Sabine’s Story: How We Survived Colic

I know they say pregnancy is not a disease. But I sure felt sick all the way through. I went through just about everything in my pregnancy books chapter on side effects. The nausea started early and never went away. I was confined to the house for the last month due to pelvic instability. Needless to say, I could not wait for him to come out, and for the good part to begin.

The birth was fast and painful, even though I had an epidural. But I was so happy he was here. Finally. Little and real. I remember the following 14 days as very happy, even though I was in pain, and we were just learning how to care for him. It was just….a little magical.

On day 14 we gave him his vitamin d-drops as recommended. I don´t know if that is what started it, but I do know we saw an improvement weeks later when we found drops without coconut oil.

In any case, suddenly he started screaming, like something was very very wrong. We rushed him to the hospital, scared as hell. The doctors watched him for a few days, at the hospital and at our own doctor’s practice. Finally we got the verdict: colic.

“So, what can we do about it?“, we asked.

“Nothing. Go home and wait. It will last till about 3 months.”, they said.

Wait, what?? Our son is supposed to be in pain for 2 1/2 months? And you expect us to just sit there??

The next months seemed eternal. It did not stop when he was 3 months old. I was so sleep deprived I thought I was going to die. And it was sooo hard to look for answers, being so tired and stressed.

Finally I pieced it together. There had to be something we could do. I was breastfeeding and put myself on a no dairy diet. That made a huge difference! Found out he reacted to fruit too, so I also removed that. The change in my diet took away about 80% of the crying, and brought him down to a level where I could actually comfort him!

On Christmas eve most of the colic went away. Best Christmas gift ever! He was 4 months old then. But up until about 8 months he still lived on my body, nursed in his sleep, and screamed bloody murder if I put him down anywhere. I found out way too late that there was something called silent reflux. We elevated his bed and tried some mild antacid. It helped. No wonder he didn’t want to lay on the floor or in his crib.

Having survived colic (that’s sure how it feels), I kept wishing we had known what to do earlier. My doctors to this day still insist that a baby cannot react to the mother’s diet, and on the reflux subject all I got was a condescending laugh. I´ve given up on trying to convince them.

Big hugs for the colic moms!

by Sabine Freund-Andersen, founder of Kolikmor, a Danish website for parents of colicky babies.