Baby colic: what remedies?

Are you sure it’s colic? The inconsolable and frequent crying of the newborn is often normal and physiological.

“ My baby has colic what can I do? ”

This is the question that couples often ask me when I enter their homes for counseling because it is one of the topics that interests and worries new parents the most.

In reality, the term colic is used very often in the wrong way and to classify any type of crying and discomfort that the newborn feels.

When a newborn cries, writhes, contracts every muscle by closing his fists, bringing his legs to his chest making air, it makes the parent think that his child is crying from a stomach ache. In reality it is all physiological because the uncoordinated movements are to be connected to the unfinished myelination process (which the parent can develop by massaging it every day) and crying is the message that the child wants to convey, because a newborn does not cry only with the voice but with the whole body.

The air that comes out of the anus or mouth ( burping ) is due to the fact that the baby, feeding exclusively on milk (artificial or breast milk), contains lactose, a sugar, which easily ferments in the intestine, giving rise to air in the belly. . This is to tell you that not all crying equals colic.

I would therefore like to comfort parents that the inconsolable and frequent crying of the newborn is often normal and physiological.

What caused this inconsolable weeping?

• We want to communicate a need
• He wants to communicate his emotion
• Try to relax

We want to communicate a need

Let’s remember that the child experiences the current, present discomfort, because he doesn’t have the ability to realize the time and that his annoyance could pass within 5 minutes. So he can’t have the patience to wait 5 minutes but he expects his crying to be noticed immediately, within 90 seconds. It makes no sense to let a child cry because sooner or later he will calm down on his own, it certainly happens but he simply stops because no one has answered his call and falls asleep exhausted.

He wants to communicate his emotion

Just as we live by feeding ourselves and expressing emotions, our child is also full of emotions and lives them fully just like us and we must accept, respect and let the child express himself with his crying.

He may be angry because he wasn’t picked up right away, tired because he got a lot of stimulation during the day, shaken because he had a difficult birth.

Parents shouldn’t feel incompetent because they aren’t able to make their baby stop crying right away, but they should take all the time to understand what they want to convey to us.

In this case, crying is a way for the newborn to release the stimuli and tensions accumulated during the day and it is a classic cry that breaks out in the evening for no apparent reason.

What can be done in practice?

Drugs

In mothers’ homes I find:

•  Mylicon, Colinox, over-the-counter drugs widely used and prescribed by the pediatrician: experimental studies state that there is no evidence of any effect on infant colic
• Alginor: There are no studies evaluating its effectiveness
• Fennel tea

I advise against each of these 3 types of solutions.

Instead, I suggest to the family herbal remedies such as:

• Lemon balm, chamomile and fennel in the form of herbal tea taken by the nursing mother 3 times a day.
• bath with 10 drops of lavender essential oil. Relaxes and eliminates the tension of the contracture of the colic.

 2) Mother’s nutrition.

Studies show us that there are no foods that eliminated or reduced can affect the shortening of the newborn’s crying.

The only positive effect detected is the sensitivity of the breastfed infant to the protein of cow’s milk which in children suffering from colic can mean an intolerance to this protein. I advise the mother to eliminate dairy products from her diet for a week and evaluate whether the situation improves or not.

If the newborn is better, the intolerance or sensitivity to this protein is confirmed, while if nothing improves, the mother can go back to taking dairy products, perhaps favoring goat and sheep over the cow

3) Help him relax.

Let’s arm ourselves with patience, calm, positive thoughts and wearing a band let’s put it inside and contain it, massage its contracted muscles with our movements, relax it with our heat and breath. Let’s give him company with our presence and heartbeat. He will feel himself returning to the uterus and he will abandon himself to this pleasant sensation as he falls asleep. There are 9 months of endogestation and then there should be 9 months of esogestation where mom and dad recreate this belly outside the uterus.

A child doesn’t cry because he’s spoiled.

Holding him in your arms, consoling that crying, responding promptly to his call is giving him security, comfort and not a vice.

And if fatigue gives way to discouragement, desperation, looking for a way out like a feeding tube, letting him cry, then let us entrust ourselves to a trusted person who we can call at any time and who can come home, for example a grandmother, a midwife or a friend who is already a mother.

This is because herbal teas, tubes, medicines must not be tools that make us feel competent and able to solve a problem even temporarily. It is much more useful to discuss with other parents in a group or with a midwife who can teach you those little “tricks” where the mother or father is the real protagonist and means to calm those tears.

4) The massage

It is very useful to attend very effective neonatal massage groups to prevent colic and establish that special relationship and understanding with the newborn. An expert midwife teaches you how hands can be an effective tool for relating, containing a problem and reassuring the newborn when he feels uncomfortable but also when he is in full well-being.

5) Pouch therapy.

Pouch therapy has also been proven to be very effective in case of colic. It has been observed that crying is often associated with the infant’s inability to transition from awake state to sleep. The baby carrier therapy with soft lights, warmth, serenity and the rhythm of the heartbeat and breathing lead the baby to reduce crying and help him in this transition.

6) Rock him

Your baby has been rocked by amniotic fluid in the womb for 9 months.

Try cradling the baby in your arms or in a hammock or in a sheet held up at both ends by mom and dad. The cradling must be done vigorously.

7) Breastfeed him

Bringing the baby to the breast not only because it needs to be fed but also for simple sucking can help it relax because sucking produces a hormone called endorphins which is similar to natural morphine and leads to general relaxation.