Bewitching Hour??

TeagansMom609 wrote: Every night around 7 o'clock after Matthew wakes up from sleeping a few hours he cries, kicks his legs, and get VERY fussy when I try to nurse him. He won't latch on and he just flips out and screams and nothing can calm him down. He does this for about an hour and then calms down and goes to sleep for the night. I read on Kellymom.com that some babies have a fussy hour that is like clock work everyday. Teagan was never like that and I just think its the weirdest thing. We cant figure out why he does it. He screams and carries on like he has horrible gas but how can he have gas at the same EXACT time everyday?! Anyone else's baby do this??

My3LilMonkeys replied: ? Maybe a mild case of colic?

Neither of my kids ever had it but I've heard it can show up at the same time every day - and for the same length of time.

A&A'smommy replied: Oh goodness I have no idea Alyssa didn't do that either!! Hppefully he will outgrow it quickly

luvmykids replied: Mine only did it for a short period, like maybe a month, and I can't even remember which it was (bad mom!) but I do remember a few of my books talking about it, they said btwn 5-7pm is for some unknown reason a horrible time for lots of babies.

Hope it passes soon!

TeagansMom609 replied: Here is the article I read,


It is very common for babies to be fussy and nurse very often in the evenings, particularly in the early months.

My daughter had a fussy time every evening for a couple of months (yes, it does go away!). I spent weeks camped out on the end of the sofa with a constantly nursing and/or fussy baby every evening from about 6 to 10 PM.

With my son, we didn't have the luxury of being able to sit down. Alex was unhappy and crying unless he was upright and being walked around at this time of day (and sometimes this only helped him to be less unhappy). He would occasionally have a very fussy time during the day, too. Nursing rarely helped to calm his fussiness (unlike with my daughter), so I usually didn't have that tool to work with (though I always tried). His fussiness was such that I looked into other causes (such as food sensitivity), but we never determined any reason for it and he was all smiles the rest of the time. The fussiness gradually went away between 3 and 4 months, as is the norm, but the first few months were hard. Nowadays, the typical comment that I hear about him is "Is he always this happy?" So remember: this, too, will pass...

Cluster feeding, also called bunch feeding, is when babies space feeding closer together at certain times of the day and go longer between feedings at other times. This is very common, and often occurs in the evenings. It's often -but not always- followed by a longer sleep period than usual: baby may be "tanking up" before a long sleep. For example, your baby may nurse every hour (or even constantly) between 6 and 10 PM, then have a longish stretch of sleep at night - baby may even sleep all night.

Cluster feeding often coincides with your baby's fussy time. Baby will nurse a few minutes, pull off, fuss/cry, nurse a few minutes, pull off, fuss/cry... on and on... for hours. This can be VERY frustrating, and mom starts wondering if baby is getting enough milk, if something she is eating is bothering baby, if EVERYTHING she is doing is bothering baby... It can really ruin your confidence, particularly if there is someone else around asking the same questions (your mother, your husband, your mother-in-law).

CAMSMOM1 replied: My sisters son did this. Around the same time Matthew does, at 8:00pm. Every night, he would scream and scream, like he was in pain! It would last about 1-2 hours, and then he would be fine. This was a big stress for her & her DH, and they tried everything.

Come to find out, he was diagnosed with Colic. It did go away, when he was 5 months old. ( I think) It last a few months. All she could do was comfort him the best she could, pass him off to her husband, so they both wouldn't lose it.

For her, they realized he was having a hard time breastfeeding, and he had acid reflex. So this was additonal, to his colic.


Hang in there Kelly! I hope this goes away soon.

moped replied: Oh yeah - Jack did this every night at 6 pm...........for about 4 hours. He was colic and it was so sad and hard on me - sorry Kelly, it is so hard.

MyBlueEyedBabies replied: First Colic is waaaaaaay over diagnosed. So many doctors will give the magic answer to a crying baby is they have colic. Colic is uncontrollable crying for 5 or more hours a day.

Both of my kids did what you are describing. They didn't want anything they just wanted to cry. Katy had colic but we couldn't even come close to knowing when her "witching hour" was until she outgrew it. For her it was the 5 o'clock hour. She could wake up from a dead sleep to scream for the entire hour then would be fine like nothing ever happened. We knew there was nothing wrong with her and by that point we were so used to hearing her cry (12-20 hours a day uncontrollable) from the 2 months of colic that it really wasn't to bad. Matt was from about 6-7:30 his was a little harder because he wasn't as much of a cryer that Katy was so we were always sure somthing was wrong with him. We tried to plan car teips arround it because that was the one thing that they would sleep through and if they slept through it they would be fine for the night. I think they both outgrew it by 5 months

msoulz replied: Oh yes, 6:00 straight up it seemed was our bewitching hour. But it did pass for us too, and now it isn't every night but it does seem worse when she hasn't napped as much during the day. Naturally we think she is just really tired.

I hope your bewitching hour is a memory very soon!!

coasterqueen replied: Kylie did it EVERY NIGHT, so I believe it. Megan did too but it wasn't as noticeable as Kylie's was.

Edward's Mommy replied: Edward does it every now and then but when he does, it's an all day thing!! I don't know if you have tried this, but if you have a vibrating bouncy seat, see if maybe that will calm him! That's all that works for Edward and he's 7 months. (He's getting way too big for it!)

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied: Wil never did this, but my sister's middle child did this everyday at 4pm. Sorry, I don't have any advice...but just hang in there!