Posted by postcolicstressedmom on December 10, 2007 at 12:55:09:My 4 mo old son has recently stopped the constant screaming he had been doing every day, only after we treated his reflux with Zantac, tried gripe water, infant massage, and cut out all dairy from my diet. We finally went to the chiropractor for cranialsacral therapy and she told me to also cut out my one cup of decaf coffee that I had been having each morning, and I believe that made all the difference.
Anyway, my son is exclusively breastfed. I can't get him to take a pacifier or a bottle. Since his colic symptoms stopped, the problem has now turned into a sleep issue. He would only breastfeed to fall asleep; nothing else soothed him. This quickly turned into a problem because he was getting more milk than he wanted/needed and his digestive system wasn't getting a break and he was having lots of gas. We tried CIO "Ferber-style" for 9 days and my son would cry for more than an hour at EACH nap or bedtime (It took an hour & 45 minutes the first time). It was frying my nerves and I hated to see him cry so much, not to mention that he just didn't seem to be learning how to soothe himself to sleep, other than crying due to exhaustion. So, now I'm at a loss as to what to do. His first nap of the day is always the easiest one to get him down for, but for the rest of the day, I'm always winging-it, sometimes I nurse him a bit, sometimes I try to rock him, sometimes I let him cry. Once in a while he will nap but most of the time he doesn't so I just get him up. I don't want to be teaching him to cry until I intervene and yet he is just not able to self-soothe at this point. Any suggestions? Is letting him cry sometimes and not others just going to teach him to continue to cry?AHHHH.