There are many bottles on the market, but when your baby has colic, it’s important to try and find the right one to help reduce symptoms.
What is colic?
Colic is a condition to describe a baby who cries for more than three hours per day, for more than three days a week, and for longer than three weeks in an infant who is well fed and otherwise healthy. Unfortunately, it has become a term associated with a lot of negative connotations and fear. Parents are terrified of their baby developing colic and that fear makes it more difficult to remember that crying is normal for most babies and that they will get through it! It’s also important to note that there really is no standard of “normal” crying as all babies have various temperaments.
Colic can happen between 2-7 weeks of age due to:
- Baby’s heightened awareness of their surroundings, which can lead them to being overstimulated by their environment
- A developing digestive system that makes them gassier
- Growth spurts
- Being overtired
- Parental anxiety
- Baby can get stressed, which stresses the caregiver and leads to a vicious cycle of fussiness.
- Crying, which leads to swallowing more air, and bothers their sensitive stomach leading to more crying (cue: the vicious cycle).
Choosing the right bottle can be helpful as it can help limit the amount of air in the formula or breastmilk, which means less swallowed air for baby and less gas.
Bottles with an internal vent system like Dr. Brown’s Natural Flow® Anti-Colic Options+™ Baby Bottle prevent air from coming in contact with the liquid, helping to decrease oxidation of vitamins and lipids in breastmilk. This helps to preserve the nutrients of the formula or breastmilk. Eliminating negative pressure and air bubbles also helps to reduce colic, gas, excessive burping, and even spit-up, hopefully leading to a happier, less colicky baby.
About the author:
Dr. Mona Amin, Pediatrician.
Dr. Mona Amin is a Board Certified General Pediatrician, Parenting expert, and mother.
She has been featured on Parents.com, Romper, CondeNast Traveler, VeryWell Family, NBC News, and was named one of Insider’s Top Pediatricians to follow on social media for 2020. She works in private practice and her passions include: early childhood development, focusing on the impact of healthy sleep, a healthy relationship with food, and healthy coping skills in the first five years of a child’s life.
On her Instagram account (@pedsdoctalk), her podcast (The Pedsdoctalk Podcast), and YouTube channel (Pedsdoctalk TV), she shares educational information on parent’s most common concerns (i.e. fevers, rashes, viruses, behavioral issues, etc.) including current events. Her brand, Pedsdoctalk, has a goal to provide relatable and easy-to-digest education for the modern parent regarding the health and wellness of their child.
