Some aromatherapy advice needed

[Abbas]

Hi all, can anyone tell me which would be best oil to use on 10 week old babies
who have really bad colic and are very unsettled. They are triplets and their mum is shattered. Would massage be best or in the bath.

Thanks

Pure x[&:]

 

[KMA]

fingertip massage along the abdomen in a clockwise direction and stroking along the colon 30 minutes after feed would help ease colic but im not sure what oils i would recomend i think you would be safer burning a small amount of lavender or roman chamomile but i would be extremley cautious
all in all i dont feel very qualified to answer this question and am interested in taking a course in baby massage myself if anyone could recomend one.

 

[bxemnusaijeiezehy]

I would recommend using Roman chamomile in a warm compress (1drop to 200mls of water) on the babies abdomen after feeds and extensive burping. I have found that babies with colic like to have a light pressure on their tummies and prefer to spend time on their tummies, either across the knee or on the floor, maybe because it helps massage naturally.

Maybe Mum would also like a nice blend to help her relax.

 

[Lootomenuoups]

Hi. And welcome.

I feel for her. I had twin boys and they had terrible colic and never settled and didn't sleep through the night until two and a half. Getting up eight times a night for that amount of time really took it out of me and wasn't funny.

At the time, in the back of my head, were thoughts of cranial osteopathy but I couldn't find anybody at the time who did it locally and it never happened.

I work with an osteopath now and I know that this works. Please give it a try, she has nothing to lose.

All this was in my 'pre'-therapist' days and I wish I had known then what I know now. Gentle massage over the tummy will help as will a nice massage all over after bath time.

Asking for help is important. ME? No way! I did it all ON MY OWN, I was SO capable, or so they all thought. I wouldn't be like that again, I would ask for help.

 

[khahrosh]

Hi,

I do think massage would help, as described by mysticgem65. But personally I would only use a carrier oil like grapeseed. A friend of mine told me of somebody who used Lavender oil on a three month old with sunburn. Seemed like a good idea at the time but the baby was completely out of it for a good 24 hours afterwards. They had trouble stiring the baby for feeds etc. Don't know how much oil was used but babies are only small so it would not take much. Wouldn't want to scare you but I really do not think it is safe to use essential oils until the age of at least 6 months.

Amandas

 

[Melodie]

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for the advice, I will pass it all on. I will go and do the massage on them
and see if it helps. I will just use a plain oil though and maybe she could put something in their bath. Would really like to find out more about the cranial osteopathy too.

Pure x

 

[helpme]

With babies I would normally work with 1 drop to 10ml if blending (0.5% dilution) in oil, but as these little ones are still very small, I would probably use 1 drop to 20mls. For the compress, again, as they are still tiny I would be more cautious and use one drop of Roman Chamomile, blended with a little full fat milk in 500ml of water and definitely do a patch test first. Unfortunately this isn't going to be a quick fix and will be a bit tedious doing it regularly.

Both my boys had colic, and it is a nightmare. Is Mum breast feeding? as what she eats may affect them. I'm not a big fan of medicating babies, but I did find that Infacol and Colief really did help. I'm sure her health visitor and other Mum's are giving her lots of advice, but do reassure her that colic does pass. Also as Candie mentioned Cranial Osteopathy is brilliant and if you can get a good recommendation I would give it a try.

 

[vedRuisee]

this may seem strange but when my grandaughter had colic my daughter read somewhere that the noise of the hoover would help so we tried it and it did help , not sur eif i would want to be in the same room as three babies with colic and a vacum cleaner tho lol
i did say i wouldnt use the oils directly on the babies but burning them near by should be good for babies and mom

 

[? ?n?????? ?]

If you can tell me the area she lives then I can ask our osteopath if he knows anybody.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

Picking up on what AngelFish says....is she breastfeeding? Might be worth checking this out. Either they are not coping well with the breast milk for some reason or they are being bottle fed and this can be the problem. If they are having bottles it is important that they are not pulling in a lot of air from the teat and there are ways of making sure this doesn't happen. The bottle needs to be tipped up fully so as to stop air getting in and there are special teats available. If she is breastfeeding I take my hat off to her.

It's worth investigating if they are allergic to the milk. My two were premature and very small (4 pounds each) and they were probably too immature to cope. In fact I know they were. I had to feed them 5mls of formula at a time through a syringe without the needle that the nurse from the special baby care unit gave me. We would sit for hours squirting milk into them and most of that came back up.

When you are in the thick of it it is difficult to be objective and realise that something isn't right. The trouble is if they don't take a good feed then they don't sleep well and so the cycle continues. I know because my daughter who was born first was breast then bottle fed and she was a real guzzler and never had any problems. She would take a really good feed, be happy with that and then sleep really well.

 

[sanju]

Hi Candie and Angelfish
Thanks for taking time to help us with this one. She never breastfed them so they have always had formula milk. Health visitor said if it was an intolerance to milk they would be throwing it up which they are not. They drink the milk happily-approx 4oz now but only settle for a short while,they have changed to a hungrier baby milk to see if that helps but the colic is the problem. When mine had colic it was just one to deal with but with the 3 its tough. Mainly just the 2 small ones who have the problem. She is doing everything possible,now on the colief and using this new fangled bottle to help but not helping yet. This has been for about a week now and it is killing her having no sleep. She needs to give in and let us help which she does to a certain extent. I just feel for her and want to help and even though my boys are bigger now (8 & 5) you just don't forget how low you can feel.
It would be great if you could recommend a cranial osteopath in the essex area and we can give them a ring to see if they can help.

Cant thank you both enough.

Pure x

 

[Sexcami]

She is lucky to have you.

I will see if I can get Andrew to recommend somebody.