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Update: Week of March 1

This Week’s Hot Topic
It’s finally warming up and the snow is almost gone! It should make me feel like skipping and singing. Which I do from morning until about 5pm. And at 5:01 the singing stops and the tears start. Mostly from Zoe, some from Eva and a few from me. Because my kid has colic and that sucks. Big time.

I know you’ve all heard of colic but just so we are on the same page, “colic” in babies is unexplained crying for several hours a day, usually worse in the evening. Not to be confused with “colic” in horses which is a stomach ailment and is the number one natural killer of our equestrian friends. A lot of people think that colic in infants is also the result of a belly ache but most pediatricians disagree. Colic is probably best described as an immature brain freaking out. The evidence for this is that colicky babies respond to actions that imitate the conditions of the womb, such as rhythmic movement, tight swaddling and loud constant noise. What’s more, colic tends to go away around the same time (3-4 months) that a baby starts to hold its head up and be more social and act more like a real person and not a tiny baby.

I’ve been explaining colic to parents for years and trying to give them both sympathy and support and also real techniques to use to stop the crying. And now I’m living with it. Oh boy. Zoe will stop crying when I do all “the moves:” tight swaddle, binki, loud “sssshhhhhhing,” walking, jiggling and holding her on her side or belly. Okay so that is fine but what about when I need to put her down? Sometimes the baby swing turned all the way up will buy me 15 minutes. That is just enough time to get Eva her evening bath and into her crib. Then she starts her one hour of intermittent fussing and yelling while she fights sleep. So I run from one end of the apartment to the other, ssshhhing this kid, patting that one. It’s both frustrating and exhausting.

I have a new, deeper, respect for families with a fussy infant. What gets me through is a couple of things. Firstly, I know that this is temporary and it’s not because of anything I’ve done or not done. Secondly, I take help wherever I can get it. I try very hard to have a 2nd pair of hands at my house in the evening. I make sure that everyone has watched the Happiest Baby on The Block video and that they all understand that if they start to feel angry or frustrated, they need to put Zoe down and walk away. The only way colic is going to hurt a baby is if she is shaken or otherwise roughly handled out of frustration. Our new motto is: no one ever died from crying.

By the way, set your TIVO for March 11, Rachael Ray (should be on your local ABC affiliate). Yours truly will be making her daytime major network debut.

Dr. Lara Zibners, Mar 04, 2010

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