Colic curse

A vivid memory I have of my childhood is from when I was about 5 years old. We were at a neighbor’s for a picnic and a woman was there with her baby. The baby was just sitting on a blanket crying as we were all sitting nearby. I forget exactly what I said, but it was something to the effect of, “Your baby is crying”. I couldn’t grasp why the mom was just letting her sit there and cry. She told me, “Oh, she has colic.” She went on to explain that colic means a baby just cries and cries for no reason and there’s nothing you can do to help them.

Thirty years later I am now the proud mother of a baby who has colic.  The mother from my past was right in that she cries and cries. She is also right that there is nothing I can really do to help my B. I’ve tried it all: I gave up onions, broccoli, dairy and caffeine; I give her warm baths; I bicycle her legs; I give her gripe water, colic remedies and Mylicon. I even took her to a chiropractor.

Since I don’t have a remedy that works I won’t bore you with all my failed attempts to soothe her. However, the one thing I do every time she starts to scream out in pain is hold her. I hold her and kiss her and rock her and tell her I love her and that I am so sorry she’s in pain. 

It can be so frustrating when she cries. The pain often strikes at the least opportune time… while I’m in the middle of cooking dinner, or when we’re visiting a friend, or at 4am. When people ask me about it I tell them, “I’m just so frustrated that she’s in pain.” And then I say it again: “It is just so frustrating that she’s in pain.” I say it as much as anything to remind myself that she is in pain. She doesn’t mean to be difficult. She’s not trying to mess up my dinner plans. She’s in pain. When I think of it in this context it’s easier for me to deal with the crying; easier for me to forget about what I’m supposed to be doing and remember that my sweet baby girl is in pain. And how can I, as her mom, do anything but hold her and love her and hope that the pain subsides?

 

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