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Home › Articles › Crying Issues › Got Colic?

Got Colic?

A Colic Primer for New Parents

By Laura Cone

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Neville says people have had many hypotheses about colic, from muscle spasms around the intestines and gastrointestinal gas to lactose intolerance. Some people theorize colicky babies just have difficult temperaments or their parents don't hold them enough.

"Colic usually tends to end around 3 months," she says. "People have been wondering for years and years why that is. They have lots of hypotheses."

She says one of the most interesting theories is that babies don't start producing a full dose of melatonin until they are 3 months old. Melatonin, which is secreted by the pineal gland in the brain to help regulate a person's sleep-wake cycles, may help relax babies' intestines. "Before babies are getting a full dose, some have crampy, tight intestines and once they are getting their full dose of melatonin they are more comfortable and colic goes away," Neville says.

Breast Is Best
Patty Spanjer of Dalton, Ga., an internationally board-certified lactation consultant and La Leche League leader, recommends breastfeeding babies with colic. Fifty percent of children are sensitive to cow's milk, and 50 percent of those children are also sensitive or allergic to soymilk, according to Spanjer.

"If they are nursing and the baby is colicky, hold the baby in an upright position and stop the milk from flowing so fast when it first lets down," Spanjer says. "You can do that by pressing on the end of your nipple when the milk first lets down. That will help colic."

Spanjer says mothers who are breastfeeding should check their diet. She recmmends cutting out cow's milk, even the lactose-free kind, for two weeks to see if it helps, as some babies are not able to digest the protein in cow's milk.

Spanjer, who has five children, says new moms are easily upset by infants with colic because they may have expected a different scenario. "Everybody has this image you can feed a baby and lay it in a crib and three hours later pick it up and feed it again," she says. "That's very unrealistic even for a non-colicky baby."

New Formula Options

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