colicky and high need babies.
The Colic Workbook consists of 7 printable worksheets in pdf format:
- Crying Log – Allows you to track amount of time spent crying, intensity of crying, total amount of time spent crying/fussing per day
- Breastfeeding Log – Length of time fed, side used, time fed, baby’s behavior during and after feeding
- Formula Feeding Log – Amount fed, time fed, baby’s behavior during and after feeding
- Breastfeeding Reactions Log – Food consumed before feedings and short and long term reactions
- Sleep Log – Amount of awake time before naps, sleep time, length of sleep, where baby slept, soothing technique used
- Day at a Glance Worksheet – A full day’s routine on one worksheet
- Infant Symptom Checklist – A comprehensive checklist to monitor symptoms. Perfect for bringing to doctor’s visits.
It also comes with complete instructions for how to use and make the most of each worksheet.
By using the Colic Workbook, you will be able to:
- Stop worrying about which foods you can safely eat
- Reduce sleep issues by recognizing when your baby’s ‘sleep window’ is
- Feel confident in your ability to soothe your baby with techniques that consistently work
- Be able to avoid public meltdowns, knowing when peak crying times are
- Feel prepared and confident when speaking with healthcare providers about your baby
- Feel a sense of control as you manage your baby’s fussiness.
The Colic Workbook won’t cure your baby’s colic, but it will allow you to figure out what’s working, and what’s not.
Print them, clip them together or put in a 3-ring binder, and keep them in a central location where you’ll remember to use them. And remember, you don’t have to use all the worksheets at once!
How much does it cost?
I’ve scouted out the competition (those worksheets for ‘easy babies’!) and they can can cost up to $7.95 per worksheet.
I want to make sure all parents can afford the Colic Workbook, so I’ve priced it at only $12.99 US. That’s less than $2 per worksheet.
And, I’m going to include some additional goodies to sweeten the deal:
Bonus #1: The Soothing Cheat Sheet
I asked 100 parents* of fussy, colicky and high need babies what REALLY works to soothe their babies. I show you in an easy to understand, colorful chart which techniques win, HANDS DOWN, and which ones you shouldn’t even bother trying.
I’ve also included 25 tips from real life parents - their #1 tip for calming their fussy baby! You’ll be surprised at what they say.
*Remember, these are parents of ‘difficult to soothe’ babies, not ‘easy babies’!
Bonus #2: Printable 14-page Ask The Experts Package
I asked THE leading experts in the field questions like:
- What makes some babies fussier than others?
- What causes colic?
- How do you soothe a fussy baby?
- Why do some babies continue to be fussy even after the ‘colic’ is gone?
Experts include:
- Harvey Karp (The Happiest Baby on the Block)
- Marc Weissbluth (Your Fussy Baby and Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child)
- Mary Sheedy Kurcinka (Raising Your Spirited Child)
- Linda Budd (The Active Alert Child)
- Jack Newman (The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers)
Print it out and read it at your leisure!
Bonus #3: A customizable blank worksheet
Blank worksheet in pdf format you can customize however you like.
Want to track something I haven’t included? Customize and print your own worksheet.
The Colic Workbook is guaranteed
Imagine feeling empowered as you manage your baby’s fussiness…
Finally establishing a daily routine…
Eating without guilt…
And feeling confident in your parenting choices.
Start tracking your baby’s routines today with the only worksheets designed specifically for fussy and colicky babies!
