Tips For Helping Your Baby With Colic

While there’s nothing more peaceful than having a baby fall asleep on you, there’s nothing more stressful than trying to calm a baby that can’t be soothed. But for many parents with colicky babies, tend to get a lot more of the screaming than the cooing.

Since every baby’s health and needs are different, just like their parents, it might take some experimentation to try to find something that works for your new little one. But to help you on this journey—and hopefully help everyone get some much-needed rest—here are three tips for helping your baby with colic.

Consider Diet

One of the very first things you should consider when you have an overly fussy baby is how their diet might be affecting their level of comfort.

According to HealthyChildren.org, if your baby is formula-fed, switching to a different formula may help. Or, if your baby is breastfeeding, eliminating common foods known to irritate baby tummies could be beneficial. Sometimes, small babies have very sensitive tummies and can get easily irritated by things that parents may not even know about. So by changing things up, you may be able to narrow down what’s causing your baby to get so upset, especially if it is related to their diet at all. While you might not see an instant fix, it’s always worth a try.

Speak With Your Pediatrician About Using Probiotics

Another option you might want to consider, according to Karen Springen, Karin A. Bilich, and Tamekia Reece, contributors to Parents.com, is to ask your pediatrician about using probiotics meant for infants.

These contributors reported that some studies have found that colicky babies who took infant probiotics were less fussy than those who used alternative medicines for addressing gas and other gut issues. So if the problems your baby is having are related to gut health, a probiotic could help to introduce some good bacteria into his or her system and calm things down.

Try Infant Massage

When your baby’s discomfort is coming from such an unknown source, sometimes what he or she needs is just to feel that you’re there and taking care of them. Often, this can be done through infant massage.

Skin-to-skin contact can be great for soothing a fussy baby. Also, gentle yet firm strokes on the right areas of your baby’s body, like their feet and tummy, can help them relax and even aid in digestion. Especially if you’re working around their belly, try to move in clockwise motions to help with gas pressure that may have been building up.

If you have a colicky baby that you’ve been trying to soothe, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you and your little one find some relief.