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Colic Cure
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| Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 | | CWK Producer |
“She’s a completely different baby. Before, it didn’t matter who picked her up or what was going on, she was just going to cry.”
– Brian Sullivan, Maggie's Father
A new study confirms a remarkable finding about the parents of infants: if the parents suffer from depression, their babies are more likely to have colic- hours of intense and inconsolable crying. The study from the Netherlands suggests that the mood of the parents has an impact on the newborn. But whatever the cause of colic, there are ways to calm a crying child.
Brian Sullivan thought he knew what the first days with his new daughter Maggie would be like. “I had wonderful images of this amazing quiet baby coming home, going to bed when we put her to bed,” he says.
But Maggie had colic. Sullivan remembers how difficult those first few weeks were. “Nothing would work,” he says. “She would cry and cry and cry and you get to your wit’s end.”
Dr. Harvey Karp, professor of pediatrics at UCLA School of Medicine, has been researching colic for 20 years and knows how it can affect a family. “Colic is tough on a family. I mean, it’s hard to hear your baby cry, but sometimes it can drive you to exhaustion, depression, marital problems and even child abuse,” Karp says.
But a five-step method, mimicking the environment of the uterus, has helped many families. Dr. Karp explains, “They’re called the 5 S’s.”
The first “s” is swaddling, which is tight wrapping. The second is the side or stomach position. The back is the best position for sleeping, but the side or the stomach is the best for calming a baby. The third is shushing. You shush as loud as the baby is crying. The fourth is swinging, or a jiggly motion. The fifth “s” is sucking.
Sullivan says the 5 S’s worked for Maggie. “She’s a completely different baby. Before, it didn’t matter who picked her up or what was going on, she was just going to cry.”
The cause of colic is still unknown. It could be anything from parental depression to lactose intolerance. But many, like Maggie, just need a little help calming down.
“I can understand now why people have children. For the first two weeks, it was one of the biggest mistakes I thought we’d made in our life. But now I understand. She’s just gorgeous,” says Sullivan.
What We Need To Know
When your baby cries for hours, and you feel like joining in, colic may be to blame. Colic occurs in approximately one out of ten babies. It usually begins a few weeks after birth and is defined as crying on and off for more than three hours a day, three or more days a week. The crying is characterized as screaming, complete with a purple face and flailing arms. The fits typically happen in the late afternoon or evening. Colic generally peaks at about six weeks and improves around three to five months.
Colic is not considered a disease or physical condition. While many people use the term “colicky” to describe a fussy baby, a truly colic baby is an otherwise healthy infant with specific symptoms. The Mayo Clinic defines these symptoms as:
- Predictable, recurring crying episodes. A colicky baby cries around the same time each day, usually in the late afternoon or evening. Colic episodes may last from just a few minutes to three hours or more on any given day, although babies with colic are likely to cry as long as two to three hours several days a week. The crying usually begins suddenly and for no clear reason. Your baby may have a bowel movement or pass gas near the end of the colic episode.
- Activity. Colicky babies tend to draw their legs onto their abdomens, clench their fists, tense their stomachs, or thrash around and appear to be in pain during crying episodes.
- Intense or inconsolable crying. Colic crying is intense, not weak or sickly. Your baby's face will likely be flushed, and he or she will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to comfort.
Experts are unclear on what causes colic. A number of explanations and possibilities exist including:
- Milk allergies or milk intolerance
- An immature digestive system causing unusually strong intestinal contractions
- Food backing up into the esophagus - the passage connecting your baby's mouth and stomach
- Increased intestinal gas
- Hormone changes in your baby
- Your baby's temperament
- Maternal anxiety
- Postpartum depression
- Differences in the way your baby is fed or comforted
What Parents Need to Know
Are some babies more susceptible to colic? A number of theories exist, but none have been proven conclusively. Infants of both sexes, bottle-fed and breast feed, all experience colic in the same numbers. According to the Mayo Clinic, increased risk of colic is not linked to:
- First-time parents. First-time parent are no more likely to have a colicky baby than experienced parents, although colic may be especially stressful for new parents.
- Breast-feeding. If you are breast-feeding, your baby's colic probably is not the result of something you are eating.
- Formula feeding. Formula is usually not the cause of colic, although special formulas can help some babies.
Colicky babies are extremely hard to comfort. There are no medical remedies, but several traditional techniques may help. The Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital recommends:
- Try rocking, cradling or cuddling your baby close to you.
- Use a close fitting infant carrier or gently swaddle your infant in a baby blanket.
- Rock or swing your baby rhythmically in an infant swing.
- Take the baby for a car ride with the child securely fastened in a car seat.
- Play soft music or sing to them in a soft, soothing voice.
- Hold your baby and bottle upright so that as little air goes into your baby as possible.
- Switching from breastfeeding to formula, or vice versa, rarely helps; but if you think changing the formula might help, discuss it with your doctor.
If you have tried these techniques with little success, you may want to consider the “5 S’s System.” According to experts, to sooth a crying infant, recreating the womb environment helps the baby feel more secure and calm.
- Swaddling – Tight swaddling provides the continuous touching and support your baby is used to experiencing within the womb.
- Side/Stomach position - The infant is placed on their left side to assist in digestion, or on their stomach to provide reassuring support. Never use the stomach position for putting your baby to sleep. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is linked to stomach-down sleep positions. When a baby is in a stomach down position do not leave them even for a moment.
- Shushing sounds - These imitate the continual whooshing sound made by the blood flowing through arteries near the womb.
- Swinging - Newborns are used to the swinging motions within their mother’s womb, so entering the gravity driven world of the outside is like a sailor adapting to land after nine months at sea. It’s disorienting and unnatural. Rocking, car rides, and other swinging movements all can help.
- Sucking – Sucking triggers the calming reflex and releases natural chemicals within the brain.
Resources
- Mayo Clinic
- Spotlight Health
- U.S. National Library of Medicine
- Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital
