Solutions and Suggestions:
1. Get informed. Find out what the causes are of colic and pursue them. Go natural first!
One of the challenges in being informed is that there is a lot of information, and you need to decide what is applicable and what is not.
Seek out medical advice from both Mechanistic and Vitalistic standpoints. It is good to compare advice and see what your best options are.
2. What are you feeding the baby? If you are breastfeeding, then if your baby is unhappy or colicky, look at your eating habits first. The top of the not to eat list would be:
-spicy foods, sweets, processed foods, dairy, wheat, nuts, etc.
Be careful with baby foods that you purchase. Some of them have processed foods and preservatives that are not good for your child. Once your child has teeth, then just use a processor or even a baby food grinder to give your child the good food that you’re eating.
3. Be careful to not just cover up your baby’s symptoms and think that all is well. Symptom chasing can be dangerous and not in your child’s best interests. Many symptoms should not be ignored, while some are more innocuous. (A great read on this subject is Dr. Mendelshon’s book How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Dr.)
4. Find some natural ways to soothe your baby’s needs. Could your home be quieter some times in the day or night? Could the room that he/she sleeps in be darker, more soothing? Are there harmful substances in the home environment that could be removed, (smoking, strong odors, etc)? Could the environment be made cleaner, more inviting, more relaxing to all that hang out there?
5. See a Pediatric Chiropractor for a check up.
A couple of Danish studies in over 91% of colicky babies improvement from Chiropractic care. This was significantly higher than the efficacy of dimethicone (a digestive and anti-gas medication) with colicky babies. (4)
A pediatric chiropractor can check the baby’s nervous system for interference, (more in chapter 12 on this), and be helpful with digestive issues a7. s well. I have personally seen great results in dozens to hundreds of colicky babies in my practice.
Since the four major categories of colic are:
a) Stomach-reflux, difficulty digesting, etc.
b) Intestinal-gas pains, constipation, diarrhea
c) Muscular-particularly after a difficult birth
d) Neurological-pressure on the nervous system
All four of these categories respond particularly well to gentle chiropractic treatments and spinal adjustments. Cranial sacral treatment is amongst the most gentle and can help the ‘over-stimulated’ baby the most. Going back to Dr. Roumeliotis’ comment on an immature nervous system, who better to help than someone who specializes in the nervous system: a Pediatric Chiropractor.
6. Are there some emotional issues that Mommy/Daddy and baby can improve on? Are you in need of some counseling or assistance? Seek help from family, friends, your community or your fellow church members. You and your baby’s health is worth it.
7. Swaddling a baby or wrapping them in a fairly tight blanket is sometime soothing
8. Increase the noise level. This seems counter-intuitive, but many parents swear that the blender, vacuum cleaner and other loud household noises seem to calm their colicky child down.
The only explanation that I can think of is the physical therapy treatment using Electrical stimulation. The P.T. actually ‘overstimulates’ an already unhappy muscle and sort of forces it to ‘calm down’.
Dr. Bill Lawler
