Edited for sake of liability: Always contact a doctor when your child suffers prolonged bouts of crying. Also, contact doctor before administering homemade teas or wine. And lastly, considering a milk allergy might be in order here.
Thanks for the fun read.
Diego's Mama, Admin
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How an onion saved my family.
I know the title sounds like a bit of a stretch, but every word of it is true. You see, my son had the most astounding bout of colic that ever reared its ugly head on planet earth. Shortly after bringing our freshly baked honey loaf home, he started communicating, to our dismay, with aliens in outerspace by speaking a language that consisted of an ultra high-pitched screaming that lasted for hours and hours at a time. More than once his late-night screech would curdle the milk in the fridge, peel the layers of sanity away from my wife’s normally fortified psychology, and sent the clouds (along with our friends) skittering in the opposite direction. As the nights got longer and my boy fell deeper and deeper into the clutches of pure agony, my wife and I suc!@!b fully to the dreary blur that insomniacs call daily life. Our days were spent grouchy and sharp, nights were unbearable. We tried everything we could to ease this child’s pain and more than once reasoned ourselves out of all sitting in the garage together with the doors shut and the car on. I think at one time I even tried to sell my little bundle of filial pork chops on ebay, only coming to my senses when the UPS driver raised an eyebrow after hearing the box hiccup.
My wife and I, who normally sit in the stars with each other, began fighting over who slept less or whose turn it was to brush their teeth or who gets the first drink out of a fresh box of apple juice. Yup, things got pretty ugly. Naturally, we tried to rectify the situation any way possible; she tried to feed him to sleep, bounce him, run the vacuum, have a shower with him, drive haphazardly through stop signs and over peoples lawn at 4:30 in the morning, swing him, hold him, bounce on a ball with him, sing, shhhh, pat, dance, walk, pray, listen to music - you get the picture. We did ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to get this child to stop wailing and go to sleep. And eventually, after expending every ounce of his energy on his extraterrestrial communiqué, he would….for an hour….or two. And then he would be at it again for another hour or two. The cycle repeating itself night after night, week after week.
Of course, this pattern of chaos and random wakefulness hard-wired the little Commodore 64 with an unearthly understanding of normal sleeping patterns. 3 years later, we finally have him reprogrammed and maintaining a somewhat reasonable schedule. And let me tell you, it hasn’t been easy.
Enter our second child.
We are prepared to set the record straight right from day one. This one is going to be a breeze; we refuse to believe in colic (so it can't happen, can it?), daily routine, sleeping through the night - on her own - by six weeks old at the latest. Teamwork is in full action mode. Friends are coming over to help cook, clean, and cuddle. Our heavenly present may have been born blue and with a squished nose (it's popped back out, thank you) but we love her dearly and life is beautiful...for the first two weeks…and then the world stops spinning...again.
Colic pulled his RV onto our front lawn, patio chairs were laid out, a tab at the bar was initiated, and the unwelcome intestinal tourist was roasting weenies over a fire in our living room before we had the chance to call security.
Once again, we went mad…only this time my three year old son came along for the ride. As a family, we unravelled at the seams. Collectively, our behaviour couldn’t seem to make it through the first inning and we were all acting like a gaggle of sugar fed chimps. I think I may have even once yelled at my wife for not cutting my grilled cheese sandwich into triangles, but I can’t remember because I lost consciousness and woke up with my son’s foot duct-taped to my cheek. What can I say, sleep deprivation does strange things to people.
When the family sanity rope had completely unravelled and our wit’s end was observed by the neighbours hitchhiking South (presumably to get a spot on a daytime talk-show), my soon to be ex-wife, in a moment of pure breakdown, looked deep into Mother Natures eyes and pleaded for a miracle. Simultaneously, thinking that she was losing her biscuits, I headed to the store to purchase, for the very first time, synthesized breast milk – a.k.a. formula. I felt dirty and embarrassed standing in front of all the cans at 10 pm. I’m not sure why – it just didn’t feel right. But I was desperate and willing to try anything to ease this kid’s pain and buy myelf a couple hours of shut-eye before work. Luckily, by the time I got back home, Mother Nature had spoken. My wife had found the answer within the pages of a book that she discovered in the basement.
The following information is an excerpt from a book entitled: “Natural Child Care – A Complete Guide to Safe and Effective Herbal Remedies and Holistic Strategies for Infants and Children” by Maribeth Rigss.
Now, I understand copyright laws and plagiarism and ‘cut and paste’ etiquette, 'n' everything, but for this one I can’t help myself. What I am writing here is verbatim, word for word, an exact replica of what’s in the book. My apologies to Maribeth for copying her good words and spreading them like pollen in the wind…but seriously, this stuff saved my family and it deserves to be in the public domain. Hopefully this helps you as much as it helped us…if only we found this recipe the last time around, I probably wouldn’t told my wife that her sister was hot tamales and I certainly wouldn’t have woken up with my eyebrows shaved Vanilla Ice style. In any case, if Maribeth happens to read this thread: thank-you from the bottom of our well-rested hearts.
Colic Tea
To calm and soothe the spasms of colic
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 5 treatments
Children’s Enjoyment: Low
This is an easy-to-prepare and effective remedy that relieves the bloat and gas of colic, and helps an infant sleep. The onion tea recipe was given to me by another mother, who had it passed down from her mother, and so forth. The muscle-relaxing, stomach-strengthening, and digestion-regulating properties of onion make them perfect for treating colic. Onions are available everywhere, but try to get fresh, firm, organic yellow onions for this tea. Do not use onion powder or flakes.
4 (1/4-inch) slices yellow onion
2 cups water
1. Combine the onions slices and water in a covered pot and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Strain the tea through a cheesecloth-lined sieve. Discard the onion slices. The tea is a clear, light yellow and smells mildly of onions.
3. Cool the tea to tepid before administering. Refrigerate any unused portion for the tea and reheat to tepid before each use. Discard any remaining tea after 2 days.
APPLICATION: Administer 4 tablespoons of unsweetened tea to the infant twice each day, by bottle or teaspoon, during an attack of colic. You will have to hold the infant firmly and reassuringly, and keep a grip on yourself, too. Your infant may not like the taste of this tea. If this is the case, administer it by spoon or dropper. When I used this with my son, he slept for 4 hours after taking just a few tablespoons. Many infants like the tea’s taste and suck it right away. The infant will relax 30 minutes to 1 hour after drinking the tea, and may sleep for several hours. Do not give an infant more than ¾ cup of tea each day. If you are breast-feeding, it is a good idea to get your infant used to feeding from a bottle for this and many other purposes.
If the infant does not respond to 2 consecutive doses of the tea, if the colic seems unusually severe or painful, or if the infant fails to gain weight, consult a paediatrician.
Well, that's it. I'm off for another 4 hour stretch of beautiful sleep. We can finally practice EASY, scheduling, and PU/PD....
***PS. Other things that we do that seem to help are:
- Swaddle her tightly.
- When breastfeeding occasionally pump off the fore-milk so that she doesn’t get the gas-inducing lactose and if feeding primarily on the protein. (errr....my wife does this one. I just watch and reminisce).
- Rub warm castor oil on her belly to comfort and to expel intestinal gas (this one is also from the book and it works really well in concert with the tea - I do this to the baby, not my wife.).
- Play the same calming music in the same setting while putting down to sleep.
- We purchased a ‘Vicks’ humidifier, threw away the Vicks that came with it and replaced it with lavender oil – a great calming sedative.
- A few drops of red wine with an eye dropper works well…but I hate sharing and will only use this method as a last ditch effort.
