My oldest had colic and the one give away is that he would arch his body back. The pain in his stomach would have his body stiff and arched like a banana. One night he screamed for an hour. We tried everything and the one thing that worked a treat was special colic teats. We are in Australia and they are readily available at the chemist (pharmacy). Not all teats will work - just keep trying until you find the right one - it will be worth it.
26 years ago, my daughter nearly drove me nuts with colic. The doctor diagnosed it. And said "Be patient. In three months, it'll be gone'. And the man was right. She screamed for about 8 hours every evening- from 8 pm till 4am. My husband was working afternoon shift, so when he got home at midnight, he got the baby. He would lay her on his bare chest and she seemed to settle better then. If your baby is just crying and fussy- I don't think of that as colic. Screaming till you think you'll lose your mind----- yep, that's it!
If it is true colic it will bring on screaming crying just after a feed and continue till the next one when it will stop and change to a "Feed me" cry. This will happen at the same time each day. As in regular as clockwork. They grow out of it just before you run out of nerves to handle it.
I highly recommend the book/video/dvd The Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp. That DVD saved us! Our son, who is now 2, never cried for more than five minutes when we used the techniques demonstrated in this video. According to Dr. Karp's research, Americans generally misdiagnose a child with colic - when there are many cultures where colic is not an issue. He believes that if parents would use the five calming techniques, no babies would suffer and neither would their parents. One important tip - if a baby is crying, they cannot hear you unless you are louder than their crying. That is why a crying baby will quiet down when the vacuum cleaner is turned on - or even a blow dryer. I remember standing in the bathroom with out son, running the blow dryer for a few minutes and it worked! Check the techniqes out at thehappiestbaby.com - it is well worth it. We are now employing his techniques for the happiest toddler on the block. Both are a godsend. Cathy
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