Joy has been keeping us especially busy in the evenings as a few weeks ago she decided to have colic. It started the day before Josh left for Africa. Like clock work, at 6pm, my sweet, little Joy turns into a fussy, gassy, burpy, back arching, crying, spitting up, screaming Joy. At first we didn't know what her deal was and assumed it was because I had been eating spicy foods. I cut those out of my diet and she was still having her daily issue so I knew it wasn't that.
After a particularly bad night, I made a doctor appt for her to make sure that it was just colic and not something more serious. I was pretty sure it wasn't anything too bad since she only had trouble in the evenings. The doctor said she wasn't sure what it was since it only occurred at a certain time of day (dumb) and I was doing all the things that she would have suggested. She called over to a Pediatrix group doctor to see if they had any other tips. After waiting 40 minutes she came back and said "Well, they think she might have a little acid reflux since she is arching her back. Here is a prescription for Zantac, give it to her twice a day". I was proud of myself for not saying anything - I have learned from experience not to share my beliefs about certain medicines to the doctors who are getting paid big bucks to write the prescriptions. I just said "Okay" and took the prescription and promptly threw it away after I had left. Seriously? Zantac?! They want me to give my little 6 week old baby a drug like that, to treat something they THINK she MIGHT have a LITTLE of? The thing about Zantac is it doesn't even cure acid reflux, it just masks the symptoms, not to mention it has been linked to causing stomach cancer. On top of that, she doesn't have acid reflux, I had researched colic and AR extensively and she definitely has colic.
So, I set out looking for a way to ease Joy's colic but so far they have all been futile. I cut dairy and wheat out of my diet, cut out coffee, spicy foods and any acidy foods. I feed her when she is sitting upright, burp her repeatedly, we've tried ALL of the typical calming tricks, i.e. leg pumping, and laying over your legs on her tummy. We have been giving her probiotics since she was born, we've tried gripe water, Mylicon (which seems to help a tiny bit), Hylands colic tablets, and my last hope was that she was getting too much foremilk and not enough of the fattier milk but even when I fixed that problem she still has her hours of screaming and fussiness. I have just accepted now, that she has colic and it can't be helped.
Poor Joy... poor us.