Gripe Water

My mom first introduced me to Gripe Water when she visited 2 weeks after Spud was born, hauling 2 bottles of Woodword’s from Singapore. She told me that I should always keep this handy “just in case”. While I am not completely adverse to alternative remedy, I admit that I was a little skeptical of its uses since the concept was alien to me at that time.

I mean, what’s with the Gripe Water?! Why in the world would you feed that to a baby? (OK! What do I know; I was just a 2 week old mother then)

Now I swear by it.

When all else fails, it appears that administering 5 ml of Gripe Water to Spud works wonders! In fact, there were many a time when Spud managed to calm down within minutes of consuming it after fussing for a while in the wee hours of the night. That 5ml of miracle also managed to keep Spud asleep for a little while longer and in a few rare occasions, throughout the night.

It usually works at least 3 out of 4 times, and, the times it did not work was when Spud decided to spit everything out, and we could not continue giving it to her just because she got way too cranky.

I don’t know what it is about dill seed and bicarbonate soda (Gripe Water’s active ingredients), but the effect it had on Spud certainly made me a believer of its “super power” on babies. It apparently gives relief from wind pains as well as digestive upsets during teething periods.

It is, however, not something I would use on a daily basis, but certainly a handy thing to have for when “a-push-comes-to- shove-situation” arises. (Actually, I would love to use it daily if it means that I will get Spud sleeping through the night; but let’s not go there!)

Gripe Water has indeed lived up to its claim of being an “effective nursery standby and important to mothers”. I guess this is just one of the many illustrations of a Mom handing over her mommy wisdom to her daughter who is now a mommy.

While I haven’t seen any Gripe Water being sold in Thailand, I do know that for Gripe Water, Woodword’s one of the more trusted brands for mothers around the world. That being said, I guess it pays to be careful when buying Gripe Water since there are just too many copies of Gripey Waters out there!