We have such a good baby we thought. As I write this I currently have pain in my ears and I feel half deaf. Those blood curdling screams. I could feel them rattle the inside of my skull and just bounce around as the next one came in.
It started one night with fussing and beating her tight little fists at me. A usual night. I would feed her and she would fall asleep while rocking her in the Rock n’ Play. Tonight she would seem to not stop fussing. Then the crying happened followed closely by the high pitch screams. A decibel level that I assure did some hearing damage on my part. It was awful hearing it, but it also angered me. After multiple hours of hushing, rocking, and nothing working. Yeah, I got angry. I realized it as an out of control animalistic emotion at that second.
This baby is not trying to ruin my night. She isn’t trying to make me want to get in my car and drive away. She is in pain and this is my baby. My chunky love, that needs me and my understanding.
I had to switch my thinking. Something about those screams just gets into your soul. My mommy instincts aren’t about the “cry it out” method. When my baby cries I have to comfort her till the answer is obvious. Just hearing her cry messes with those internal calls.
I decided to use the technique I slightly remember using on my first born almost 9 years ago. My guy needing sleep and me at my wits end, I grab the keys, snuggle baby in her car seat, and run out the door. My heart racing, my head throbbing, feeling a numbness in my ears. I’m assuming I woke the neighbors with my 2am bloody murder baby screams. I am also hopeful to find her any sort of relief.
I realize my constant hushing is causing my cheeks to hurt, so I look up some kind of white noise. I find a great site called Fade Away Sleep Sounds online. It has car sounds, along with many other great ones like rain, train, and pink noise. Which are my daughters favorites. I’m telling you this white noise thing works for EVERYTHING. Anytime I’m not sure what else to do to calm her, boom, train with brown noise.
The trick is you play it louder than their cries. Don’t play it next to their ear, but I put about 4 feet from me and just turn it up. This and the rocking is a godsend!
I’m driving around for about 4 hours at 1am. I drive out of my apartment complex, on to the main road, make a right turn, then another. I have to try to not stop at any lights. Just constant driving. The main road is completely torn up by my home so this makes one actual good thing for the horrible condition. The bumpiness lulls baby, not to sleep, but to silence. I’m just happy she’s distracted.
Finally, around 3:30am, I have to head home so my guy can go to work. Baby starts to make a different cry. A hunger cry. It’s a little different than the blood curdling colic cry. I assume we are in the clear for now.
I pull in and take a look at her, she’s a mess. Her eyes are all red, she’s all sweaty, and she looks tired. She makes a faint whimpering sound. I wanted to cry. We get upstairs and I pull her out of her car seat. I have milk already pumped for her. She punches her little fists around sluggishly while I transfer the milk to the bottle. Too tired to even cry. Finally, eats and then instantly falls asleep in my arms.
The most heart wrenching experience. I go through about a few days of this, and finally go to pediatrician. We get prescribed Zantac. It helps with the spitting up and her being completely uncomfortable during the day but the colic is still happening.
I get online and start to research. I keep coming back to Dairy. I think, “Well, I’m safe since I breastfeed.”
NOPE. I find out it transfers through the breastmilk. My baby didn’t have any rashes but almost every other symptom. I decide to cut down my dairy. No milk, no major cheese, but I don’t really check packages, I assume it’s obvious if it contains dairy.
About a week of this and the colic is still pretty bad. I read that you have to completely cut dairy or it’s really pointless to even do. So I commit to one of the hardest things in my life, completely cutting dairy, and I LOVE dairy.
I messed up the first few days not realizing that dairy is in almost EVERYTHING we eat. It’s in red spaghetti sauces ffs! You have to look at every single package!
The colic episodes, after fully cutting dairy for over a week, slowly get shorter and shorter and now they happen an hour maybe once or twice a week, and about 20 minutes a night. And she is able to be consoled during the episode! It has been amazing, and now I’m pretty use to it.
I have to say though, I have lost so much weight because of it. That “pouch” on my stomach is flatter than it has ever been. Makes you wonder.
Godairyfree.org is an amazing resource for knowing if fast food contains dairy and everything else you need. I make a lot of vegan dishes these days. Also they have dairy free alternatives to everything so I still get my cheese, yogurt, smoothies, coffee creamer. It’s great!
Plus, most places have gluten free buns which are usually dairy-free as well. If you ask most places are very accomodating.
For more on colic and tips to soothe your baby check out my article Does Your Baby Have Colic? PLUS 6 Amazing Tips to Help Soothe Your Baby.
If you have questions about going dairy-free or want to talk about your colic issues please let me know.
