Non-alcoholic treatment, medicines, or remedies for infant colic
Our baby is suffering from colic. The doctor prescribed some medicines which contained alcohol along with the active volatile ingrediants like dill oil, cardamon oil, etc. Is there a proven and effective way (preferably a home remedy) to treat colic in a one month old infant?
There are many websites on the internet which give ayurvedic home remedies. I am interested to know how well a particular remedy worked. What is the best way to treat colic?
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Look into Dr Karp's five S's to stop the crying, which will then cure most known painful effects of colic (namely swallowing air, which expands the stomach and causes reflux and gas) which will reduce the colic itself:
Swaddling: At one month this should still be effective, though at first it may not seem so. Look up how to do a "DUDU" (down-up-down-up) swaddle using a receiving blanket, or you can invest in a few HALO Sleep Sack swaddles or SwaddleMe wraps. Wrap your child very firmly, bordering on tight; many parents don't do it tight enough, and the child simply breaks free of the swaddle. Your child will probably not like this, so you may think it's not working, but it's only step one...
Side-holding: This is magical. I saw Dr Karp's video in a prenatal class, and thought it was video trickery; they were just showing the extreme minority on whom it worked. Then I tried it on our daughter when she was going through her first crying phase, and lo and behold it's a near instant crying stopper. It's exactly what it sounds like; instead of holding your baby on his or her back, or straight up and down (bad for a baby who can't lift their head), hold them on their side, along your forearm(s), with one shoulder facing down and the other up, and their head in your hand. They can face in or out; your choice, I usually opted for outward. You may call this the "football hold". When swaddled and side-held, your baby will almost immediately calm themselves. It's instinctive.
Shushing: The first two were usually enough about 75% of the time for our daughter (when she wasn't hungry; obviously that's the first thing you check, and if baby isn't interested, move on). Sometimes, though, she wanted to see what we were made of. The third step is basically white noise, and rather loud. Up till about six months, instincts learned in the womb are still very fresh, and that includes being used to the rather noisy environment in Mom's belly. Everything from the heartbeat to digesting noises to her voice to sound waves entering the womb from around the house and elsewhere makes it a cacophony inside a liquid environment. To replicate that, you simply lean in to her ear, and make a loud, constant "SHHHHHHHH". Don't get too close, but really unless you're forming a seal and blowing directly in baby's ear (or in baby's face; there's a reflex that stops them breathing) you're not doing any damage. If you're around the house, a hair dryer (heat off, and not pointed at baby) or a vacuum cleaner provide similar white noises.
Swinging: Less a calming technique, more a keep-calm technique. Get yourself a mechanical swing; it is the single best investment you will make as a new parent. Once your baby has calmed down through some other combination of actions, and you need some time with both hands free, put them in the swing and set it on high. The motion, and the fact that most swings keep baby's head inclined, will keep her calm; the rhythmic motion is soothing. It probably won't work to calm them down in the first place, however.
There is also a motion kind of like "jiggling"; you cup baby's head in both hands and rhythmically move it in a circle very gently. You have to see it done to know how to do it, so don't do it on my description alone, and never shake a baby, for any reason, ever.
Sucking: Once your baby's breastfeeding like a champ, or if you're bottle-feeding, a pacifier is baby's mute button. Put it in baby's mouth, touching the roof of the mouth, and it triggers an instinct to suck. You can do the same with a finger (just don't gag baby; one knuckle deep is usually fine). Again, because it's the pressure on the roof of the mouth that triggers the reflex, the proper response if baby wants to spit the passy isn't to hold it in; gently pulling outward or downward will re-trigger baby's interest. You'll have to wean them sooner or later (for us our daughter simply became disinterested in passies and more interested in trying to talk to us not long after her first birthday) but use it while they'll take it.
For our case, the only treatment that really worked was wait until she was 3mo. As magic, the colic lowered a lot.
What helped us relieving it until there (and believe me, it'll pass after few months):
a warmed-up towel, etc, over her stomach
doing some massage by stretching her legs, then pulling it back over her stomach (slowly, of course)
giving her a little bit more breastmilk (more times each day, smaller quantities each time)
giving her a warm hug and walking, slowly, across the house
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