How To Avoid And Treat Colic In Babies

There are times that your baby just keeps on crying and you just don't have any idea why or what the cause is. Your baby just won't feed and won't sleep even if you tried all the comforting solutions. They just keep on crying for hours.

The baby who keeps on crying is having colic. Colic is the abdominal pain caused by intestinal gas which is very common in babies.

As explained by Baby Center, babies who are two or three weeks old often get colic. This is not a disease and won't cause any long term dangerous problem on babies, but can be quite a hassle for both the parents and their baby.

The very common symptom if the baby has colic is that they cry louder and longer than normal. This is because of the fluctuating feeling they experience in their tummy.

Colic is usually caused by gas intake in the body and this happens when the babies cry or when they drink milk in a bottle that isn't designed for anti-colic. Another possible cause is a healthy bacteria imbalance in the baby's intestines.

Parents should not worry about this because this is not a long term problem for babies. Babies aged five months up are already over the colic stage.

For the first few months that your baby is prone to this problem, there are tips that you can try to do to somehow comfort your baby who has colic and also prevent them in having colic.

1.      Carry or sit your baby in an upright position to avoid your baby swallowing air while milk feeding.

2.      After feeding your baby, carry or hold them upright to make them burp. This is really important to let out some gas in their tummy that can cause colic.

3.      Hold your baby in different positions like lying them in your tummy, cradle them in your arms or hold them upright in your shoulders. In this way, they can let gas out from their tummy and intestines.

4.      Gently rubs using your hands in their tummy can also help. This will warm their tummy and lesser the aching feeling.

5.      If you are breastfeeding, try to minimize your coffee, tea and caffeinated drinks intake because this can aggravate colic in babies according to NHS Choices.