Colief Infant Drops

Hi there! As most of you know on Ciao I have just recently given birth to my beautiful daughter Lauretta. Lauretta was premature and I was 34 weeks pregnant when I had her. She weighed 5 pounds 3, which I was told was a good weight for her. She then dropped to 4 pound 10, which I was told was normal. She now weighs 9 pounds 3 and is 3 1/2 months old.

I am very proud of my daughter she has been through a lot in her young life. When she was born she suffered from jaundice and had to go under a lamp for 3 days, which cured her jaundice. Then she had to be tube fed because she wasn't taking her feeds properly. When we took her home she developed colic.

Colic is uncontrollable, extended crying in a baby who is otherwise healthy and well fed. This described my daughter and so we struggled with her to try to help. We started her on infacol and this didn't work. We tried white noise music, which are such noises as the hover, washing machine or hair dryer. We bought the cd on ebay and whilst it helped it didn't cure it. The best medicine we have found for treatment is colief.

When your baby is crying in agony the only thing you want to do is to help them. It becomes a desperate situation when there seems to be nothing that is working and when someone at the mother and baby group suggested colief I was ready to give anything a try. I couldn't believe the price of it though.

Colief costs £9.99 and that is for a 7ml small bottle. The thing is it lasts for about a month because you only need to put 2 drops in every feed. The making up of the milk becomes more difficult because you have to put it in every feed in a certain way. It has to go in at least 4 hours before the feed is given to your baby.

Formula Milk

1. Make up your baby's usual milk and let the bottle cool to body temperature (warm, not hot).
2. Add two drops of Colief Infant Drops, shake gently and refrigerate for approx. four hours, to allow the Colief to work (Do not keep milk treated with Colief for more than 12 hours).
3. Reheat bottle and use as normal.

Breast Feeding

1. Try expressing a few teaspoonfuls into a small-sterilised container.
2. Add 4 drops of Colief
3. Give this to your baby on a sterilised plastic teaspoon,
4. Continue breast-feeding as normal.

As long as you follow these instructions you cannot go wrong. It is best to build in a system where you make the milk up and the one with colief in it goes into the side compartment of the fridge so you know which milk has the colief in it.

We have found colief is the only medicine, which really works for our daughter. She still suffers from colic but not for as long and it doesn't seem as severe as it is when she doesn't have colief.

The active ingredient in Colief is lactase a safe enzyme that occurs naturally within the body. Colief works by breaking down the lactose into glucose and galactose before you feed your baby the milk. Colief actually works whilst it is in the milk which is why you have to put in the 2 drops 4 hours before the feed because it has chance to work and break down the lactose.

Colief Infant Drops can safely be used from birth onwards. You need to remember to use Colief every time you feed your baby as long as the symptoms of colic persist. You need to make up your baby's usual milk and allow the bottle to cool to body temperature (warm, not hot). Then add two drops of Colief infant drops, shake gently and place in a refrigerator far a minimum of 4 hours, to allow the Colief to work. Use made up bottle within max. 12 hours. You can then reheat the bottle and use as normal. If you are breast-feeding, try expressing a few teaspoons of breast milk into a sterile container, adding 4 drops of - Colief, mixing gently and feeing to baby immediately with a plastic spoon or suitable fender. Then carry on breast-feeding normally. It may help if you can express-off most of the lactose-rich foremilk before feeding baby. For further advice contact your midwife or health visitor.

7ml sufficient for up to 80 bottle feeds or 40 breast-feeds. Once opened, keep refrigerated and discard three weeks after opening.

This is colief and I recommend it to you only if your baby is not getting better on other medicines because it is so expensive. We have only just managed to get our doctor to prescribe it to us and your doctor generally won't prescribe it unless you have tried other approaches first and they haven't worked. If you are willing to give colief a try and buy some bottles yourself and they work then your doctor will probably prescribe you this medicine to treat your baby. The reason doctor's don't like to prescribe it is because it is so expensive.

Here is a list of other treatments available:

Infacol
Gripe water
Dentinox

There are other options that you can explore too these include:

Medical options
Dietary changes
Lifestyle changes
Vitamins
Herbs
Holistic options

Remember that by the age of 3 months onwards baby's colic can get better and this is usually because their digestive system is maturing.

Colief is a really helpful solution for us and I don't think you can put a price on your baby's happiness so even though it costs a lot it is worth it. I like the box that colief comes in a bright yellow box which is of good strong cardboard. There are no side effects I have noticed with Lauretta she just seems to be a whole lot better and is a different character altogether on colief. That has to be worth it. You can see more piccies of my lovely baby underneath. Hope this review was helpful to you.