Infant Colic - How To Identify Its Signs

Colic is a common condition in many newborn babies wherein the babies cry for long periods of time (3-5 hours without stopping, more than 3 times a week for over a month) and frequently; while it can be frustrating for parents of newborns to deal with this type of behavior, it is equally exhausting for the baby itself.

First and foremost parents and caregivers of newborn babies that cry need to distinguish the reasons for the baby crying and establishing whether it is crying due to colic pain, which can be simple or severe. Secondly, they need to understand that colic is common and is not a disorder – although there is no absolute cure for colic, there are various techniques that have proven effective in calming crying infants and giving parents of newborns the rest they need.

An infant may cry due to hunger, sleeplessness or clothes being too tight even; first, find out why the child is crying.

• Check for signs of irritability and redness to the cheeks due to excessive crying for more than 3 hours daily with the legs folding up to the abdomen, since colic is stomach pain and discomfort essentially and these are common signs of colic episodes.
• Difficulty passing stools.
• Some babies with severe colic may thrash about as muscles spasms occur or there may be a distention in the intestines.

• If occurring within 2-3 weeks of the child's birth, the severe abdominal pain accompanied by excessive crying is known as colic; it occurs recurrently in spasms and stomach pain is frequent with the baby becoming hypertonic and showing alternating body postures. Theses may involve contractions, sudden stretching of limbs or even stiffening in a spastic posture while turning red due to the crying and parents need to be alert about these signs of colic.

• At times, signs that are indications of colic, if persistent, may be symptoms of a more serious digestive tract problem, so observant parents can convey these signs to the doctor for expert advice if all home remedies fail.

Scientific research has given us many possible theories as to why colic occurs: from an immature digestive system that an infant has that is not used to processing food outside mother's womb to environmental factors like lactose intolerance to powder or cow's milk or nursing mother consuming allergen/chemical containing food products not suited to baby's sensitive digestive tract to even insufficient burping or gas build-up due to eating cruciferous foods or caffeine products by mother.

However, it is certain that colic is uncomfortable for both child and caregivers and therefore adequate steps to rule out these sources of colic in the infants to bring down the statistics of 1 in every 10 infants suffering it; burp babies sufficiently during and after meals, rock or walk with the baby to soothe it, play soothing music to calm the baby or give it a pacifier. Even a warm castor oil massage on the tummy or rubbing the baby's tummy and back to stimulate bowel movement and reduce bloating will give comfort to the colicky baby. This is because all these steps help baby to pass gas and stool, which is the best way to give relief from stomach pain due to colic.