Gripes...

Gripe water is something you give your baby to relieve wind and colic type symptoms....except no one really knows what colic is...

My baby doesn't cry relentlessly or unknowingly, she cries if she is hungry or needs a poo. In that respect she is good. But it doesn't mean she doesn't suffer from wind and struggle sometimes.

So a touch of gripe water after a feed settles her as best a baby can be. But the bottle for gripe water means you have to pour it through a teaspoon. Which means gripe water everywhere...on the bedclothes, on your clothes, on the baby, on the nightstand, on the dog - wherever you happen to be pouring it. At 3am gripe water can end up on your hair, on the pillow, on YOUR favourite stuffed toy...often you think to hell with it and have a spoon or two yourself. Gripe water smells like Pernod...aniceed. Brings back youthful memories I'd rather forget. At first Lucy really hated the taste. But the more I give it to her the more she seems to smile...

....keep her away from the Pernod.