6 Ayurvedic Tips for a Colicky Baby:
Babies and children are incredibly sensitive, in Ayurveda the protocol for addressing health concerns with kids is to always make the medicine or remedy mild and gentle. Such a sensitive being will react quickly and sensitively to any medicine given or change in their diet. These six tips will help you address the colic for instant remedies as well as an overall lifestyle adjustment to support them as they develop and grow their digestive system. We have to remember that they are learning to ingest food through their mouth and eliminate it like we do, their system is brand new and doing it’s best but sometimes it needs some extra gentle support.
- Put ghee or coconut oil on your nipple, the bottle nipple, or just a little bit in the mouth. This will help with constipation and to hydrate the digestive system if they are dry. *I used this remedy often in the first few months of my daughter’s life and it always helped!
Gently massage their bellies with oil in a clockwise manner, this should help get things moving. It doesn’t matter what kind of oil, I used olive, coconut, and even ghee sometimes. Just make sure it is pure oil or an Ayurvedic baby massage oil that does not contain and preservatives or scents.
Space out their feeds for at least 2-3 hours. Make sure they are good and hungry so that when they eat it is an actual meal they consume and not just smaller amounts every hour and not meals that will fill them properly. I personally went against the grain and allowed my daughter to sleep as much as she needed to and sometimes that was 3-4 hours. But when she woke was good and hungry and ate a full meal that satisfied her. I am happy to report that she had lots of thigh rolls and sleeps very well to this day at two years old.
Don't let them snack or nibble throughout the day. This leads to them eating smaller amounts, never getting full, and then not ever able to digest fully before their next feed. Just like in adults, this creates back ups and gas from an overworked digestive system. Sometimes I noticed they really are hungry in shorter time frames when they are growing or learning a new skill, so it is best to try and wait at least 2 hours but don’t beat yourself up. For my daughter I always made sure I did my best to wait otherwise it was an immediate cause and affect for her getting colicky.
Mama's diet -- this is a big one. If mama is eating really dry foods, junk foods, heavy to digest foods, or if the formula is using milk that the baby can't digest well you need to switch up the diet. For formula I reccommend goats milk as it is much easier to digest than cows milk and is closer to human milk. For mama's diet I reccommend seeing an Ayurvedic Practitioner to adjust your diet or start with eating warm well cooked foods that are adequately spiced in regular meals and avoiding dairy, onions, wheat, or any major allergens for the time being to see if that brings some relief.
Finally you can make your own gripe water! It is a digestive water-based tincture you can add to your bottles or just drop a few drops in their mouth a few times a day.
Gripe Water Recipe:
Ingredients:
2 cups filtered water ¼ tsp. Whole fennel seeds ¼ tsp. Whole coriander seeds ¼ tsp. Fresh ginger
Boil two cups of filtered water with ¼ tsp.each of whole fennel seeds, whole coriander seeds, and ¼ tsp. fresh ginger. Let cool then take a dropper and add 5-10 drops or 1/8th of a tsp. into their bottle or their mouths.
Most resources will tell you not to introduce water to your baby until they are at least six months, but just to reassure you a few drops of water decocted with some herbs is perfectly fine for a baby.