My Personal Review of Colic Calm
I am going to be totally up front and say this is a pretty biased review, because I absolutely adore Colic Calm. (And if I didn't, I probably wouldn't be starting this website.)
I honestly don't have a hidden agenda -- I just want to share with the world why I love this product so much and how it helped my colicky baby.
My review
I tried for two years to conceive and suffered numerous miscarriages before getting pregnant with my son Tyler. I thought after everything I went through in trying to conceive and successfully give birth to a healthy baby, that motherhood was going to be a breeze.
Boy, was I wrong!
I know "they" (whoever "they" are) say that colic isn't supposed to start until the third week of life. But Tyler seemed to have it that very first night at the hospital. He literally would scream and scream inconsolably for hours and it just broke my heart. I didn't know what to do and was willing to try anything, but was reluctant to try any medicines or even herbal remedies without doing my due research.
My research into colic begins...
So I started off by doing all of the "natural" things first: shushing, white noise, swings, swaddling, bouncing -- you name it and I tried it. Swaddling combined with white noise seemed to work a little bit, but only for about 5 minutes and only about 50% of the time. After a couple weeks of this, I was desperate and started looking more seriously at herbal remedies for colic.
After doing a lot of online research, Colic Calm gripe water was the only brand I felt comfortable trying out. The fact that it is regulated by the FDA and made in the United States made me feel good, but more importantly even though I searched and searched, I couldn't find any complaints of anyone ever experiencing negative side effects.
In fact, in all my research it said quite the opposite -- that even though it might not help, it certainly wouldn't hurt since the ingredients are all natural. So I thought I'd go ahead and give it a try...
Let me start with the negative side
The stuff is black! I don't know why, but that definitely threw me for a loop. Since my son spit up frequently, it caused a lot of gray spit-up and black stuff all over his burp clothes. (Luckily, though, if you wash the stuff right away, it comes right out, so there's no need to worry about stains.) Still, it would be nice if it came in a less harsh color! LOL! :-)
But now... the positive side
My son loved it! Whenever I would give him some, he would almost immediately stop crying and calm down.
Many times, he would actually take the much-needed nap he was fighting and would wake up in a MUCH better mood. I was careful not to give him too much (and probably only gave him half of what the directions said to, and would only give it to him on an occasional basis, just because the irrational worrywart mother in me felt uncomfortable giving him TOO much) but it really did work like a charm on his colic whenever I gave it to him.
It was the ONLY thing that worked for us almost 100% of the time. I don't know how I would have survived those 4 months without it!
My friends did not have as good of an experience
I have no idea why it would work so well for us and not for them, but my guess is that "colic" is probably caused by many different factors, and that Colic Calm can "fix" some factors but not others. (I'm not a doctor or anything and that is totally just a guess, but that's what makes sense to me.)
My friend Samantha bought several bottles of Colic Calm on my recommendation, and found that the stuff did absolutely nothing for her son's colic. She tried it over and over, but he would either spit it all up or just continue right on with his crying. (He was diagnosed with Infant Reflux shortly after, so I'm not sure if that had something to do with it not working or not...)
She was pretty disappointed, especially since I had promised her that this was the answer to her prayers and was "guaranteed" to cure his colic. However, when she contacted Colic Calm and told them that it did absolutely nothing in helping her son's colic, they were very nice and immediately refunded her money.
Another friend I had tried Colic Calm and admitted that it worked, but said she had similar results with other gripe water that could be bought at the drugstore. (This was opposite from my experience -- we tried several different kinds of gripe water before Colic Calm, and none of them did much good.) Colic Calm is a bit more expensive than some of the other brands, and she thought the cheap stuff worked just as well for her child.
The last experience I personally had with it was through my sister-in-law, who said that Colic Calm worked but only about 50% of the time. She continued to use it and recommends it to others, but doesn't think it's quite the "miracle" that I do.
I hope it's obvious from these few examples that it seems that everyone's experience with Colic Calm is a different. That's the one thing that I learned as a parent -- there is no one size fits all!
So there is a chance that this product will not be the miracle that you're hoping for and may not work as well for your colicky baby as it did for mine, or for others who recommend it. Still, I tend to think that since it can't hurt and there's a good chance of it helping, it's definitely worth a shot!
You never know, it could work perfectly for your baby like it did for my Tyler!
I really hope my review helps some of you make a more informed decision before you buy any type of gripe water or colic treatment for your baby.
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