What Really Causes Colic?
Whenever you ask the parents of babies with colic why they are crying, nine times out of ten, they believe that their infants are suffering from some kind of pain. That’s a reasonable guess for several reasons. Babies with colic:
- resist the normal comforts of feeding and holding.
- often writhe and grunt.
- may start and stop their screaming very abruptly.
- have a shrill cry that sounds exactly like the sound they make when they’re in pain (like after getting a shot).
After centuries of old wives’ tales about the causes of colic, researchers determined that colic is not, in fact, caused by thin milk, witches’ spells, or possession by the devil. Even the contemporary, more “common-sense” theories on colic are debatable (some argue that constipation or even anxiety is to blame). While no single “cause” of colic has ever been determined, scientists do agree on 10 fundamental traits of babies with colic. These “colic clues” are:
- Crying caused by colic usually starts at 2 weeks, peaks at 6 weeks and ends by 3-4 months of age.
- Premies are no more likely to have colic than full term babies. (And, their colic doesn’t start until they are about 2 weeks past their due date.)
- Babies with colic have twisted faces and piercing wails, like a person in pain. Often, their wails come in waves (like cramps) and stop abruptly.
- Their colic screams frequently begin during or just after a feeding.
- Babies with colic often double up, grunt, strain and seem relieved by “passing wind” or pooping.
- Colic is USUALLY much worse in the evening (the “witching hour”).
- Colic is as likely to occur with a couple’s fifth baby as with their first. The amount of baby experience a parent has doesn’t make any difference.
- Colic can improve with rocking, holding, shhhing and gentle abdominal pressure.
- Babies are healthy and happy between COLIC bouts.
- There are many cultures around the world where babies never get colic.
You might ask, ” Is it ever OK to let my baby yell?” I don’t believe it’s a tragedy if your little one cries for 10 minutes while you are in the bathroom or preparing dinner. The loving and cuddling you’ve been giving her all day long easily outweighs that short-lived frustration. But, for the first few months, you should soothe your baby whenever she has colic bouts. Young infants rarely cry or have flashes of colic unless they’re upset about something and it’s our challenge, and duty, to figure out what they need and how to give it to them.
Tags: Colic
(4 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)
Loading ...
I love that people used to think your baby would get colic from getting the evil eye from a witch Its amazing how far weve come studying and treating colic and yet its still such a mystery We can cure major diseases but its still a very specific technique to deal with a baby crying.
Starting at about 6 weeks my daughter started crying – and I mean CRYING HARD – every time shed eat. It was such a painful time for our family. But yes, just like it says here, by the time she hit the 3 month mark, the crying and the colic were gone. She still cries of course – but NOTHING like she used to So time does heal all wounds, even this one, but man was that a long 3 months
The shhhhing is really the key My son definitely had colic from the second week all the way through the 11 week mark, crying nonstop and crying so much that we were really worried something was wrong with him, but when we learned to properly Shhhh – it sounds simple but its a very specific was to do it – it had an amazing soothing effect on his crying.
Colic can almost be like a Dr Jekyl and Mr. Hyde thing. Our son would cry and cry to an extreme extent and then in between those fits of crying he was happy as a clam Its an amazing thing. When they have colic its almost like a spell has been cast over them and very few things do the trick to stop the crying.