- Almost half of all babies in the UK develop colic. 40% of mums with small babies are sure their babies have or have had colic, while a further 7% of mums are unsure whether some symptoms might have been colic.
- Only two out of five mothers with young babies (42%) could correctly name one or more of the symptoms of colic.
- According to mums in the survey, the most well known sign of colic is the baby’s legs curling up to their stomach (26%), followed by long periods of crying (23%).
- 46% of mums feel concerned about giving medicine to small babies and 28% think that other methods should be tried before medicine.
- A miniscule 15% of babies who used Dr Brown’s Natural Flow in their early months developed colic, a significantly smaller amount than those using Tommee Tippee (42%) or Phillips Avent (40%). The most likely bottle to be associated with colic was the Mothercare bottle, as 56% of babies in the survey were using them and suffered with colic.
- Strangely, 28% of babies developed colic while being fully breast fed, more than those using Dr Brown’s Natural Flow bottles (15%).
- Colic led 62% of mothers to be frustrated that they couldn’t solve the problem, 29% felt that the crying caused a lot of stress in the household and a fifth (20%) felt guilty because they thought that they were doing something wrong.
- Concerned mothers were more likely to turn to their health visitor than their mum for advice about their colicky baby (47% vs. 29%).
- The most common treatment for colic used by the mums in the survey was a special medicine such as Infacol or Colief (61%), followed by using massage (32%) and changing the baby’s bottle (28%).
- Dr Brown’s was the first choice (43%) for mums changing their baby’s bottle to relieve the symptoms of colic.
- Three quarters of babies with colic (75%) whose mums changed to Dr Brown’s Natural Flow saw improvement in their colicky symptoms after their bottles were changed. Just 44% of Tommee Tippee and 45% of Avent users saw an improvement.
- Over half (53%) of those changing to Dr Brown’s Natural Flow saw an improvement in three feeds or less, outperforming Tommee Tippee (36%) and Phillips Avent (33%)
- 36% of Dr Brown’s Natural Flow users noted a distinct change for the better after just one feed, far more than any other bottle including Phillips Avent (22%) and Tommee Tippee (9%). No mums using any other bottle (MAM, Mothercare etc) saw results in this time. On average it took 5.4 feeds for mums using Dr Brown’s to see an improvement in their babies’ colic symptoms, the shortest time of all bottles.