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Understanding and Eliminating Colic – Naturally!

safbaby | March 13, 2008 | 2 Comments

I was going to school at the Aloha Ayurveda Academy while I was pregnant. It was a 200 hour course on bringing balance and optimal health to our entire being. One of the principles that Ayurveda teaches, is that the quality of our digestion is in direct proportion to the quality of our overall health and well-being.

To prevent colic in my baby, my teacher and Ayurveda doctor recommended a strict diet for me to follow for the first 10 days after she was born. Barely anything that the hospital offered me for each meal that was in guidelines to this diet, which is for the benefit of the baby and her developing digestive system. My diet’s restrictions followed much of what is offered here in our article by Dr. Linda Folden Palmer, D.C. Author of Baby Matters: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Caring for Your Baby.

Basically, the staple of my diet for those ten days was Kitchari, (Indian comfort food) and I began to slowly incorporate other foods as the days passed. Successful? Yes! Also, as you begin to slowly add other foods to your diet, your baby will “tell” you what foods to stay clear of. I did my best, trusting that this was assisting my little one’s brand new digestive system to become strong and healthy!

What is colic?
It’s a baby who cries a lot. At least that’s what we’re told, along with assurances that baby will “grow out” of it one day. The attuned parent, often sensing that their inconsolable baby is in pain, desires to do something more than just wait. Often the baby with colic is prescribed sedative drugs with potentially dangerous side effects. While posing risks to the infant, these generally do not address the source of the problem.

Since the development of new expensive drugs for gastric acid reflux, most crying babies are diagnosed with GERD or gastroesophageal reflux disease and prescribed the new proton pump inhibitor drugs such as Prilosec and Prevacid. Parents usually find that these provide little help, if any. Current studies reveal that there is great randomness to the symptoms used to diagnose GERD, that while the drugs will reduce acid in the stomach and esophagus they do not reduce baby’s colic symptoms or other symptoms, and that GERD drugs increase intestinal infections and pneumonia. While the GERD diagnosis and prescription of these drugs is lucrative, it sadly steers parents away from finding real solutions for their baby.

Common Causes

In the nursing baby, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, garlic, or spicy foods in mother’s diet often cause uncomfortable gas or irritation. Sometimes caffeine or chocolate are problematic as well.

Number One Cause

While not frequently proposed, research proves that the number one cause of colic is intolerance to cow’s milk proteins in the diet of the breastfeeding mother or in formula. Corn, wheat, and soy are some other common offenders.

Other Symptoms

Often other symptoms such as diarrhea, constipation, spitting-up, rashes, sleeplessness, or waking with screams go along with this picture. Sometimes chronic stuffiness and ear infections also stem from food sensitivities; again, dairy being the major offender.

The Studies

Of the many studies on colic and food reactions, below are the average percentages from those that report actual numbers of recovery. Most use hydrolyzed formulas to “eliminate” cow’s milk proteins, but some harmful protein traces still remain in these. When babies who failed with hydrolyzed formulas were given elemental formulas (all allergenic proteins are completely broken up), 98% recovery was seen over all.

Symptom	Cow’s milk	Multiple foods
ADHD		80%
Colic	67%	84%
Adding elemental dietrecoveries for Colic		98%
Constipation	71%
Chronic ear infections		86%
Diarrheal diseases		82%
Migraines		93%
Sleeplessness	94%

Weighted averages of cases shown to respond to eliminating cow’s milk or multiple allergenic foods from the diet, taken from multiple studies (presented in the text of Baby Matters by Linda Palmer.

Finding Out

Blood and scratch tests are simply not reliable, and are often negative. Once other, rare medical conditions have been professionally ruled out for the chronically crying baby, dietary trials in search of offending foods will likely provide the solution that is needed. This topic is also covered thoroughly in Baby Matters by Linda Palmer.

Nursing Mother

Strict elimination of dairy and other offenders in the nursing mother’s diet will produce better results than elemental formulas, while helping the intestines to heal and maintaining immune protection and other benefits.

Lactose

Lactose intolerance is almost never a true problem for a baby. When baby’s digestive tract is suffering from reactions to any food, or recovering from infection, lactase enzyme (that digests lactose) becomes temporarily reduced. Lactose intolerance tests will often show up positive in such a case, but lactose-free formula will only provide a partial recovery and lactose is a valuable sugar for baby’s brain development and immune protection.

Mother’s milk is full of lactose. Until very recently, an infant born unable to digest this baby sugar would never live to pass on its genes. The incidence of true lactase enzyme deficiency in a baby is extremely rare. The recent fad in colic diagnosis is GERD, or gastro-esophageal reflux disease. Food intolerance is well known to cause such reflux, as is stress, (like from prolonged bouts of crying), so we are back to our basic causes for colic.

Other Treatments

Few parents have found help from the little drops sold for gas. Some may find herbal remedies to help. Acidophilus (not from dairy sources) has been shown to reduce some food intolerance and help re-establish intestinal balance after an assault on the system. There may also be reduction of intestinal reaction with the medically prescribed use of histamine-2 blockers, (like Zantac and Cimetidine), or anti-inflammatory agents, each of which block part of the intestinal assault. There is no substitution, however, for avoidance of the offending agents. When symptoms are merely reduced or masked, health-impairing intestinal assault continues, possibly with life-long ramifications.

Caring for Colic

Lots of jiggling often helps to move painful bubbles through baby’s system. Tummy rubs may be responded to positively as well. The general rule for reacting to a crying baby who cannot be comforted is to simply hold them and validate their feelings. Yet when a child frequently suffers from painful bouts of colic, it may be more kind to help distract them from their pain, if and when possible.

For a great DVD teaching a great jiggling technique, check out our product review: The Happiest Baby on the Block.

Another tool I used to calm my baby when she was irritable was holding her snug into my body while gently bouncing her on my Yoga ball Bonus, because Mommy gets a workout and baby feels good too!

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