Is your baby suffering from Colic?

Colic is when a healthy baby cries or fusses frequently for a prolonged period of time. If your baby regularly cries for more than 3 hours a day, he or she may have colic. Colic can start a few weeks after birth. It is generally worst between 4 and 6 weeks of age.

Crying usually is the signaling of a dysregulated nervous system—usually that some need of the child’s has not been met—it is important that we pay attention to our instincts and respond by going to the child and finding out what is wrong.

Chiropractic’s role in colic is multi-opined.  This is a good research paper published in Pubmed regarding chiropractic and Colic. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23158465

There are many factors for consider with a baby suffering from Colic:

1. How was the birth? If a baby is born by C-section, ventouse, or forceps, my ears always prick up immediately, especially if the labor was long and involved malpresentation. We are learning that trauma during childbirth is not only stored by newborns as nonverbal memories, it impacts their lives at a critical time in their development. This trauma can affect short- and long-term physical and mental health, and their entire neurological system, including learning capacity, mental orientation, emotional stability, and stress management. The fight-or-flight stress response creates a strong memory in babies and leads to similar responses to future stressors. Eighty percent of children with sensory processing disorder, ADHD, developmental delays, and autism have a history of birth trauma.

2. How is baby feeding? Does your child prefer one breast over the other or certain position feels better when bottling feeding?

3. What about Mom? Is she stressed, worried, anxious, happy, or peaceful? What Mom eats, drinks, breathes, thinks, feels, and experiences goes right to the baby. So do her stress hormones. We know from decades of research in neurology, embryology, and psychology that newborns are born fully aware and conscious. They are exquisitely sensitive, and therefore vulnerable to acute or chronic stress and trauma. Consciousness actually begins in the womb. Drugs, alcohol, nicotine, poor nutrition, and certain infections in the mother can drastically affect the unborn baby—altering DNA and genetic expression, as well as physical, mental, and emotional development.

Parents concerned with their child’s symptoms or conditions may want to apply new options especially after traditional methods are unsuccessful. The choice to use chiropractic care, or anything else, to treat your child’s symptoms is a choice only you can make.

Neuro-Development: The Strongest Theory to Date

Neuro-development is one of the most accepted ideas surrounding colic. The term “brain maturity” sounds sophisticated, but the concept is simple. It has been observed that babies with colic are more easily overstimulated than noncolicky babies. Once they are in a crying episode, it is challenging for them to return to a normal mental state.

This is where the idea of immaturity comes into play. These babies essentially don’t have the brain maturity to adequately transition out of an uncomfortable state of crying once it has begun.

Fortunately for these babies and their parents, an infant’s ability to come out of these uncomfortable states gets better with age. This is confirmed by the fact that colic or excessive crying usually subsides by four months of age. Another observation that supports this theory is the fact that many colicky babies are over-stimulated by “normal” soothing techniques, including rocking and singing. They tend to do better with white noise, darkness, and swaddling —but not always. Remember, each baby is different, and reading your baby’s signals is key to a solution.

If your baby is suffering from Colic call Green Chiropractic at 402-933-5392