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The Doctors Book of Home Remedies II: Colic

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Colic

Is that cute, cuddly new baby driving everyone wild with howls, screams and shrieks of discomfort? Welcome to the wacky, nerve-racking presence of a colicky kid. When the pediatrician says a baby has colic, he's using a term that describes frequent attacks of abdominal pain that may originate in the infant's intestines.

Though a baby with colic may cry to the point of exhaustion, the pain may be as upsetting to parents as to the child. The cause of colic is not definitely known, but sometimes the attacks are associated with hunger or swallowing air. Occasionally the attacks end when the baby passes gas or has a bowel movement.

Colic tends to be worst when a child is three weeks to three months old. It usually ends spontaneously, without any special help from parents, within five months. But during that time, here are some ways to encourage a colicky baby to simmer down.

Try a hum drum. Try anything that creates a low-level humming in the background: Running a vacuum cleaner, a dishwasher or another appliance can help calm Kid Colic.

Get a fish tank. "Some parents got an aquarium filter and put it in their baby's room," says pediatrician Ronald G. Barr, M.D., director of Child Development at Montreal Children's Hospital in Quebec. "The sound of the bubbles going through the filter helped quiet their colicky baby."

Put baby next to the washer. "For years, parents have been taking their colicky babies for a drive to soothe them--and it really works," adds Dr. Barr. But he points out that any movement that's soothing can help. So here's a variation.

Put your baby in his infant seat, fasten him securely, and place the seat next to the washing machine or dryer while it's in operation, suggests Helen Neville, R.N., a pediatric nurse at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Oakland, California. For this to work, the seat must be touching the appliance, so the baby can feel the vibrations.

Is It Colic--Or a Protein Reaction?

Sometimes a baby who seems to be colicky is actually having an allergic reaction to protein, says pediatrician Ronald G. Barr, M.D., director of Child Development at Montreal Children's Hospital in Quebec. Protein is contained in formula as well as in breast milk, so a baby may have a reaction even if he is fed formula. According to Dr. Barr, only 3 to 5 percent of babies have this allergy, so it's relatively rare.

To find out whether this is the problem, your pediatrician may want you to switch the baby to a protein-treated formula: The protein is "broken down" chemically, so allergic babies won't react. If there is no change in symptoms, you can always go back to regular formula or return to breast milk (if you've been expressing milk during the formula trial).

To Feed or Not To Feed?

In the past, some doctors have suggested that babies should not be fed during a colic attack. But a growing number of doctors believe that food is the best thing for a colicky baby. "There's a lot of debate, but I think you should feel free to feed the baby as frequently as you wish," says pediatrician Ronald G. Barr, M.D., director of Child Development at Montreal Children's Hospital in Quebec. "When a baby is fed, he's not crying because he's eating, and in cultures where babies are fed three or four times an hour, there is little colic. So I suggest trying to feed your baby during a colic attack."

Use some pressure tactics. Take a hot water bottle and place it in the baby's crib. Then put a towel over the bottle and place the baby so that his head and feet drape over the bottle and his belly is on it.

For some babies, "the warmth and pressure of the hot water bottle appear to help a lot," says Birt Harvey, M.D., professor of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California.

Schedule baby's playtime. Keeping a log of your child's episodes will help you recognize the times when baby is more agitated. "You can schedule specific playtimes to keep the baby happy, so he'll be less likely to have crying fits," says Becky Luttkus, head instructor at the National Academy of Nannies of Denver.

"Keeping a calendar can also help you discover a pattern as well as aid your physician with data he might need," says Dr. Barr.

Give plenty of TLC. Snuggling is good medicine for crying babies, whether the sobs are caused by colic or something else. "Anything you can do to keep the baby calm and happy certainly helps," says Dr. Barr, who has studied the effects of snuggling on crying infants.

One of the best ways to soothe your child is to pick him up, hold him and cuddle him.

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