Probiotics, the remedy we’ve been waiting for against colic in newborns

The newborn cries every evening, for hours, inconsolably: in most cases it is colic of the newborn that affects many children in the first weeks of life.

When a child has colic, the parents’ sense of helplessness reaches very high peaks. You try everything but without results. Mom or dad try to rock him gently, mom tries to attach him to her breast… nothing the baby doesn’t want to know, he keeps stretching his legs and screaming desperately. Nothing seems to make him feel better, so much to throw moms and dads into despair especially if it’s the first child.

Is the baby really suffering from colic? Fortunately, if a crying baby does not always suffer from colic, on the contrary, very often the crying of the baby in the first few months is physiological.

Symptoms of infant colic

Colic manifests itself with quite specific and common characteristics in infants who suffer from it.

• Prolonged crying for more than 3 hours per day for more than 3 consecutive days
• Crying that gets worse in the evening
• Crying that occurs from 6-8 weeks of life of the baby
• Crying that resolves spontaneously after the baby’s first 3 months
• Crying that subsides with the emission of air and feces.

Obviously other causes must be excluded with your pediatrician who must always be made aware of the problem.

Solutions

Natural medicine offers various solutions for newborns suffering from colic but which are not always effective.

Some studies carried out by the Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Sciences of the University of Turin had highlighted in the past the importance of the lactic ferments L. reuteri in reducing the symptoms of colic in the infant.

Now a brand new study published in PEDIATRICS has finally brought more evidence to confirm the importance of probiotics in the prevention of colic in infants .

The role of probiotics in the prevention of infant colic

The study published in January 2018 in the journal Pediatrics confirmed the importance of Lactibacillus Reuteri (DSM17938 strain) in effectively reducing crying and/or fussing in breastfed infants suffering from colic. However, the role in formula-fed infants suffering from colic needs further elucidation.

Breastfed and formula-fed infants have different gut microbiota compositions. Breastfed infants have a prevalence of Bifidobacteria, while formula-fed infants have a more diverse microbiota.

These differences are likely due to the unique composition of breast milk or perhaps the direct effects of microbes or oligosaccharides present in breast milk.

Four double-blind studies of 345 infants with colic were included in the research (174 were treated with probiotics and 171 with placebo).

The probiotic-treated group had fewer hours of crying and/or fussing on average than the placebo group. The probiotic group was nearly twice as likely as the placebo group to benefit from the treatment. The effects of the probiotic intervention are highly evident in breastfed infants but are insignificant in formula-fed infants.