8 Easy Home Remedies for Colic
Why Do Babies Suffer From Colic?
Does your baby seem to never stop crying? How do you know if it’s colic or just crying? There is no known cause for colic, but the differences between colic and crying are known.
Babies with colic will usually cry for hours at a time, around the same time every day. Most babies with colic get it after a couple of weeks of being born and it usually goes away on its own by the time that the baby is about four months old.
Normal crying can happen at any age, and while it usually does last a few hours a day, it is usually spread throughout the day. Babies who cry usually just need a change or food, but colicky babies seem to cry for no reason at all.
It can be frustrating when your baby cries and there seems to be nothing that you can do about it, but there is something you can do now. Follow these easy natural home remedies to learn some simple ways to make your baby stop crying when their colic acts up.
8 Easy Home Remedies for Colic
#1. Car Rides
If you are already going somewhere, take your baby with you. For some reason the movement that a car makes seems to help babies calm down.
Even if you aren’t going anywhere, just driving around the block is a good home remedy for colic. Sometimes the babies find the motion of car so relaxing that they just fall asleep.
#2. Rocking
Since babies are calmed by slow movements, you can rock your child to calm them down. Whether you want to rock them in your arms, or sit in a rocking chair, you should be able to get your baby to calm down or even fall asleep. If your child is just crying, this could also help him or her to pass gas, which is a good way to get babies to stop crying.
#3. White Noise
Things like TV or radio static, vacuuming, sound machines, fans, and dishwasher or washing machines make something called white noise. The noise is contact and doesn’t have a tune to it.
For some reason these types of noises seem to calm down babies. The next time that you need to do the laundry or dishes, bring your baby in the room with you and then they should calm down.
#4. Warm Towel
Placing a warm towel on your baby’s chest can help them to calm down as well. Warm up the towel with warm water or some other way, and make sure that it won’t burn the baby before you put it on.
Test it on your own skin. If it is even slightly painful then you should probably wait a little while to let it cool down. Putting the warm towel on your baby is a natural home remedy that can help with his or her gas an even heartburn.
#5. Sleep
Sometimes babies cry just because they are tired. So making them sleep is one of the best natural remedies for colic. By trying to do something major about it, you can make it even harder for them to fall asleep. You should still check to make sure whether or not your baby is hungry, needs to be changed, or sick though.
If there seems to be nothing wrong with your baby, then you should just put them in their crib and walk away. The baby will probably cry for a few more minutes, but with the lack of stimulants, your baby should fall asleep quickly.
#6. Avoid Dairy
Sometimes a baby’s problem is dairy. If you are bottle-feeding your baby, then you should try to avoid cow’s milk. About five to ten percent of babies with colic cry so much because they can’t digest cow’s milk properly.
A natural remedy would be to try switching them to a soy formula for a couple of weeks. If there seems to be no change, then feel free to put them back on cow’s milk.
#7. Carrying
Try to carry your baby as often as possible. Babies are calmed when they are carried and help often. Studies have even shown that babies that are held more in the first couple weeks after birth do not develop colic. In babies with colic, holding them actually helps to decrease their amount of crying.
#8. Set a Schedule
Babies are too young to set their own schedule. They don’t even know what time it is. It’s up to you to keep your baby on some sort of schedule. Feed your baby at specific times, bathe them at the same time, and try to put them in their crib for naps and at bedtime at the same time every day.
This will help to get your baby in the rhythm of things. Eventually, they’ll just know when it’s time for food. This should help them to cry less.
Hopefully, these simple home remedies can help you calm your colicky baby.
