Infacol vs. Colief

I don't usually write blog posts in English, but given that I'll be writing about 2 medicines available in the UK I figured it made more sense, so here it goes and I apologise in advance for any spelling or grammar mistakes.

Parents will agree with me on this one: colics on a young baby are the worst. All of a sudden, our little ones go from sweet, peaceful angels, to screaming machines who do not sleep. And if they don't sleep, neither do we. 

When we mentioned this to our health visitor, she suggested we tried Infacol. After doing a quick research, I decided to go ahead and buy it. It's very easy to give to the baby, she seemed to like the taste, and after a couple of days of taking it regularly she seemed to be doing a lot better and I was both happy and relieved. But then I noticed that her reflux was getting a lot worse. At first I didn't make the connection, I just thought it was because she was eating more but it got so bad that I started questioning myself about whether it was because of the Infacol I had been giving her. One of my friends has a baby the same age as mine and when I mentioned this to her, she actually said she was having the same problem. Tired of seeing my baby being sick after each feed, I decided to stop the Infacol. 24 hours later, not only the reflux was pretty much gone, as her constipation had disappeared as well, which I had never associated to the medicine. The only problem was: the colics were back. 

One thing was certain: I would no longer give her the Infacol and had to look for an alternative. Also, I decided to change my diet and completely eliminate everything that could be making it worse (potatoes, broccoli, beans, etc.). 

The alternative medicine I found was Colief. It is basically an enzyme - lactase - that helps the baby digest the milk and consequently helps to reduce their discomfort. After 2 days of taking it, she was doing better. She was in a better mood and able to sleep properly. Also, her reflux improved significantly and constipation never returned. Only downside of Colief (and it's a big one): you can not give directly to the baby, you have to express and add 4 drops to the milk, which means you have to anticipate when your little one is going to be hungry - very hard to do if you are breastfeeding! Or you can wait for the baby to wake up hungry, but expressing milk with a crying baby is very stressful. 

In conclusion: if I ever have another child, I will still give Infacol a try and maybe we won't have any problems with it, which would be great! But I will definitely pay more attention and at the first signs of reflux/constipation I will change to Colief again. My advice to all parents out there - there's no harm in trying Infacol and if it works for your baby, great! But you should definitely pay attention to any signs of secondary effects. With that said, if you have a colicky baby, just stay patient - it will go away!