Things New Parents Should Know # 9 - Bandsaw

[dalekboy]

Take a bandsaw and put it in your bedroom. Set it up so it will run all on it's own from late afternoon and on through the night. It should activate at random points anywhere between one and four hours apart throughout the night, for not less than two minutes at a time. Average length of a run should be around fifteen minutes. Maximum time an hour or so.

When it's running, every second or so it will be randomly fed wood, with occasional bits of stone and metal for variety of sound.

It should be built so it has a sweet face, scrunched up in heart-breaking discomfort that you can do nothing about. Cuddling it may help it finish a run sooner, but may not.

This is your baby with colic.

Comments

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Oh man! Colic!!! My sympathies, both for the bub and for you and Karen! I remember my nephews having terrible colic. I tried singing them to sleep once or twice, and it totally didn't work. Thankfully it didn't last more than a few weeks, I don't think. I can barely remember though, since those bastards are 13 and 15 now, respectively. They grow so freaking fast!!

Ooh. I just talked to my Mum, and apparently I had it too. She asked if Karen is drinking cow's milk? Apparently that doesn't help, but I'm not sure how that works. Okay - just checked the net - here I'll paste it:

Mums who breast feed and who include dairy products in their diet can also pass cow's milk proteins to their baby through their breast milk so don't automatically rule this out if you're breast feeding. However remember to find another source of calcium to replace the dairy you cut out, to ensure you are still getting sufficient calcium while breastfeeding.

Good luck!

[kaelajael.livejournal.com]

While my children never had a bad dose of colic, there were a number of things I did learn to stay clear of as it would give them a touch of colic...dairy as a whole was okay, but there were a number of dairy foods that were problematic. I know chocolate was one of them. And onions. And garlic.

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Oh dear. Hope he (and thus all of you) feel better soon. I don't think my mother's remedy is approved of any more (and that's providing I remember right)

[kaelajael.livejournal.com]

Oh, no! That's awful, Danny - for all of you.

I hope it all improves very soon.

[mynxii.livejournal.com]

I hope it gets better soon :(

I'm so sorry for you all :(

*love*

[kaths.livejournal.com]

There's nothing worse than not being able to soothe your child :( Expecially if, like most parents, you blame yourself for not being able to work it out.

You'll probably read lots of about the possible 'causes' of colic (which just means unexplained crying, not necessarily a digestive issue), with the lastest theory being that it's to do with the an immature nervous system trying to interpret the world around it.

The only thing we know for sure is that it tends to pass with time. I hope it's soon for you!

[gutter-monkey.livejournal.com]

I hug my band saw all the time.

[fred-mouse.livejournal.com]

things that seemed to help with colic:

- using a dummy. took several hours the first time for eldest to take it, but ze was able to cope with it much better than without
- changing the level of sensory stimuli (putting music on if too quiet, going into quiet dark room if not)
- me going off dairy
- football carry
- not feeding so frequently, despite eldest's distress. Again, dummy helped with this

I also remember my aunt sending me a pharmacists concoction of rhubarb and something or other (bicarb?) which was supposed to help, but I have no memory of whether it did or not.

And the last thing that helped (although our problems tended to late afternoon/evening, rather than late at night), was handing child off to someone who hadn't been dealing with the crying, and thus wasn't as frazzled!