When your baby will not stop crying for weeks on end, it can make the experience unbearable. This was the case for Mum Stacey Balfour, mother of two-year-old Alex and nine-week-old Mikey, and it nearly cost her, her family.
Parenting on Female First
Just a few days after she returned from hospital, baby Alex turned from a peaceful newborn to an inconsolable crying bundle of distress. She would cry for five or six hours a day and nothing mum Stacey tried could soothe her. Tummy rubs and buggy rides were exhausted and the pharmacy counter was stripped of its baby medicines, but nothing worked.
“When you can’t stop your own baby from crying, you feel like the worst mum in the world. It drove me crazy and I felt so guilty for getting angry, but I couldn’t help it. It felt so unfair that other people could enjoy the first few weeks with their baby and I couldn’t.” Stacey was driven to the point of exhaustion which coupled with the distress and upset of watching her baby suffer, took its toll on all aspects of her life.
“I feel awful saying it and I would never do it, but I can see why some people are driven to shake their babies in that situation. You become desperate and not yourself, having to walk away from your baby sometimes just to calm yourself down. You spend the time when they are asleep dreading them waking up because you know the hell will start again when they do, and that’s so wrong isn’t it?”
To make things worse, Stacey’s relationship with her partner quickly deteriorated because there was never space for adult-time. “We took the stress out on each other, and after falling out over a packet of crisps, the last thing I wanted to do was sit down and talk things through with him! The only thing on my agenda was to have my tea, then go to sleep.”
After six long months Alex outgrew her colic, and Stacey began to feel herself again, enjoying the happier side of motherhood. But not long after, Stacey fell pregnant again, and immediately began to worry that her second child would also suffer from excessive crying. Unfortunately for Stacey, baby Mikey began uncontrollably crying at just three weeks.
Bad memories, distress and exhaustion quickly returned to Stacey who had just started to feel happy again, and it was even worse with a toddler in the house too. “Because Mikey cried the most towards the end of the day, it distracted me from doing things with Alex like bathing her, reading her bedtime stories and spending quality mother-daughter time together. So not only did my relationship with my husband deteriorate; my relationship with my daughter did too and I felt so lonely.”
Determined to keep her family happy and stress-free, Stacey began trawling the internet for advice and the words colic and Colief Infant Drops kept on cropping up on parenting forums. Stacey went straight out to buy a bottle, mixed it with Mikey’s milk, and the very same day she saw a dramatic change in her baby.
“The day I gave Mikey the Colief it was like he turned into a different baby. He was happy and stopped crying! So I went straight out to buy a second bottle of Colief after the one week trial had proven that Mikey was suffering from transient lactase deficiency. I didn’t even know he had colic, but it was so obvious once I gave him the Colief. I now realise it must have been colic that Alex was suffering with too. I just wish I’d known about Colief before. It would have saved all of us a lot of stress.”
Stacey and her family are all now colic-free and are happily enjoying their peace and quiet together. “It’s sort of like a dream how you can go from hell on earth to over the moon in the space of a week with just one small change, but that’s what’s happened to us!”
Priced at £11.99, Colief is suitable for breastfeeding and bottle-feeding and is available from Boots. Colief can be taken for one week as a diagnostic tool to see if your baby is suffering from transient lactase deficiency. For help and advice visit www.colief.com.
What does Colief do? Infant formula and breast milk contain a sugar called lactose. It is thought that some colic symptoms are due to the baby's temporary inability to break down lactose (known as transient lactase deficiency) which may be caused by an immature digestive system. Usually the lactose in the milk is broken down into simpler sugar forms in the small intestine so that it can be easily absorbed into the bloodstream.
But if babies don't produce enough lactase enzyme the undigested lactose will sit in the gut until it is broken down by bacterial activity in the bowel causing discomfort, bloating and wind. When added to infant formula or breast milk before feeding, lactase drops can help to break down the lactose in the milk making it more easily digestible.
How to use Colief? Lactase drops can be added to the baby's feed each time the baby is fed until the baby is approximately 3-4 months old by which time the baby's digestive system will have matured.
How long to use Colief for? A one week trial of lactase drops (ColiefInfant Drops) is recommended. If the lactase drops are working they can be used every time a baby is fed until 3-4 months old, by which time the symptoms of colic should have disappeared. The lactase drops can then be gradually withdrawn from use.
For help and advice about colic and to talk to other parents dealing with it, visit their Facebook page www.facebook.com/coliefUKIE