Colief Infant Drops!

I’ve used Colief products ever since Florence was a baby suffering with terrible colic and their Infant Drops basically saved us from the evening terror after my friends and even my Doctor’s recommendation to use them. Beginning nightly at about 11pm her discomfort continued until day break and began when she was about 2 weeks old – we didn’t know what was wrong but it was pretty harrowing watching my tiny baby look so unhappy. I spent weeks watching her curl up into a ball with a red face I had initially thought was full of anger only to realise later on that actually she was just in pain.

It didn’t take long for the Infant Drops to take affect after we began using them though and soon she was back to the usual placid baby as she greeted us in the day time, in the evenings as well. Talk about life saver! The relief of seeing her come out of that phase, the one that me as a first time mum took as being part and parcel of tiny babies at night, was amazing, I can almost still feel it now.

Colic is a temporary intolerance to lactose which I had no idea about – it hadn’t even been on my radar and why would it be and it baffles me that I spent a good few weeks battling this with Florence every night before anyone had any advice for me. The first thing Mums should be told about is colic and how to ease it with Colief Infant Drops as the persistence of it without a remedy had massive ramifications for us as a whole family when it was so easily treated in the end.

I have been speaking about Colief Infant Drops a lot lately and spent a day talking on the radio with baby expert Emma Kenny, another massive Colief fan, last week. Talking about my experiences with two extremely colicky babies and also how much I rate this product as well as a study Colief have recently conducted which has looked at maternal mental health affects as a result of the lockdown measures.

The study has shown that 51% of pregnant women and new Mums have felt isolated recently while 43% say it has had a detrimental affect on their mental health. It’s no surprise really is it as us pregnant mammas have kind of been a bit forgotten in all of this. Our maternity appointments have been cut face to face, we have very little reassurance without asking for it and the knowledge that for a good majority of labour and post birth we will be without our partners is frightening even for a fourth time Mum like me – for a first timer it must be excruciating. I can’t help but think about me as a first time Mum 11 years ago. I was frightened and apprehensive even though I had all the contact with my midwives, enjoyed antenatal classes (where I met one of my best friends) and then enjoyed the fact my husband could be with me throughout the entire labour. AND stay with me afterwards. To be a new Mum now and feel so alone must be bizarre at best and soul destroying at worst!

When I had Raffie Jonny was even able to stay the night and look after us which had he not been able to I’m not sure how we would have coped? I had Jimmy at home of course but that was my choice and I was very keen to do so because of personal reasons. The Colief study has brought about conversations which have let me know there are now a good portion of women choosing home births even though the thought scares them and they’d rather be in hospital BUT the idea of that as it is right now is too scary. I can’t imagine opting for a home birth under duress and it’s simply not right!

It’s not just the pregnancy and birth which is different and leaving women feeling lonely though of course. They are also being forgotten when it comes to those first weeks and months as a Mother and again I can’t help but draw comparisons to my own experience which is a time of such beauty for me. I met my tribe of Mum’s at baby groups and SureStart centres recommended to me at baby clinics and by my hands on, face to face midwife appointments. If I’d been on my own in London, family far away and stuck in the four walls without a friend in the world my experience would be a very different one and I wonder would I have gone on to want more children if I’d gone a bit under that first time as the study does show women are absolutely putting that off as a result!

It was these groups, these friends who made my days back then. I was loving being a new Mum of course but it was hard and having a friend or 12 to share those experiences with, the same friends who I STILL share experiences with, was an invaluable part of my happiness. It still is. We swapped tips and tricks like using breast milk to soothe rashes or for using Colief Infant drops when Florence was that red ball of fury and without that grapevine of knowledge I’d have been floundering with a baby who was in colic pain. For, quite probably, months! And once I knew I was able to pass the baton and share the wealth too because believe me, having a baby with colic is no fun!

So friends, good care and Colief saved the day when I was a first time Mum and it wasn’t long before we grew our family with Jimmy. He was the MOST contented baby you ever did meet and we always talk about those days when you’d have to wake Jimmy up to say hello to him for he was just always super contented but I was forearmed that time and he was on the Colief from day one. Raffie too but he did suffer rather badly regardless…

Sometimes Colief Infant Drops are not enough alone and in those cases Colief do have lots of advice on their website about how to find a pattern which might mean you need a bit more help. Raffie needed a bit more help with some medication from the Doctor too then once that had done its magic and he was back to his normal self we continued with Colief and never had any problems again. For our 4th baby of COURSE we will be doing the same and dropping Colief from the day dot!

So it’s a tough time for mums to be and new mums right now but my key advice would be to keep talking, ask for what you think you ned and don’t just be polite, demand it if necessary! The care is there and they will give it but I have found as a fourth timer I am having to jump through some hoops but I know which direction they are pointed. If this is a first pregnancy it would be so much harder but know that you CAN ask and you should. Colief also have lots of advice on their site about how to cope so do tale a look and if you have any colic questions I am more than happy to help if you drop me a line – email me, message me here or give me a shout on Instagram. Us Mums have to stick together, share the knowledge and get through it all as a big family. We are all after the same thing at the end of the day – SLEEP! And colicky babies don’t let you have ANY of that!

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