Colic in Newborns: What Helps During Those Long Crying Episodes

You have a healthy, well-fed baby who screams every evening for hours, refuses to be put down, and looks like they're in agony. Nothing you do helps for more than a few minutes. You are exhausted, you are second-guessing your milk supply, your relationship, your parenting, and possibly your sanity.

This is colic, and it is one of the most well-defined and least understood things in early infancy. About a fifth of newborns get it. It is not your fault, and it goes away.

This article tells you what colic is, what helps in the moment, and what to watch for that might be something else.

Healthbooq lets you log crying patterns and feeds, which sometimes makes the slow improvement visible when it doesn't feel like anything is changing day-to-day.

What Counts as Colic

The clinical definition is the "rule of threes": crying for more than 3 hours a day, on more than 3 days a week, for more than 3 weeks, in an otherwise healthy baby who is feeding and growing normally.

In practice, parents recognise colic by feel rather than counting hours. The crying is:

• Intense and high-pitched — different from "I'm hungry" or "I'm tired" crying.
• Inconsolable. Nothing reliably works for long.
• Predictable in time of day. Late afternoon or evening is the classic window.
• The baby is otherwise fine. Feeds well, gains weight, is content between episodes.

The peak is around 6 weeks of age. By 3 months it has settled in most babies; by 4 months in nearly all. It often stops abruptly, over a week or two, rather than fading slowly.

A baby who is genuinely thriving — gaining weight, feeding well, content much of the day — and whose crying fits this pattern almost always has colic.

What Colic Is Not

It is not:

• A sign your baby is in serious pain or danger.
• A reflection of your milk supply, milk quality, or any feeding choice.
• Something you caused.
• A predictor of long-term temperament or development. Colicky babies are statistically indistinguishable from non-colicky babies by 6 months.

What Causes It

Honestly, no one fully knows. The leading explanations:

• Gut immaturity. The newborn intestine is still developing. Gas, peristalsis, and the absorption of new feeds may produce sensations that overwhelm a baby's still-developing pain processing.
• Microbiome differences. Studies have found that colicky babies have different gut bacterial populations on average. Trials of probiotics — particularly Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938 — have shown modest benefit in some studies of breastfed infants, less clearly in formula-fed babies.
• Neurological overload. Some researchers frame colic as a normal infant nervous system overwhelmed by the sensory input of normal daily life, with crying as the only available release valve.
• Cow's milk protein allergy. A small subset (probably 5–10% of those labelled colicky) actually have CMPA. Suspect this if there is also reflux, eczema, vomiting, blood-streaked stool, or a strong family history of allergy.

The leading theories are not mutually exclusive — colic is probably several things bundled under one label.

What Actually Helps During an Episode

The most consistent finding across decades of colic research is that rhythmic sensory input is the most reliable calmer. The womb is loud, dark, warm, and constantly moving; the outside world is none of those things. Recreating elements of that environment helps.

Holding positions:

• The "colic hold" / tiger in the tree. Baby face-down along your forearm, head supported in the crook of your elbow, your hand cupping the front of their hips, body draped over your forearm. The pressure on the belly often eases gas; the position prevents the back-arching that escalates crying. Walk and bounce gently while you hold them this way.
• Upright over the shoulder, with patting. Especially if reflux may be playing a part.
• Skin-to-skin on your bare chest. Particularly settling for newborns under a few weeks.

Motion:

• Bouncing on a yoga ball while holding the baby. Many parents discover this beats walking — the rhythm is steadier and you can sit.
• A baby carrier or sling. Hands-free, close, warm, moving. Often calms babies who refuse to settle in arms.
• Pram walks. Outdoors, ideally — the rhythm and change of stimuli often does what indoor pacing won't.
• Car rides. Reliable as a last resort. Don't feel guilty if it's the only thing that works.

Sound:

• White noise at moderate volume. The womb is around 70–85 dB — louder than most parents expect. A dedicated white noise machine, a fan, a hairdryer, or a white noise app does the job. Lower-pitched sounds (rumble, shower) tend to work better than high-pitched.
• Shhing loudly in the baby's ear — the "shh" sound mimics womb noise. Has to be louder than the crying to register.

Touch and movement:

• Clockwise abdominal massage. Warm your hands, make small circles on the baby's belly, going in the direction of the large intestine. Useful between episodes more than during.
• Bicycle legs — knees gently to the chest in turn while baby is on their back. Helps with trapped wind.
• Warm bath. Sometimes resets a crying spiral.

The 5 S's (paediatrician Harvey Karp's framework) bundles many of these together: Swaddle, Side/stomach position (in arms only — never for sleep), Shush, Swing, Suck. If you haven't seen the framework, it's worth knowing.

Things That Often Don't Help (But Get Marketed)

• Gripe water and "colic drops." Most have no evidence base. Simethicone drops in particular have been studied and consistently failed to outperform placebo.
• Switching formula brands repeatedly. Unless there's specific reason to suspect cow's milk protein allergy, this rarely helps.
• Restricting your diet drastically while breastfeeding — beyond a defined trial of dairy elimination — is exhausting and usually doesn't help.

Diet: What Might Be Worth Trying

If you suspect cow's milk protein allergy, particularly with the "extras" listed above (eczema, reflux, vomiting, blood-streaked stool), it's worth a properly conducted trial:

• Breastfeeding mother: strictly eliminate all dairy (including hidden dairy in baked goods, sauces, processed foods) for at least 2–3 weeks. Improvement should be clear if dairy is the cause.
• Formula-fed baby: ask the GP about an extensively hydrolysed formula. Don't switch to lactose-free — most CMPA is to the protein, not the lactose.

Without specific signs pointing to allergy, dietary changes are unlikely to help and shouldn't be the first thing you try.

When to See the GP

Colic is a diagnosis of exclusion. Other things can look similar and need different treatment.

See the GP if:

• Crying began suddenly in a previously settled baby.
• Fever (≥38°C in under-3-months is always urgent — A&E or 111).
• Vomiting (especially green or projectile).
• Blood in the stool.
• Very poor feeding, or feeding much less than usual.
• Not gaining weight, or losing weight.
• Excessive sleepiness or being hard to rouse.
• Strange-sounding cry (high-pitched, weak, or moaning).
• The pattern doesn't match colic — for example, screaming with arched back during or right after every feed (suggests reflux), persistent rash and gut symptoms (allergy), or sudden episodes of inconsolable crying with pale or mottled skin (rare but consider intussusception in older babies).

A health visitor visit, a baby weighed and observed in clinic, and a few minutes of GP examination usually reassures everyone.

Looking After Yourself

Inconsolable infant crying is biologically engineered to provoke an urgent response. That's adaptive over evolutionary time and exhausting over weeks. Sustained colic is a real risk factor for parental burnout, postnatal depression, and — crucially — for moments when an exhausted carer might shake or roughly handle the baby.

A few things genuinely help:

• Tag-team with a partner if you have one. Take 30-minute shifts. The break matters.
• It is OK to put the baby down and walk away for 5 minutes. Cot or moses basket, on their back, walk to another room. A baby is safer crying alone for 5 minutes than being held by an adult who has gone past their limit.
• Take outside help. Grandparents, friends, postnatal doulas if you can.
• Mention it at every health visitor contact. They have heard it before. They may have practical suggestions and can also assess whether anything in your own mood needs support.
• NSPCC's "Coping with Crying" film and Cry-sis (08451 228 669, cry-sis.org.uk) — UK helpline run by parent volunteers who have been there.

The bit no one will tell you while it's happening: this version of your baby is not the version you'll know in three months. Colic almost always ends. Most families look back from age four months and barely remember the bad weeks. You will get through it.

Colic — defined as crying for more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 days a week, in a healthy thriving baby — affects roughly 1 in 5 newborns. It usually peaks around 6 weeks and almost always disappears by 3 to 4 months, often abruptly. The most consistent thing that helps is rhythmic sensory input: motion, white noise, the 'colic hold' face-down along the forearm. You don't need to change your diet unless there's clear evidence of a specific reaction. See your GP if crying came on suddenly, baby has fever, isn't feeding well, isn't gaining weight, or you see blood in the stool.