Bad Cow - No Milk From You (One woman's Colic story)
Nov 07 '00
I have just been through the worst seven weeks of my life. I have ridden my bike 100 miles in one day, hiked a 14,000 foot mountain, and have endured hours of listening to 70’s pop music, but none of those experiences were as hard as living with a colicky baby!
First I will explain the symptoms, then what I found to “cure” them. My son cried all the time starting at about 5 weeks. We didn’t think it was colic because everything we read said colic usually stared in the early afternoon and went into the evening. My son would cry in the morning, afternoon and night. My husband and I could barely have a conversation because of his crying.
Things continued to get worse. Suddenly, in the 6th week, my son wouldn’t breastfeed. I would put him to my breast and he would pull away and scream and cry after about three minutes. It was taking over an hour to feed him and was a constant fight. I was getting frustrated, worried, and upset. I would pump into a bottle and he would drink the bottle just fine. I called La Leche League and a very nice woman told me my son must have nipple confusion. The only cure, no bottles, no pacifiers, and if he didn’t eat from my breast then I needed to feed him with a dropper. I was relieved that I found an explanation for his behavior and I was willing to withhold all artificial nipples. That was until the third day passed an nothing had changed. The day he cried from 2:00 p.m. till 11:00 p.m. is the day I gave him the pacifier back and fed him with a bottle
I gave it one last try and went to a lactation clinic. The nurse first told me to switch sides when he fussed. After that not working she “urged” me to get nipple shields because he must like the feel of the plastic. Once again, in hope I ran out to the store and bought nipple shields praying this would solve the problem. Unfortunately, I now have a set of nipple shields that I will have to find a new use for.
Just when I thought bottle feeding was my son’s destiny, he started not accepting the bottle. He would take a few sucks and then pull away and cry. My mind was racing over the possibilities of what could be wrong. Was this reflux? Was there something more serious happening in his little body? I was getting frantic and I was so worried. After a night of no sleeping, constant crying and little eating, we called his Doctor.
The Doctor examined him and told us he was in perfect health and was doing a great job at gaining weight. The Doctor pointed out that he could not be gaining weight by eating air. The Doctor told us that he had colic and that we had to accept it and to stop trying to fix it. I was happy that my son was fine, but had a hard time accepting I couldn’t fix what was wrong with him. The Doctor told us that there have been some studies that have shown eliminating dairy products out of the mothers diet reduces colic. Once again, thinking I could find a cure, I would take his advice and try it.
To my surprised, it worked! My son started breastfeeding again after 24 hours of no milk products. My son is a calm, happy baby. Life has returned to my house.
I wrote this opinion not to say eliminating milk products from your diet is the cure all to colic. It isn’t. It worked for me, but I have talked to many mothers who it didn’t work for. I had searched the Internet and read numerous books looking for reasons and cures for my son’s crying. I never came across anything that suggested removing dairy from the mothers diet. I am just offering a suggestion. If your baby is fussy, try it, you have nothing to lose, but a lot of peace to gain.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
rachelscloset
|
|
Member: Marjie Shulsinger
Location: shulsinger@attbi.com
Reviews written: 46
Trusted by: 53 members
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.