Baby Colic - How To Read Its Signs And Symptoms

We try and understand the reasons behind baby colic and state ways to determine whether an infant has the complaint through studying various symptoms associated with the condition.

All famous baby books on child rearing and looking after babies have mentioned the condition called baby colic and new parents or soon to be parents need to mentally prepare themselves with accurate information regarding this and other infant-issues to stay atop the problem.

Most colicky babies begin feeling the pain as early as in 2-3weeks of birth with most colic episodes reaching their peak when the baby reaches 2 months of age; thereafter, usually the symptoms die down and slowly fade away in a another couple of months.

Medical health professionals have several theories revolving around what causes colic but are yet to prove any chief source of it, though lactating mothers consuming gas-producing products (cruciferous veggies etc.) and allergen-containing food that is passed on to a breast fed child and an under-developed gastrointestinal system with muscles unable to function properly for processing food in an infant are the two main causes.

Other causes that are medically recognized as reasons for causing, worsening or influencing colic episodes are lactose intolerance or intolerance to cow’s milk or powdered milk, hormonal changes in the infant's body and the mother's anxiety (post-partum depression) or even over-feeding.

Non-stop crying up to 3 hours (some bad cases have babies yelling their heads off for nearly 5 hours at a stretch), 3 times a week for a month or more indicates a colicky baby. For new parents not aware of colic being a normal condition for many babies, the crying and screaming can get too much and they fear something seriously wrong with their baby, which is when they need to rule out any other reasons for crying –to establish colic for sure.

Colic usually occurs in the evening and some infants have a specific time of the day when they will experience colic pain, typically after a meal, so parents need to be alert to these kinds of episodes and wait again to see if it will recur. Many a time it can be due to gas in the stomach that makes a baby cry for long till it is released (usually by rubbing on the tummy or holding the baby upright and burping the infant). Most babies that have this problem will find relief on passing bowels and releasing the gas towards the end of the job!

Look out for the way your baby holds its hands and legs, if checking for colic: if they pull in their legs towards the abdomen in a squeezing motion and clench fists or trash around due to severe abdominal pain, it is usually colic. When accompanied by loud and continuous crying, which has many new parents thinking the baby may be hungry, it usually points to a case of colic.

Parents are advised not to panic and to take turns in holding the baby upright till the pain subsides as colic does not have any treatment as such, so has to be waited out; cheeks may turn red from frequent crying and it may take a while to calm the child, but parents need to have their wits about them in dealing with a colicky child.