Infantile colic is a common complaint – roughly 5 to 25% of infants, between 2 and 4 months usually. Colic is most common in first babies, when mothers are unfamiliar with different baby cries and often feel helpless to do anything about them. Mothers often worry about whether their breast milk is adequate or if their diet is wrong in some way.
Infants are extremely tuned to emotions, so anxiety and insecurity in the mother conveys a feeling of insecurity in the infant. Also, some infants are more prone to these sensitivities congenitally. One concept is that there is an evolutionary advantage to infants who cry a lot, drawing attention to themselves; of course, if all babies did this, there would be no evolutionary advantage.
Technically, the definition of colic describes an infant who cries for 3 hours or more a day for 3 days a week and for 3 months. Mostly, though, the definition comes down to being a measure of parents’ distress.
Colic in infants is not a serious condition. In only less than 5% of cases does it represent something that needs to be checked out. So, the primary aspect of treatment is reassurance for the parents. As anxiety reduces, symptoms tend to go away.
“Gripe water”, a collection of herbs in water does tend to be helpful. Chamomilla tea is generally useful as well. An eRemedy from eremedyonline.com/module/7/infant-colic/ tends to be highly effective within minutes to hours.
Sometimes colic can be related to infantile constipation.
Infantile constipation
Bowel movements in infants are erratic in nature, just as sleep and other activities. Constipation comes and goes in phases normally, and usually is not responsible for pain. Constipation is a common side effect of converting from breast milk to formula, and also when introducing refined foods (sugar, wheat) into the diet.
Karo syrup and milk of magnesia can help. Most effective are eRemedies to be found at eremedyonline.com/module/7/infant-colic/.