Colic in the newborn

Shortcuts:

1. What is colic, when does colic occur in a newborn and how long does it last?
2. What is colic caused by?
3. What are the symptoms of colic?
4. Home remedies for colic?
5. How do we treat colic?
6. How to avoid colic in a newborn baby?

You can watch the entire article on colic in the newborn in the video below.

What is colic, when does colic occur in a newborn and how long does it last?

When thinking about colic in newborns, it’s actually hard to define any time frame really. I present it in a different way to parents, I talk about the needs of the baby. The fact that our baby is crying at home means that he is communicating something to us, either he is hungry or we look in the nappy, if it is ok everywhere else then we look for another reason why the baby is crying. The baby needs affection, love, cuddles and in fact the colour of the walls in the room is not very important, the cot is not very important, the colour of the pushchair and car seat is not very important. If the baby receives the right dose of affection, cuddles and love, it seems that complaints such as colic and chronic crying syndrome occur far less frequently.

What is colic caused by?

Such classic infantile colic is caused by tension in the abdominal cavity, most often this tension involves the ligaments holding, colloquially speaking, these various organs inside the abdominal cavity. The osteopath, knowing specific techniques, is able to assess this tension in the abdominal cavity. He assesses the pressure in the abdominal cavity, in the thoracic cavity and is able to balance this pressure, which will have a positive effect on the condition of the newborn, while the main cause is actually these tensions. The paediatric osteopath is able to find these tensions and relieve them. In fact, already during the visit you can see that the baby is changing, that this tension is decreasing. Often parents already notice the change during the visit, and in fact the smile on the child’s face confirms this to us.

Some newborns are very receptive to osteopathic therapy and we have a very positive effect after just one visit, which is why parents are often keen to use this type of treatment. The effects are immediate, the children are smiling, happy and generally that is what we are all about.

What are the symptoms of colic?

The most common symptoms of colic actually include:

• chronic crying (lasting up to several hours, where it is difficult to calm the child);
• the child’s contracting of the legs;
• child straining;
• bending;
• we see that something else is going on, that it is not a cry communicating to us that the child is hungry;

Home remedies for colic?

When thinking about such home remedies for infantile colic, it is important to mention the mini exercises that the parent can do with the baby, mainly hip flexion exercises, which squeeze the abdomen a little, pump it up and reduce tension in the abdominal cavity. I highly recommend that parents place their hand on their baby’s tummy, it gives the right amount of warmth, the baby feels cared for and there is a dose of love, tenderness, empathy and the warmth of mum or dad’s hand plus this contact often has a very pleasant effect. An additional form of help for such a colicky baby is a warm bath. Warming the tummy with a thermoform. Any form of warmth will have a beneficial effect on the tension in the smooth abdominal muscles.

How do we treat colic?

The therapy in our clinic in Szczecin if we think about colic begins with the diagnosis, with a manual examination where we assess the tension in the abdominal cavity so globally, where we assess the tension of individual ligaments holding the internal organs. After an appropriate diagnosis, there is a moment of therapy where the paediatric osteopath eases the tensions in the places where they are found. This affects the child’s pattern of tension. Mum, Dad, any parent can see during such therapy that there is some change in tension, and that the child is happy.

A visit to a paediatric osteopath with infantile colic.

Using osteopathic techniques, we are able to quickly eliminate ailments such as colic, sometimes just one visit is enough, it all depends on the child’s susceptibility to this type of therapy, but usually the treatment closes in a few visits.

How to avoid colic in a newborn baby?

It is often the case that when mothers come to visit with their child, they mention that the first child did not have colic, and then suddenly it turns out that the child is screaming, crying and has a tight belly.

Influence of type of birth on susceptibility to colic in the child.

Here, too, there is an aspect if we think about the way the baby was born. It is often the case that a baby born by caesarean section is more likely to have colicky tummy troubles. This is related to the bacteria that the baby should actually encounter in the birth canal when it is born naturally. When a baby is born by Caesarean section, it does not encounter these bacteria and therefore its BIOM, or the set of bacteria it has, is slightly different and, as a result, such tummy troubles related to digestion and proper intestinal passage occur.