Many parents, especially mothers, are worried when their baby has infantile colic. They are tensed because they do not understand the reason for the continuous crying of the baby. Many new mothers do not know all newborns cry and get fussy sometimes. During the first 3 months of life, babies cry more than at any other time. But when a healthy baby cries for over 3 hours a day, or over 3 days a week, it is called infantile colic. He talks about Infantile Colic and its treatment.
What Is Infantile Colic?
Infantile colic is a common, self-resolving condition. It has important adverse associations including maternal depression, child abuse and early cessation of breastfeeding. There are many proposed causes of colic, however, none is definitive. Colic is likely to be an exacerbation of normal infant crying brought about by physiological and psychosocial factors. There is no known single effective treatment for colic. The mainstay of management is exclusion of organic causes, explanation of the natural history of colic, parental support, offering strategies to deal with the infant’s feeding and sleep, and exploration of settling techniques. ncbi
Infantile Colic
Colic is when a healthy baby cries a lot for longer than most babies. We say when the baby has colic when it cries for more than three hours per day or three days per week. Usually, colic starts at three weeks of age and ends predominantly at three months of age.
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How Is Infantile Colic Present?
Let’s now know how colic is present.
- Colic presents with hype-rich crying
- Screaming babies are very hard to soothe
- Babies can have a red face or pale-coloured skin around the mouth
- Babies may pull their legs or stiffen their arms, arch their back or can have clenched fists
How Infantile Colic Should Be Treated?
After knowing how the baby presents with colic let us know how the baby with colic should be treated. There is no treatment to make colin go away but there are always ways you can help the baby.
Make sure the baby isn’t hungry. Make sure your baby has a clean diaper. Try burping your baby more often during feeds. Make sure that the baby is not taking too much air from the bottle feeds. Some nursing moms can find that cutting caffeine, dairy, soy, egg or wheat from the diet can help the baby to decrease the crying episodes. Some soothing measures like rocking the baby, singing or talking to the baby, offering a pacifier to the baby, and holding the baby close to your body can come and slows the breathing of the child and also decreases the crying episodes. Sometimes giving a baby a warm bath or giving a bat or a rub on the baby’s back can help the baby to decrease the crying episodes.
You can also help the baby by giving a tummy time. Tummy time is generally given when the baby is awake. Giving 15 to 20 minutes of morning and evening tummy time can release tummy aches in most babies.
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In addition to that sometimes putting the baby on a swing or a vibrating seat. Sometimes the motion itself of these vibrations or swings can help the baby to calm down or to get sudden itself.
Sometimes swaddling helps but swaddling should not be too tight, enough for the baby to breathe. But all these measures can soothe most colic babies. Very rarely medications are required.
Infantile Colic – When The Parent Should Be Worried?
Now let us know when the parent should be worried about a crying baby. If the baby has a fever or the baby is less active or not feeding well, has an uncontrollable kind or has loose tools or severe vomiting or blood in stools. All these symptoms should make the parents worry about the baby having some serious issues and this is the time when you should really go to a hospital or an emergency department or talk to your family physician.
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Final Thoughts
The aim of the post is to help families cope with infantile colic symptoms, reduce the risks of parental tension and also prevent the possibility of long-term adverse effects. Hope this article helped parents to understand infantile colic and the easy methods to soothe the baby. If you cannot handle the situation, consult a doctor at the earliest for a proper checkup and medication. Don’t give any medicine without the prescription of a doctor.
How do you treat infantile colic?
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References & Credits: Dr Srinivasa Murthy C L, Aster Women And Children’s Hospital, Bengaluru
Mathukutty P. V. is the founder of Simply Life Tips. He is a Blogger, Content Writer, Influencer, and YouTuber. He is passionate about learning new skills. He is the Director of PokketCFO.
He lives with the notion of “SIMPLE LIVING, CREATIVE THINKING”. He Believes – “Sharing is caring.” and “Learning never ends.”
