Marc Weissbluth
Dr. Marc Weissbluth is the author of numerous books on infant fussiness and sleep, including Your Fussy Baby, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, and even a sleep guide for parents of twins.
His books on infant sleep should be considered required reading for parents of all babies, not just fussy babies. In my interview with Dr. Weissbluth, we talked about how to cope with colic, and how to prevent sleep problems in the post-colicky period.
You can read more about Dr. Weissbluth's books here.
Interview with Dr. Marc Weissbluth, May 2009
We often hear about colicky behavior starting around 2-3 weeks of age. What are your thoughts on babies who cry right from day one?
In a study I did on colic, we found many kids who had a lot of fussiness, and the crying disappeared by 3 weeks of age. The fussiness could have been from a variety of causes: hunger, thirst, whatever. Some of them looked like colicky kids, but by day 18-20, they were much better.
What are your best coping tips for parents of colicky babies?
Get help. Get Dad on board, as well as friends, relatives and parents. Hire help, because mothers get sleep deprived so quickly. After 3 or 4 months, make the appropriate transition to help your child learn self-soothing skills, which they cannot learn during those first 3-4 months due to this very fussy stage. It’s better to teach these post colicky babies self-soothing skills than create enduring sleep problems.
What sleep issues, specifically, do you usually see in post-colicky babies? Are these issues generally present because, during the first few months, parents do whatever they can to get their babies to sleep?
Post-colicky babies tend to have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. During the first 3-4 months, parents have to do whatever it takes to get their baby to sleep, because they can’t self-soothe. Sometimes in their somewhat sleep-deprived state, parents will continue to do that well past 3-4 months of age. And in doing so, they deprive their child of learning self-soothing. It’s not sustainable for a 6 or 9 month old baby to be constantly falling asleep on the breast or on the chest.
We found that once our son outgrew his ‘colic’, we were still very sensitive to hearing him cry. For this reason, we found it too difficult to let him 'cry it out' as part of his sleep training.
Crying is hard. Sleeplessness is harder. If you don’t correct the sleeping issues now, the research shows clearly you’re looking at major potential for academic and mental health issues in the future.
What do you see as the role of temperament in colic?
Think of the facets of a diamond. The diamond is a beautiful stone; it has many facets to it. But it’s still a piece of carbon. You have temperament, crying, fussiness, wakefulness, and you have not sleeping well. These are just different ways of describing the colicky baby. They are all intertwined together, but they’re still a colicky baby.
