Sleep Aides: Colic Baby Can’t Sleep

Rose knows during a baby’s first few weeks in life until they reach their third or fourth month they may experience colic. There are no known prescription drugs to treat colic. Parents must find natural ways to treat and comfort the child during this transition to a new environment, baby food and formula/breast milk.

The baby can survive on breast milk alone for the first six months, then they start eating solid foods like baby cereal. I breast fed my daughter until she was nine months, but alternated her feedings with breast milk in the morning and late at night with a cereal/formula mixture first taken by bottle and later by spoon in the afternoon. If you don't produce enough milk or simply choose not to breast feed, you have to find a baby formula that is best for your child.  As you take the child’s diet into consideration, many formulas produce gas and indigestion especially when they are sleeping. Enfamil Nutramigen LIPIL, a hypoallergenic formula or Soyamilch, a soy formula, is a possible solution as it doesn’t have the same gas building properties. Many pediatricians recommend water, but please consult your pediatrician before you do so.

Once you have established a diet plan to aid the child’s colic other methods have been found to help the child go to sleep. Sleep music devices that play lullabies, instrumental or cradle songs can be attached to the side of their crib.

If the child cries many parents will walk or rock the child until it falls asleep, but this has been a proven unhealthy sleep habit. As the child matures the need for continuing this method will create sleeping problems such as the child waking during the night and wanting to be rocked or coddled again to fall sleep. Some parents give into letting the child just sleep with them which is a hard sleeping habit to break. The best way to soothe a crying child to sleep, if all else fails, is to take them for a car ride or giving them a warm bath using aromatherapy like lavender.

Make sure their bedding is comfortable and the room temperature not below 70 degrees. It is not recommended for an infant to use a memory foam mattress pad until the child can lift its head. Memory foam mattress pads can become too soft when it is warmed by the child’s body and could cause suffocation.

If the child is on baby food, try foods that are rich with tryptophan. Tryptophan is known to cause drowsiness. Turkey, cereals and even formula such as Enfamil Nutramigen LIPIL has tryptophan. Here are the ingredients for Enfamil Nutramigen LIPIL:

It is a hypoallergenic formula for babies who cry excessively or develop other colic symptoms or rash due to milk protein allergy. It's easy-to-digest, balanced nutrition for baby's first 12 months.

Corn Syrup Solids (46%), Vegetable Oil (Palm Olein, Soy, Coconut), and High Oleic Sunflower Oils (25%), Casein Hydrolysate (17%), Modified Corn Starch (7%), Less Than 2%:, Mortierella Alpina Oil (source of Arachidonic Acid (ARA)), Crypthecodinium Cohni Oil (source of Docosahexaenioic Acid (DHA)), Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D 3, Vitamin E Acetate, Vitamin K1, Thiamin Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Vitamin B 6 Hydrochloride, Vitamin B 12, Niacinamide, Folic Acid, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Ascorbic Acid, Choline Chloride, Inositol, Calcium Citrate, Calcium Hydroxide, Calcium Phosphate, Magnesium Oxide, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Cupric Sulfate, Sodium Iodide, Sodium Selenite, Sodium Citrate, Potassium Citrate, Potassium Chloride, L Cystine, L-Tyrosine, L Tryptophan, Taurine, L Carnitine

P.S. Many doctors will start a colicky baby out on a hypoallergenic formula, but sometimes a child will go through 5 or more formulas before finding the one that works the best. It trial and error when finding one that the child tolerates. Then when you think all is well the child will start reacting to it causing gas cramps and indigestion all over again. On average it takes as long as three months before a reaction can occur.

Good Evening,
Rose Sheepskill