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Internet Business Aims To Help One Million Cry Babies

An estimated 1 million babies each year in the US have colic or colicky symptoms before they are 3 months old. To soothe these crying babies, The Colic Shop offers over 50 colic relief products from their online store.

Daniele and Monty Kamath started the Colic Shop in October 2003 after having their own colicky baby, Zavier (now 1yr old). After their doctor told them there wasn`t anything that could be done to stop their baby`s nightly hours of crying, they went looking for help. "We looked everywhere for help, but only found a few single-product websites on the Internet. Once Zavier`s colic was under control and we had tried several products ourselves, we decided to start the only colic superstore", says Monty Kamath, co-founder.

At first, they only offered gripe water, an herbal potion designed to help break up gas in a colicky baby`s belly. Slowly over their first year in business they have added 50 more products to their growing inventory including several brands of gripe water, white noise CDs, swaddling blankets and easy to digest baby formulas.

People must be talking about The Colic Shop because 25% of their business comes from referrals. "We talk to parents from all over the country who are happy they found us and want to tell other desperate parents about us", says Monty Kamath. Their first month in business was profitable and their sales have increased every month since starting the business.

Running the business, out of their home office in Hudson, Ohio is a challenge. The office walls are lined with shipping boxes and shelves of inventory. Monty does all the web programming and promotes the business. Daniele, a stay at home mom, takes phone orders, fills orders and tracks inventory. According to Daniele, "It`s a lot of work, but we love being able to help so many desperate parents with their crying babies".