Depends on the baby. Some are nightmarish.

That’s the main thing - each family and each child are different, so it’s kind of hard to base your decision on what you see and hear from others.

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svachalek 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yeah mine was colicky and every time getting him to sleep involved rocking him for an hour+ while he screamed in my ear. And he woke up so easily. So I spent about 2 hours a day rocking and patting for the first year or so, not checking off a dozen countries on my passport.

Never had a second for some reason.

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pfannkuchen 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I’m curious what made you conclude that he was colicky as opposed to something else?

I was labeled colicky as a baby and my own children turned out to have some digestive issues with certain common foods that make them cry a ton when they or their mother eat them (and they get it via the milk). If I hadn’t debugged the food issues I might have labeled them “colicky”, but when we avoid those foods religiously they only cry when it makes sense and when the issue is solved they stop. I’m guessing I had a similar issue as a baby, my parents definitely didn’t attempt to debug it.

No judgement by the way I’m just curious if you tried debugging things like that as I imagine “colicky” could encompass issues that aren’t possible to debug also, and it’s also understandable if you couldn’t put in the resources to debug it as in my case it’s been a gigantic and expensive pain in the ass.

	▲	mothballed 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Well when you go to every specialist and try every type of milk and every diet change imaginable it gets there through a diagnosis of exclusion. Trust me, the debugging is a big part of the trouble. Everyone is telling you to debug, but that is actually the thing you have to learn to stop doing. Your brain is telling you to debug. But it can't be debugged. I watched multiple women have mental breakdowns trying to debug a baby with a 6 month streak of colic. Eventually their brain just goes psychotic because a baby screaming 6+ months non-stop with nothing wrong while people frantically try to solve the problem is basically sever mental torture. It is not the hours, or days, or even weeks of screaming that get to you, it is the months of never ending ear-pearcing torture that nothing will fix, and they will not fucking sleep because they just want to scream for all of their sleep as well and naturally the caregivers won't be sleeping either due to this. And you cannot rely on crying to figure out when to feed, when to change a diaper, when the baby needs sleep, or some gentle motion -- all of your indicators are worthless. It is a hell for the baby and it is a hell for the parent. People struggling with this generally do not have any more children. Any other stage past baby for such child is 99% easier, I laugh when people say babies are the easiest stage.

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bregma 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Our first was colicky for the first 18 months or so. A nightmare, really, just like you described. Back arched, face red, for hours every day, no comforting.

We went on to have more kids. They were all quiet and easy. We sometimes wondered if there was something wrong with them.

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tayo42 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Sure, the default for travel shouldn't be it'll be a nightmare though or impossible.