Infant Colic

🌿 Overview

Colic is when a healthy, well-fed baby cries for more than three hours a day, more than three days a week — usually in the evenings. It peaks around six weeks and almost always resolves by three to four months. No one fully knows why, but gut discomfort, gas, and a nervous system still learning to settle all seem to play a role. Warmth, gentle motion, and a calm environment help most babies through it.

Colic is real and exhausting for parents, even though the baby is healthy and will outgrow it. The hallmark is intense, inconsolable crying that comes in waves and often peaks in the late afternoon or evening. The baby may pull up its legs, clench its fists, and pass gas — clues that gut discomfort is involved. The most helpful steps address the gut and the nervous system at once. Warmth eases cramping: a warm bath, laying baby tummy-down across a warm (not hot) towel on your lap with gentle back-rubbing, or a snug swaddle. Gentle motion — rocking, walking, or vibration — calms an overstimulated nervous system. Low lights and soft sounds help too. If breastfeeding, the mother's diet can matter: cow's milk products, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage), onions, caffeine, and spicy food can all pass into breast milk and upset a colicky baby. Eliminating these one at a time for a few days may reveal a trigger. A little warm chamomile tea (by spoon, not bottle — and only for babies over 2 months, with pediatrician's approval) has long been used to ease gut cramps gently.

Common signs

• Intense crying in a healthy, well-fed baby
• Crying that comes in waves, often in the evening
• Clenched fists, an arched back, or drawn-up knees during crying
• Visible gas or a hard, tense abdomen
• Brief settling, then crying again

🔎 Why it happens

Common causes and triggers — spotting yours is often the first step to relief.

• Gas and gut cramping as the digestive system matures
• An overstimulated or still-developing nervous system
• Compounds from the nursing mother's diet passing through breast milk
• Sometimes a sensitivity to cow's milk protein in formula or breast milk
• Possibly an immature gut microbiome

✅ What to do

Gentle, practical steps you can take at home — start at the top.

1. Warmth: try a warm bath, or lay baby tummy-down on your lap over a warm (not hot) folded towel and gently rub the back.
2. Gentle movement: rocking, walking, swinging, or a car ride — rhythmic motion helps most colicky babies settle.
3. Swaddle snugly and dim the lights in the evening to lower stimulation.
4. If breastfeeding, try removing cow's milk, cabbage, broccoli, onions, and caffeine from your diet one at a time, a few days each, to spot triggers.
5. Burp the baby thoroughly during as well as after each feed to release trapped air.
6. A small amount of warm chamomile or catnip tea by spoon (check with your pediatrician for babies over 2 months) may ease cramping gently.
7. Take turns with a partner or helper — colic is exhausting; caregivers need breaks to stay calm and patient.

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🍽️ Eating to help

Food is one of the gentlest medicines — small, steady changes help most.

Favor these

• For nursing mothers: a varied, plant-based diet avoiding known gas-producers
• Ginger and fennel in the mother's cooking, which may soothe baby's gut
• Plenty of water for the nursing mother

Go easy on

• Cow's milk products in the nursing mother's diet (most common trigger)
• Cruciferous vegetables: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts
• Caffeine and spicy or gassy foods in the nursing mother's diet

Try removing one suspected food for 3–5 days and notice if crying eases — most food compounds clear from breast milk within a couple of days of elimination.

📜 A note from history

Warm chamomile tea, tummy-warming cloths, and gentle rocking have been trusted colic comforts across generations of caregivers.

📚 Learn more

Trusted, independent sources for further reading. These open in a new tab.

• Colic — MedlinePlus ↗
• Infantile colic — Wikipedia ↗

💬 Ask Remy about Infant Colic