Infant colic

Now, I am not sure that the Hungry Mouth actually did have colic. There are many theories and definitions and the term describes regular inconsolable crying, especially in the evening, for babies usually under 3 months old. Crying can come in waves (as if with a griping pain), with brief pauses filled with parental hope. The cause is unclear. But many babies fuss in the evening, when they're tired and overloaded with the day's worth of new stimuli, without it being colic.



We don't feel the Hungry Mouth was ever inconsolable. It's more that it was often a different solution that consoled her on any one occasion. So we had to try lots of things, from feeding (often a winner), to brisk walks outside (she didn't like to be overheated).



But one thing that really did seem to bother her was trapped wind. She would feed frantically, then pop off and start twisting and fussing, very uncomfortable. The midwife suggested Infacol, which is a tasty orange-flavoured solution of dimethicone available over the counter. It reduces the surface tension of the milk, and so allows many tiny painful bubbles in the intestines to merge into bigger ones that are easier to burp up or fart out. Whether it works is controversial; all I can say is it seemed to help the Hungry Mouth quite a lot.



Once she got older, she seemed to get a lot better at burping on her own, and we don't use it anymore.