If your baby has colic, you are probably searching everywhere you can think of for suggestions and ideas about how to relieve his or her colic. While all parents of newborns struggle to adapt to sleepless nights and waking each time they hear the cries of their little ones, parents of colicky babies have a particularly difficult challenge before them as they learn to live with a screaming, crying child that they cannot soothe.

No definite right or wrong way

It is difficult to say that one specific technique or practice will be the right or best way of relieving colic in your infant because the causes of this difficult condition are so hazy and unknown. However, there are several ways that are often found helpful by parents when attempting to calm the cries of their colicky child, including the following tips.

Parent tested tips for relieving infant colic:

-        Swaddling. Wrapping the baby snugly in a soothing swaddling blanket such as the one offered by Luna Lullaby can be an enjoyable way to sleep more soundly for your little one.

-        Changing the baby’s feeding schedule. Instead of a few larger meals, consider trying more frequent, smaller meals to see if this aids in digestion.

-        Changing your own diet. If you are breastfeeding, some of the foods you consume may be irritating to your infant when he or she receives your breast milk. Re-evaluate your own diet and see if that makes a difference.

-        Adjust the position of the baby while feeding. If they are positioned correctly, feeding and digestion will be easier for the infant, making irritation less of an issue.

Food & Colic – A Tricky Combination

If colic can be understood as a condition that results from digestive issues or immaturity in an infant, then it makes sense that changing what you eat could solve some of the digestive problems. For mothers who breastfeed, what is consumed by the mother is then given to the baby through the mother’s milk.

A baby who has colic may have an easier time digesting their mother’s milk if the mother avoids certain foods that can be irritating, cause gas, or trigger an allergic reaction.

Some problem foods may include the following:

*  Dairy products. Lactose intolerance is a major issue in the adult population, and many infants are also unable to digest products that contain the proteins from cows’ milk. Cut out eggs, milk, and cheese to see if lactose intolerance is making your infant’s colic more severe.

*  Caffeine. This stimulant can be found in coffee, soft drinks, tea, and even chocolate.

*   Beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage are all likely to cause gas in adults, so they may do the same in infants.

*  Soy, shellfish, nuts, and wheat can be allergens for adults and may be causing an allergic reaction in your colicky infants too.

If you decide to change your diet in the hopes of alleviating your baby’s colic, it is important to give yourself and your infant two weeks to get the food entirely out of your system. If the baby’s colic has not improved by that point, then that food group is not likely to be related to the crying.

> Learn more about what is colic by visiting our website