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™ 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.