Many parents wonder when their baby is crying if they have the infamous colic. However, parents with children who have colicky children can tell you for sure that if your baby has colic you will know it. Of course, colic has no defined cause and may be due to a variety of causes. Generally, a baby who is considered to have colic has uncontrollable bouts of crying for at least three hours a day for at least three days per week. During these crying episodes there is little the parents can do to calm the crying baby. If your baby has these symptoms then it is possible colic is to blame. But, if your baby cries uncontrollably for twenty minutes once a week or so then colic is probably not to blame.

The best way to determine what is going on with your baby and whether he has colic or not is to take him to the pediatrician. Your babys doctor will be able to determine if there is a serious medical condition causing your babys crying or if all seems to be well health wise. If this is the case then colic might be the issue. However, it is important to determine that your baby does not have an underlying health issue before considering that colic might be an issue.

Keeping a diary of when the crying occurs, for how long, and after what activities will help you determine if there is any relationship between certain activities and crying. If you are breastfeeding it is also important to keep a food diary. Sometimes babies are allergic to cows protein and if the mother ingests a lot of dairy products a lot of gas is produced and causes colic in the baby. Eliminating gassy foods like cabbage, dairy, onions, caffeine, and the like from your diet will possibly help your babys colic. If not, you might need to try some other tricks or else simply wait the colic out until your baby is three or four months old and her body is more mature.

Determining if your baby has colic or not might take some time and every day seems like an eternity when you have an uncontrollably crying infant. However, if your doctor rules out a medical ailment then you might not have any other choice but to wait it out while trying different methods to relieve your babys pain.

Posted in Baby and Toddler

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