Hi Everyone!

I thought I'd introduce myself. My name is Kristie and I have a
fussy baby named Colton who is 6 months old....I think he must hold
a world record for constant crying! Colton was born full term with
no complications but was "diagnosed" with colic almost immediately.
He cried from the moment he was born for almost ALL of his waking
hours pretty much non-stop until he was 5 months. He didn't follow
the regular patterns of colic of crying for hours at night before
bed, instead he cried all day and slept beautifully at night. The
worst days came when he was between 3 and 5 months where he would
cry for up to 14 hours straight without stopping for anything,
including food. We developed a method of feeding him while he was
crying (otherwise he wouldn't have eaten at all) using Dr. Browns
bottles and feeding him in an almost upright position to reduce the
amount of air he swallowed while "scream-eating" :) There were many
days that he lost his voice because he screamed so long, and let me
tell you, there's no sound worse on this planet than your baby
croaking out a hoarse scream for hours on end.

I didn't leave the house with him aside from doctors appointments
for five months and the two of us went stir-crazy being cooped up in
the house all of the time (I work full-time, currently on maternity
leave for a year, so I was NOT used to sitting in my house every
day). I really couldn't take him anywhere for fear that he would
wake before we were on our way home. If he woke up, he was
screaming (and I do mean screaming, not crying) and nothing would
soothe him. None of the "regular" colic tricks worked on him,
swaddling, gripe water, car rides, rocking, music, gas drops, etc,
etc, so we had to get pretty inventive at times. More often than
not we would just end up on the couch with both of us crying and
would wait out the storm together (once again, sometimes 14 hours).

At the 5 month mark the constant screaming calmed a little and
reduced down to three to four 1-2 hour crying sessions daily. Now
he doesn't cry the same way (or as constantly) but is still very
fussy and seems to need constant entertainment to be happy. We have
moved onto medical testing (FINALLY...my doctor was very hesitant
about testing for anything and thought he would "grow out of it")
and I'm hoping that we'll discover SOME reason for his fussiness.
We have had an ultrasound and hearing test (??? not my idea...doctor
insisted he might be crying because he wasn't hearing well?????) and
I'm hoping the ultrasound will provide a cause.

Colton was also diagnosed with reflux (fairly severe) but infant
reflux is not treated in Canada (or so I'm told) and he was never
medicated for it.

So that's my story so far (there are many more details that I'm sure
to tell in later posts). If anyone has a child with colic and needs
a few ideas I would be happy to try to help; and if anyone has any
suggestions I would be happy to hear them! :)

Kristie