Colic: or, how to say goodbye to sanity

Ah, colic. It was one of those things that, before I had a baby, I knew was something babies got and that parents blanched at the mention. I never knew precisely what it was or what it would entail. After all, babies go to bed at 7pm and sleep through the night at six weeks' old, right? Colic was just one of those old fashioned things that babies got in Victorian times and even then, they used gin to quieten them down. How hard could it be?

Now we're eleven weeks in to parenting, I'm a little bit less of a wreck than I was say, ooh, two weeks ago. I still have the wild-eyed look of a madwoman and the grooming skills of the Jersey Devil from The X-Files (it's my go-to feeding programme of the moment.)

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Colic sucks for everyone. It especially sucks for the baby, it sucks for the parents and it sucks for the neighbours, although they don't really matter in the scheme of things. Sorry, neighbours. Babies with colic will tend to be worse at night and it will bring uncontrollable crying. It is awful and we've tried everything to help. The worst thing is seeing D in absolute pain and being unable to soothe him straight away.

(Before I begin, I want to explain that D is bottle-fed; if anyone has any tips for breastfed babies, please leave them in the comments!)

We've found that the best way to help him is to switch him to a 'comfort' formula-all the brands seem to have a variation. We then tried all the colic drops on the market. Infacol seemed to taste nice, but with no effect. The Dentinox drops smelled like minty gherkins and was not popular. It was pretty low when my six week old son spat it back in my face and covered my glasses. It was like his teenage angst had come early. The clear winner has been Gripe Water, which is as Victorian as the gin remedy but less illegal- parents might like to try a little gin for their own nerves though. Again, it smells of gherkins (the key ingredient seems to be dill oil.)

It takes a while for the remedies to kick in, but since they have, D has been a calmer chap. It's really hard to keep perspective when your child is screaming and you feel helpless, but it does seem to lessen. Also, for most babies, it seems to pass by four months(ish), so I live in hope...

If you have any tips, please let me know!